Il marchese di Roccaverdina egrave; considerato il miglior romanzo di Luigi Capuana (1839 ndash; 1915); autore anche di favole e dammi teatrali; percheacute; riesce a tenere insieme il realismo narrativo con la sottile indagine psicologica oltre al gusto per il soprannaturale ed il fantastico tipico della scapigliatura.Ambientato in Sicilia; la storia narra di un Marchese che vive da solo in un palazzo con la vecchia balia; mamma Grazia; egli egrave; cresciuto con Agrippina Solmo; una contadina che gli dedicograve; gioventugrave;; bellezza; purezza; con animo di innamorata e di schiava. Per non correre il rischio di disonorare il nobile casato sposandola; il marchese la dagrave; in moglie un suo devoto fattore Rocco Criscione; esigendo perograve; che entrambi giurino davanti al crocifisso di vivere come fratello e sorella.Quando perograve;; qualche tempo dopo le nozze; gli nasce il dubbio che Rocco e Agrippina abbiano violato il giuramento; il marchese si apposta di notte dietro la siepe e mentre Rocco passa sulla mula lo uccide con una fucilata; del delitto viene accusato Neli Casaccio; che giagrave; aveva minacciato Rocco percheacute; apparentemente gli insidiava la moglie.Il romanzo inizia a questo punto; storia della lotta segreta e feroce fra il marchese e il suo rimorso. Lrsquo;antefatto egrave; vivo e presente in tutta la vicenda; riflesso come in uno specchio stregato nella coscienza del marchese che cerca di liberarsene prima nella confessione e; quando lrsquo;assoluzione gli viene rifiutata; allontanandosi da qualsiasi fede religiosa.Dopo il delitto lrsquo;amore per Agrippina; che gli egrave; rimasto nel sangue; ha qualche volta il sapore dellrsquo;odio; un tormento in piugrave;; per vincerlo; il marchese decide di sposare Zosima Mugnos che ha amato nellrsquo;adoloescenza e che ora; a 32 anni; vive con la madre e la sorella nella miseria in cui le ha ridotte la prodigalitagrave; del padre. Poi; mentre Agrippina passa a seconde nozze con un pastore dei monti; il marchese si dagrave; ad una vita piena di attivitagrave;; in contrasto con lrsquo;isolamento caro alla sua indole.Ma il ricordo del suo delitto ritorna di continuo nellrsquo;immagine di un crocifisso abbandonato in casa; nei racconti contadini che vedono riapparire Rocco sul luogo dellrsquo;assassinio.Lo scenario di questa lotta egrave; un paese riarso e immiserito da 16 mesi di siccitagrave;; che screpola la terra; decima uomini e bestie.Lrsquo;angoscia si fa da una pagina allrsquo;altra piugrave; spietata ed incalzante si confonde allrsquo;attesa della pioggia che i fedeli invocano in processione; flagellandosi.Finalmente le nubi salgono sul cielo di Rabbato e la pioggia scroscia; la terra verdeggia e fiorisce; Zosima diviene marchesa di Roccaverdina; lrsquo;innocente Neli Casaccio muore in carcere; muore anche don Silvio La Ciura; il santo prete che ha raccolto dal marchese la confessione del delitto.Il marchese; tuttavia; sebbene al sicuro da ogni timore e da ogni testimone; non puograve; sottrarsi al suo giudice interno; che lo assedia e lo spinge alla pazzia. Zosima; che della follia del marito apprende il suo delitto; lo abbandona. A soccorrerlo; pietosa nella sua miseria umana; accorre vicino a lui; tutta amore e dolore Agrippina; che gli sta al fianco fincheacute; alla pazzia furiosa succede il presentimento della morte.
#381786 in eBooks 1989-11-15 1989-11-15File Name: B005V2EDYQ
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Start HereBy Michael D. SweeneyThe main reason -- as unfair as it is -- I am not giving five stars is the age of the book. There are so many products being offered to the young artist today. with various inflated and contradictory claims. one wishes there was a book this calm and straightforward that could cut through the marketing gloss and get back to what the basic processes are. what the chemicals do. what will probably work and what to watch out for. This book is solid and good. but the materials it refers to are not so often found in their original form in the shopping mall crafts stores of today.Anyhow. Read this book. Whether you are about to pull a resin cast for the first time. or whether you (like me) got a basic familiarity back in college but have forgotten many of the details. this offers grounding in How Casting Works in a more-or-less step-by-step. from simple to complex. way.Of the many things to salute Thurston James for. is the extremely practical viewpoint. Thurston is THEATER. If you havent done theater. you may not understand. It is about letting go of "the usual way" and doing what gets it on stage by opening night. under budget. without anyone getting hurt and in a way that will hopefully stay in one piece until the show closes. Some books might artificially limit themselves. saying "heres how to cast in resin. heres resin." Thurston says "Heres resin and how to do it right. And heres some cheaper substitutes if that works better for you." If he was writing today hed almost certainly say "And you can just skip all these steps and have it 3d printed -- but heres the downside to that. and heres resin for when that just plain works better."Right at the very start. he tells you it will be messy. you are going to be dealing with chemicals that could damage your health. and you WILL fail; sometimes a mold will break or a fresh batch of resin refuse to cure. It happens. You have to be prepared for the mess and for the occasional "learning experience." Which are words which should be at the front of EVERY "how to" book.What this book is not. is a step-by-step hold-you-by-the-hand. It does go into detail. and it does basically follow a complete cycle from original model to duplicate (over and over. with different methods) but it isnt a tutorial in book form.What it is. is nearly encyclopedic. Now. I learned theater crafts at a high school shop that believed in touching on everything. The first show of my first season was wing-and-border and we got to play with cut drops and roll drops. The next was a box set and we built standard and hard-cover TV flats. The next was sculptural and we carved blocks of styrofoam and covered them in glue and cheesecloth. Before we left that school wed worked with hot melt. celastic. vacuuform products (we didnt have our own machine)... For decades after. Id be working on a set or prop and Id say "Hey. theres this material I used once in high school that might work here. Lemme see what I can dig up on it."Well. that is this book. Plaster molds. Dental alginate. Silcone RTV. Latex casting. Slipcasting. Fiberglas. celastic and paper-mache. Paraffin. sugar glass. expanding foam. and Durhams Rock Hard. And vacuumforming! If youve read through it. then you will be -- despite the age of the book -- prepared to go into your local store and actually make sense of the packaged casting and molding products being offered there. And you will be much better prepared to actually use them.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The BEST prop builders guide on the marketBy Reasonable ReviewerThis is the best guide to casting that I have ever read.Mr. James is a master of producing props for film and theater. and he brings his many years of experience and superb teaching skills to this book.The book covers all the major casting techniques. and all but one of the methods described can be used by amateurs as well as professionals.This book is solid gold for those involved with props whether you are a gamer. a theater person. or a film set maker!I highly recommend this book!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. so cool becauseBy Lionheart GlassworksThis book is so cool because it shows you how to use materials from the hardware store. The pictures are a little dark but the information is priceless . Ill bet you take your time and figure out what is in the pictures . Im very happy I ordered this book . Its one of my top books in my art studio . I really recommend it if you are trying to reproduce something in a small studio or at home .
