SOURCE: “The Novelist: Manzoni,” in Characteristics of Literature Illustrated by the Genius of Distinguished Writers, Lindsay and Blakiston, 1851, pp. 2-37.

In the following excerpt, Tuckerman discusses Manzoni as he represents the nineteenth-century novelist, and comments on the “fidelity to nature” of his I promessi sposi.

As I stood by the taffrail of the little steamer that plies up and down Lake Como, a good-natured fellow-passenger, whose costume and bearing denoted the experienced gentleman, indicated the various points of interest along the beautiful shores. It was a clear, warm day of that enchanting season, in those climates, when spring is just verging into summer. The atmosphere was transparent, and every indentation of the beach had a well-defined relief; the sails of the fishing-boats were reflected in the water as distinctly as if it were a mirror; and the cloudless sky wore the densely azure hue peculiar to that region...