The mother
Grazia Deledda
Jun 2026 · Good Press
Ebook
107
Pages
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About this ebook
In The Mother, Grazia Deledda crafts a psychologically intense novel centered on the spiritual and emotional crisis surrounding a young priest, his illicit attachment, and the mother whose identity is bound to his vocation. Written in Deledda's lucid yet symbolically charged prose, the book blends stark realism with moral and religious inwardness, creating a drama of conscience, sacrifice, and repression. Set against the severe social and devotional world of Sardinia, it belongs to the early twentieth-century tradition of European psychological fiction while retaining the folkloric atmosphere and fatalistic undertones that distinguish Deledda's work. Deledda, the Sardinian Nobel laureate in Literature, drew deeply on the customs, beliefs, and emotional structures of her native island. Largely self-educated, she transformed provincial life into material of universal significance, repeatedly exploring guilt, honor, sin, and destiny. In The Mother, her sensitivity to Catholic culture and to the burdens placed upon women and family life is especially acute; these concerns reflect both her intimate knowledge of Sardinian society and her broader literary preoccupation with the conflict between instinct and moral law. This is a compelling recommendation for readers of religious fiction, psychological novels, and women's writing of the modern period. The Mother rewards careful reading with its compressed intensity, ethical seriousness, and profound compassion for human frailty.
In The Mother, Grazia Deledda crafts a psychologically intense novel centered on the spiritual and emotional crisis surrounding a young priest, his illicit attachment, and the mother whose identity is bound to his vocation. Written in Deledda's lucid yet symbolically charged prose, the book blend...
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About the author
Among the most honored women writers of modern Italy, Deledda wrote naturalistic or realistic novels, drawing upon her Sardinian background for material. Some critics hold, however, that in Deledda's formula often only the names of places and people serve to evoke a Sardinian atmosphere of strangeness. Her best works especially Elias Portolu (1903), Cenere (1904), and The Mother (1920) contain excellent portrayals of women. While her characters are complex, often dominated by an overwhelming sense of destiny and by nature's mythic powers, her narrative structures remain simple and classic. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.
Among the most honored women writers of modern Italy, Deledda wrote naturalistic or realistic novels, drawing upon her Sardinian background for material. Some critics hold, however, that in Deledda's formula often only the names of places and people serve to evoke a Sardinian atmosphere of strang...
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