The Red Horse

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The Red Horse (Italian : Il cavallo rosso, 1983) is an epic novel written by Eugenio Corti that follows an industrial family, the Rivas, in Nomana starting from the end of May 1940 through World War II and the new democratic Italy.

Italian language Romance language

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the closest language to Vulgar Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. It has an official minority status in western Istria. It formerly had official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (Kotor) and Greece, and is generally understood in Corsica and Savoie. It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa, where it plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian and other regional languages.

Eugenio Corti was an Italian writer born in Besana in Brianza. After participating in the Italian retreat from Russia in World War II, he joined the Italian Freedom Fighters. Based on these experiences, he wrote Few Returned and The Last Soldiers of the King. His seminal work, however, is The Red Horse, a 1000-page novel again based on his experiences and those of his fellow Italians during and after the Second World War. It was voted the best book of the 1980s in a public survey in Italy and has been translated into six languages, including Japanese. It has had twenty-five editions since it was first published in May 1983.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

The book is divided in three parts:

The book is a metaphor for the genesis of the new democratic Italy that arose out of the ashes of the chaos of pre-fascist, fascist and war-torn Italy. The new Italy is governed by division and loss of conservative Christian values and the question is posed by Michele Tintori if the chaos is a result of this loss. It was translated into English and published by Ignatius Press in 2002. [1]

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament and chronicled in the New Testament. It is the world's largest religion with over 2.4 billion followers.

Main characters

Commentary

The novel begins in late Spring 1940 in the town of Nomana (a literary depiction of Corti's hometown Besana in Brianza) where the inhabitants live on agriculture, farming, or work in the textile mill owned by the local industrialist Gerardo Riva, Ambrogio's father. In the afternoon of 10 June, the workers gather in the town square to hear Mussolini's declaration of war over the loudspeakers. However, they receive the news with no enthusiasm: fascism has very few supporters in Nomana, where most people sympathized for the Italian People's Party of which Gerardo used to lead the local branch. Moreover, all the inhabitants are staunch Catholics, and their everyday life is shaped by devotion. As war progresses, young men are sent off to several fronts: North Africa, Russia, Albania. Michele Tintori is captured by Soviet troops and interned in several Gulags, but survives. After the breakup of 8 September 1943 Manno enlists in the Italian Co-Belligerent Army, and others join the partisans, but see a gap digging between themselves and some fellow combatants as the resort to revenge becomes more widespread in the Italian Resistance, in contrast with their Christian beliefs.

Besana in Brianza Comune in Lombardy, Italy

Besana in Brianza is a town and comune in the province of Monza and Brianza, Lombardy, northern Italy. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree of 16 February 1971.

Fascism Form of radical, right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism

Fascism is a form of radical right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before it spread to other European countries. Opposed to liberalism, Marxism and anarchism, fascism is placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum.

Italian Peoples Party (1919) Former Italian political party

The Italian People's Party, sometimes called Italian Popular Party, was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy inspired by Catholic social teaching. It was active in the 1920s, but fell apart because it was deeply deep split between the pro-and anti-fascist elements. Its platform called for an elective Senate, proportional representation, corporatism, agrarian reform, women's suffrage, political decentralization, independence of the Catholic Church, and social legislation.

Michele Tintori's experiences in Russia have convinced him that totalitarianism is hell on Earth; especially communism is an even greater threat to the Christian order than fascism had been. He thinks the only path out of the inhumanity of the war and post-war chaos is the Christian-Democratic order, which pillars are the Roman Catholic Church and the industrialist elite. The communist, socialist and liberal forces do not see the threat of their progressive ideas because they are ignorant about the evils of un-Christian powers. The danger of a communist-socialist takeover, which would include Italy into the other side of the Iron Curtain, is avoided by the Democrazia Cristiana led by Alcide De Gasperi winning the elections of 18 April 1948. However, in the eyes of Michele Tintori, that same party betrays its founding Christian values by seeking an appeasement with their counterpart, and allowing members of the Communist and Socialist party into key places in education, mass media and culture, thus opening the door to the leftist cultural hegemony and speeding the secularization of Italy. When, in 1974, the referendum for the abrogation of divorce fails, Tintori understands he has been left alone in his battle for Christian values and that Christians are now a minority in Italian society.

Russia transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is by a considerable margin the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.79 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.

Totalitarianism political system in which the state holds total authority

Totalitarianism is a political concept of a mode of government that prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. Political power in totalitarian states has often been held by rule by one leader which employ all-encompassing propaganda campaigns broadcast by state-controlled mass media. Totalitarian regimes are often marked by political repression, personality cultism, control over the economy, restriction of speech, mass surveillance and widespread use of state terrorism although there are many benevolent totalitarian governments. Historian Robert Conquest describes a "totalitarian" state as one recognizing no limits to its authority in any sphere of public or private life and which extends that authority to whatever length feasible.

Communism socialist political movement and ideology

In political and social sciences, communism is the philosophical, social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state.

The Red Horse is an epic story about the genesis of new Italy, with many affinities to Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed . Similarly to Manzoni, Corti mixes fictional individual stories with actual history, going as far as inserting real characters in the plot: for example Father Carlo Gnocchi, Nilde Iotti, Agostino Gemelli, Corti's brother Piero (partly recognizable in Pino Riva). Manno Riva is based on Sottotenente Giuseppe Cederle (a recipient of the Gold Medal of Military Valor) whereas details from the author's own life are incorporated in both Michele Tintori and Ambrogio Riva. Corti writes his novel with a world view, which he borrows from Saint Augustine's book De Civitate Dei : man can build the city of God if he decides to rely on divine principles as a foundation for society. When, instead, man leaves God out of the picture he ends up building the city of the Devil. [2]

Alessandro Manzoni Italian poet and novelist

Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. The novel is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Manzoni also sat the basis for the modern Italian language and helped creating linguistic unity throughout Italy. He was an influential proponent of Liberal Catholicism in Italy.

<i>The Betrothed</i> (Manzoni novel) Italian historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni

The Betrothed is an Italian historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni, first published in 1827, in three volumes. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language.

Carlo Gnocchi Italian Roman Catholic priest, considered beatus

Blessed Carlo Gnocchi was an Italian priest, educator and writer. He is venerated as a blessed by the Catholic Church.

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The Sammarinese Communist Party was a Marxist political party in the small European republic of San Marino. It was founded in 1921 as a section of the Communist Party of Italy (PCI). The organization existed for its first two decades as an underground political organization in a nation dominated by adherents of fascism.

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References

  1. Eugenio Corti (June 2002). The Red Horse. Ignatius Press. ISBN   978-0-89870-934-6 . Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  2. Eugenio Corti interview by Roberto Persico, 19 April 2007