The Translator’s Invisibility

in quanto all’accusa mossagli da taluno, che in quel libro via sia poco cuore, che quell’eterno episodio (quantunque bellissimo) della monaca, nuoccia più che altro al romanzo, e desti nel lettore tanto interesse senza appagarlo, che quel Don Abbondio si faccia piu disprezzare per la sua viltà che amare per l’amenità del suo carattere, che quel Renzo e quella Lucia sieno due amanti terribilmente apati e freddi, giova in parte osservare che il Manzoni volle dipingere gli uomini quali sono, non quali dovrebbero essere, e in ciò fu scrittore profondo e accurato.

As for the charge moved by someone, that the book contains little heart, that the eternal episode of the nun (although very beautiful) damages the novel more than anything else, and arouses in the reader such interest as is not satisfied, that Don Abbondio becomes more disparaged for his cowardice than loved for the agreeableness of his character, that Renzo and Lucia are two terribly apathetic and cold lovers, it is worth in part observing that Manzoni wanted to paint men as they are, not as they should be, and in that he was a profound and accurate writer.

(ibid.:528–9)

Tarchetti’s laconic defense comes off weakly against his detailed statement of the charge, and realism appears very unattractive indeed: it is incapable of representing extreme emotional states and contains ideological contradictions in its representation of the priest Don {157} Abbondio which are symptomatic of its Christian conservatism and bourgeois sentimentality.

Tarchetti recognizes that the canonization of I promessi sposi and the numerous translations of contemporary French novels made realism the dominant fictional discourse in Italy, but he concludes that Italian culture is suffering from a “decadenza” (“decadence”) partly maintained by the translation patterns of Italian publishers (Tarchetti 1967, II:535). He argues that the French novels

che vengono tradotti e pubblicati dai nostri editori, sono generalmente tali libri che godono di nessuna o pochissima reputazione in Francia [e] tranne alcune poche eccezioni, la loro speculazione si è tuttor rivolta alla diffusione di romanzi osceni. which are translated and issued by our publishers, are generally such books as enjoy no or little reputation in France [and] with very few exceptions, their investment is always aimed at the circulation of obscene novels.

(ibid.:532)

Tarchetti singles out French novelists like the prolific Charles-Paul de Kock (1794–1871), whose sentimental, titillating realism enjoyed enormous popularity in Italy. Italian translations of over sixty novels by de Kock were published between 1840 and 1865, bearing titles like La moglie, il marito e l’amante (The Wife, The Husband and The Lover, 1853) and Il cornuto (The Cuckold, 1854); some of these novels appeared in different translations a few years apart from various publishers, showing that the Italian publishing industry was scrambling to exploit de Kock’s marketability (Costa and Vigini 1991). Tarchetti was most concerned about the social and political implications of these cultural developments, which he finally brands retrograde: