F. Marion Crawford (1854–1909)

Don Orsino is the third of four titles in F. Marion Crawford's fictional treatment the last quarter of the 19th century history of Italy centered on Rome and its transformation from the political capital of the Papal Sates to the capital of the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel II in the wake of the success of the Italian unification project.

The novels capture the spirit of the times through the lives and fortunes of an ancient Roman aristocratic family, the Saracinescas. The plots revolve around their fortunes, romances, social status and to a lesser extent their politics. That said, it is their politics that by the third volume of this history restricts their role in the new dispensation of local Roman and national political affairs.

In the aftermath of the Risorgimento political factions are divided into three groups: the Black or clerical party to which the Saracinescas belong, the Whites or the party that supports the monarchy established by Victor Emmanuel, and the Reds, or the all-out republican party. Political divisions, as Crawford depicts in his story are reflected in society. As we see in the unfolding plot of Don Orsino, for example, the homes and society of families belonging to the White faction are off-limits to the families of the Back party and vice-versa.

Our protagonist, Don Orsino, is the eldest of four sons of Giovanni Saracinesca and his wife Corona whose story was the main plot line of the second volume and the grandson of the reigning paterfamilias whose family name was used as the title in the first volume in the quartet.

Don Orsino has completed his education and reaches majority status in this volume. He is restless, unsatisfied with the prospective role that everyone, especially his family expects him to occupy, that of a wealthy scion of a noble family who stands to inherit fortunes from both parents. A life if idleness if he will submit to it, spiced up by travel and romantic dalliances is his near-term future. His family suggests that if he needs occupation he should study the issues and problems that would allow him to manage some part of the family estates. He would in effect learn agriculture and the well-being of the rent paying laborers who provide a major source of the family's wealth.

Orsino is disinclined to take up the family affairs as his occupation. He wants to succeed by dint of his own talents, energy and good fortune. Rome is undergoing at this time a physical transformation related to the political and social transformation related to unification. There is a major real estate boom in progress, vast fortunes are being (or apparently being) realized, and Orsino is eager to try his skills which at the outset are non-existent and test his native abilities and luck.

At the same time Orsino meets a mysterious "new girl in town", one Maria Consuelo d'Aranjuez D'Aragona, with whom he becomes acquainted, then strikes up a flirtation then ultimately falls in love. The pursuit of Maria occurs in parallel with the story of Orsino's entrepreneurial adventure and the two tracks of his affairs form the substance of the story's plot.

Orsino enjoys a lucky night at the gambling tables which yield what he hopes will be enough capital to act as seed money for the real estate venture that he has decided upon. His family does what it can to discourage him in a career that is beneath his status as the eldest scion of the ancient Roman nobility. He seeks the advice his relative, San Giacinto, who has become a prominent, wealthy financier. Giacinto's advice is to "be a farmer". It is a useful occupation for which his status and future responsibilities will be needed. Moreover, San Giacinto's knowledge of the real estate market has led him to conclude that the boom is winding down and there will be the inevitable failures that ensue when properties remain on the market unsold, failures lead to restrictions on lines of credit and the market for the paper sold by lenders to third party, mainly foreign investors, collapses.

Sobered but not completely discouraged, Orsino seeks the advice of Ugo Del Ferice, a prominent banker and parliamentarian of the White faction. Ugo is also a man with a history of enmity toward the Saracinescas who once fought a duel with Orsino's father. However, Orsino is not privy to the details surrounding the duel and neither of his parents are inclined to share the story. Del Ferice gives Orsino the advice he wants to hear and offers to back his enterprise. He introduces him to an architect to be his partner who proves to be talented, diligent and honest. Orsino, who knows nothing of the building trades decides to immerse himself in the administrative affairs of the firm and becomes a competent accountant in a brief period of time.

In the meantime, Orsino's relationship with Maria Consuelo ebbs and flows. Her past life is a complete mystery apart from the fact that she is a young widow. He finds it impossible to find a source that can reveal anything about her origins. This is a matter of great consequence to his family, though Orsino denies that he would let it be an obstacle to their being married. Maria Consuelo's seems to blow hot and cold regarding her end of the relationship and does her best to discourage any matrimonial notions entertained by Orsino.

