Perché leggere "I promessi sposi" è ancora importante?

On the one hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of his death we remember the man and the writer.  If we asked students if they loved Alessandro Manzoni and The Betrothed, perhaps not many would answer 'yes'! About six hundred pages, of which students are often required to learn by heart the incipit 'That branch of Lake Como ...'.  Literary criticism is divided. Some argue that it is not to be read anymore; others suggest it should be taken out of school (after 160 years of being 'the master'). However, there are also those who believe that, if we re-read The Betrothed in adulthood, we would grasp the true essence of Manzoni, the man, and the writer. His irony and affability, political ardour, his modernity, the rebellious and libertine character of his youth, but also the restlessness of a lifetime would emerge. His is a restlessness that is rooted in the abandonment of his…