Memorie D'un Disertore, Vol. 2/3: Storia D'una Famiglia Di Patriotti

A historical novel written in the late 19th century. Set in the Restoration era, it follows the Santafiori family—especially the young Giorgio—as grief, conscription, a forbidden love, and the stirrings of patriotic conspiracy pit them against local power and a hostile order. The focus is a family saga of Italian patriots where personal loyalties collide with duty and resistance. The opening of the novel moves from a graveside encounter—where Giorgio and Giusta confess their love and pledge fidelity—into the tense village ritual of conscription, where Giorgio draws the dreaded first number. At home, his mother Rosalia and sister Livia reel from the news, and the family seeks strength before the father’s portrait. A secret nighttime meeting at Giusta’s window turns violent when her domineering father springs a trap: Giorgio is lightly wounded by shot, while Giusta is locked away; only the family’s heroic mastiff “Leone” carries their urgent letters between them. Finding among his late father Battista’s papers a lucid call to join the Carboneria, Giorgio resolves to seek initiation and act for Italy; he leaves under a pretext and the section closes with him on the road toward Turin, troubled but determined.