One of the notable features of this story is the relative lack of supporting characters compared with the first two installments in the series. Aside from Del Ferice and the architect, Andrea Contini the only character who appears with any frequency is Count Spicca, a solitary individual, known mainly for his dualling skills and his extensive history of their successful deployment. He is now elderly, down at heels noble who has his own mysterious relationship with Maria Consuelo which he has no intention of disclosing to his friend, Orsino.

The plot of the novel consists of the unwinding of the story of Orsino's business ventures and his romantic affairs with Madam d'Aranjuez. I will not provide any spoilers except to say that the denouement is a corker.

Crawford's style is similar to Henry James, his contemporary and friend. The pace is deliberate, and the story is interspersed with reflections on the psychology of his characters, human nature in general and moral philosophy, all of which are as well articulated as edifying. I submit this lengthy paragraph as a for instance.

"Perhaps it is not easy to believe that recklessness is a manifestation of the second degree of passion, while the highest shows itself in painful sacrifice. Yet the most daring act of chivalry never called for half the bravery shown by many a martyr at the stake, and if courage be a measure of true passion, the passion which will face life-long suffering to save its object from happiness or degradation is greater than the passion which, for the sake of possessing its object, drags it into danger and the risk of ruin. It may be that all this is untrue, and that the action of these two imaginary individuals, the one sacrificing himself, the other endangering the loved one, is dependent on the balance of the animal, intellectual and moral elements in each. We do not know much about the causes of what we feel, in spite of modern analysis; but the heart rarely deceives us, when we can see the truth for ourselves, into bestowing the more praise on the less of the two deeds. But we do not often see the truth as it is. We know little of the lives of others, but we are apt to think that others understand our own very well, including our good deeds if we have done any, and we expect full measure of credit for these, and the utmost allowance of charity for our sins. In other words we desire our neighbor to combine a power of forgiveness almost divine with a capacity for flattery more than parasitic. That is why we are not easily satisfied with our acquaintances and that is why our friends do not always turn out to be truthful persons. We ask too much for the low price we offer, and if we insist we get the imitation."

Crawford's work is of the highest merit, and I give it my highest recommendation.… (altro)

Ouida considered this Crawford's best book as of 1900, when she wrote of it. Marzio's conflicted, ornery character is presented well, the others adequately, except the two women who are empty stereotypes. There are several effective conversations among different people which explore the relationship between the Church and the ordinary man, the Church representing wealth and arrogance in Marzio's mind, and the source of his general aggrievement regarding his social position in Rome. He is a respected silversmith, an acknowledged master, yet he feels unappreciated. Commissions for silver chalices and ewers and other religious paraphernalia are the primary source of his income, and he is not a poor man. Yet he chafes and grumbles at the power of the priests, which include his own brother, and in private is given to bombastic explosions of resentment and envy.
A conversation between a bishop and Paolo, Marzio's priest brother, in which they discuss how wealth and ecclesiastical authority justify the inequality in society, may represent Crawford's own attitude, that the common man is not competent to conduct his own affairs, and it is the Church which provides the guardrails which guide men's behavior. His treatment of Marzio's work, of his sensual and reverential relationship with the beautiful objects he creates, with the tools, the smells of wax and metal and dust, is sympathetic and evocative. Crawford, whose father was Thomas Crawford, a sculptor in stone in Rome. is clearly respectful of the skill and artistry involved in trade work.… (altro)

Sant' Ilario is the second installment of a tetralogy written by F. Marion Crawford, an American writer who lived in 19th century Italy and who was a convert to Catholicism. His tales of the noble Roman family, the Saricinesca, take place during the era of the Risorgimento and in this second volume our protagonists are participants in or witnesses to an insurrection launched by Garibaldi's redshirted revolutionists aimed at overthrowing the temporal power of the Pope and uniting the Papal States with the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.

Our hero, Giovanni Saricinesca, having married his great love, Corona d'Astradente in the first book of the series has been elevated to the title of Sant' Ilario by his father the Prince Saracinesca and his marriage has been blessed by a healthy baby boy, Orsino. Their prospects for lasting happiness seem excellent, but troubles lie ahead.

