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Article: Secrets and Puzzles: Silence and the Unsaid in Contemporary Italian Writing.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Modern Humanities Research Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Secrets and Puzzles: Silence and the Unsaid in Contemporary Italian Writing. By NICOLETTA SIMBOROWSKI. Oxford: Legenda. 2003. x+177 pp. 35 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1-900755-74-2.
The power of suggesting more than what is said is not restricted to poetry alone, but is a characteristic of the best prose as well. A classic example of this technique in Italian literature is to be found in Manzoni's I promessi sposi, where the simple phrase at the end of the episode of the nun of Monza, 'la sventurata rispose', suggests infinitely more to the imagination of the reader than do the several pages of scabrous details of the misdeeds of this nun in Fermo e Lucia, the ...