{"product_id":"2026200008865-secondhand-mastro-don-gesualdo","title":"Mastro-Don Gesualdo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA cornerstone of Italian literary realism, Mastro-Don Gesualdo chronicles the relentless rise of a self-made Sicilian mason who claws his way from poverty to wealth through sheer ambition and iron will, only to find that prosperity brings its own devastating isolation. Set in 19th-century rural Sicily, Giovanni Verga's masterwork presents the social contradictions of a rigid class hierarchy with unflinching clarity, detailing how Gesualdo's marriage into the aristocracy earns him neither respect nor belonging. Written in the tradition of verismo — the Italian counterpart to French naturalism — the novel illustrates the crushing weight of social expectation and the tragedy of a man trapped between the world he came from and the one he could never truly enter. Stark, compassionate, and unsentimental, it stands as one of the great novels of European literature and a profound argument about the true cost of ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48956424782043,"sku":"2026200008865-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/e366f450-222e-402b-97c3-3f8397a10cca.png?v=1783500880","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200008865-secondhand-mastro-don-gesualdo","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}