Giovanni's cousin of the same name has turned up in Rome as a wealthy entrepreneur having invested a large sum of money won in a lottery in various enterprises. He has shed his previous occupation as the proprietor of a country inn, and along the way his wife, the mother of his two sons, has fallen ill and passed away. He relocates to Rome and calls upon the Prince to claim the recognition due him by birth and he is awarded the title Marchese di San Giacinto.

We are introduced to another aristocratic family, the Montevarchi. The Prince of this ancient house is distinguished mainly for his avarice and his miserliness. He has an English wife, Guendolina, and two grown daughters, Flavia and Faustina. Flavia is high spirited and not terribly respectful of her parents; Faustina is a younger, more virtuous and beautiful younger daughter who has been befriended by Corona. As a result of a "traffic" accident Faustina is introduced to the painter Gouache, a Frenchman, who has decided to enlist in the papal cause and who has enlisted in the Zouaves. Gouache and Faustina fall head over heels in love with each other. Meanwhile San Giacinto has determined to marry into one of the ancient noble families of Rome and has fallen in love with the elder daughter, Flavia.

These romances form the point of departure for multiple planned and accidental events that threaten to bring about the downfall of the Prince Saracinesca, his son and grandson as well as the collapse of the marriage of Giovanni and Corona due to a chain of events that indicate a betrayal of their love for each other.

Crawford is a first-rate storyteller and a master of the psychology at work behind the virtues of love, fidelity and greatness of soul on the one hand and ambition, greed, jealousy and overweening pride on the other. Sant' Ilario is a wonderful read, worthy of its predecessor and a promising incentive to take up the third volume in the series.… (altro)

F. Marion Crawford was an American writer born in Italy in 1854, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1880. He was a prolific novelist and is said to have outsold, in his prime, his friend Henry James. And if that isn't enough to recommend Crawford, the introduction to this edition by Stephen Schmalhofer reports that undergraduates at Notre Dame in the 1920s "devoured his novels, ranking them alongside the works of two other Catholic converts, John Henry Newman and Robert Hugh Benson.

Saracinesca is the first book in a tetralogy that is succeeded by Sant' Ilario, Don Orsino and Corleone, yes Godfather, Corleone. Saracinesca is an Italian noun that in the 19th century was defined according to Schmalhofer as a "grand portcullis, a latticed metal grille, lowered over the opening of a gate. In Crawford's novel Saracinesca is the surname of our eponymous protagonist, Giovanni Saracinesca. The main thread of the plot consists of his love for the lovely and virtuous Corona d'Astrardante, the most beautiful woman in Rome. Unfortunately for the two leads in the story, Corona was married off as a teenager by her impecunious father to an elderly roue, the wealthy Duc d'Astradante.

In the meantime, Giovanni's father is urging a marriage between his son and the recently widowed and wealthy Donna Tullia Mayer. Donna Tullia has a yen for Giovanni that is not reciprocated by the younger Saracinesca. However, the antagonist in our passion play, one Ugo del Ferice lusts after her beauty and fortune, though, he lacks both a fortune in his own right and a noble lineage to recommend his suit. Ugo is an opportunist, a schemer, a liberal who earns an income on the side by spying on his friends and acquaintances. He also harbors a hatred for Giovanni, his superior in every way.

Given the above you would be forgiven if you concluded that this was a 19th century Gothic romance and not much more. However, there is a sub-plot involving the contest between the liberalism of the Italian unification movement and the Papacy of Pius IX and his closest advisor Cardinal Antonelli who are determined to preserve the temporal power of the church over the area that constituted the Papal States whose capital was of course Rome.

The Saracinescas, whose family has historically been on the side of the secular power in their centuries' long rivalry with the Church, do not hesitate to leverage Antonelli's power in their struggle against the snares and plots unleashed against them by del Ferice.

Without giving away any more of the story than outlined above, I can say that I was fully engaged in this beautifully written novel and will continue to follow the fortunes of the contestants through the rest of the four-volume tale.… (altro)