Ippolito Nievo

Born Nov. 30, 1831, in Padua; died Mar. 4, 1861. Italian writer.

Nievo studied law at the University of Padua from 1852 to 1855, and he was active in the Revolution of 1848–49 in Italy and the Garibaldi uprising of 1859. Nievo was the author of A Study of Popular and Civic-Minded Poetry, Especially in Italy (1854), the novels The Angel of Good (1856) and The Shepherd Count (1857), Village Novellas (published in the 1850’s), and the collections of poetry Glowworms (1858) and Love of the Garibaldians (1860). He wrote two historical tragedies, Spartacus and The Inhabitants of Capua. In 1858 he completed his major work, the novel Confession of an Italian (published in 1867 as Confession of an Octogenarian; in Russian translation, Confession of an Old Man, 1875, Confession of an Italian, vols. 1–2, 1960), which is devoted to the history of the Italian national liberation movement. Despite its romantic coloring, this is one of the few realistic works in Risorgimento literature. It is distinguished for its variety of characters and depth of psychological insight. Nievo perished in a shipwreck near Sicily.