Project Gutenberg 2025-10-22 Public domain in the USA. 275 Deledda, Grazia 1871 1936 Madesani, Grazia Deledda Deledda, Maria Grazia Cosima Steegmann, Mary G. Steegmann, Mary C. La madre. English The mother $aNew York :$bGrosset & Dunlap, $c1923, reprint 1928. Sean/IB@DP "The Mother" by Grazia Deledda is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a remote Sardinian village, it is a stark psychological study of a young priest, Paul, his devoted mother Maria Maddalena, and Agnes, the solitary woman who awakens his forbidden desire. The story probes the clash between human love and religious duty, filtered through superstition, village poverty, and maternal anguish. Its tension is intimate and fateful, unfolding over a brief span with the inevitability of tragedy. The opening of the novel follows a stormy night in which Maria Maddalena realizes Paul is slipping out to a woman’s house and, after failing to intervene, returns home torn between fear, faith, and a vivid, unsettling dream of the parish’s disgraced former priest. Paul, having just agreed to flee with Agnes, is shaken by the wind and his conscience, prays at the church door, then faces his mother; pressed by her quiet firmness, he swears to end the affair. Through a sleepless, tormented night he oscillates between resolve and longing, finally writing a letter to break it off; at dawn he celebrates Mass, chastens his meager flock, and has his mother deliver the note before being summoned to a dying hunter. Interwoven are memories that deepen the stakes: the mother’s recollection of their hopeful arrival in Aar and Paul’s of childhood shame at his mother’s servitude, seminary years, and an earlier encounter with a fallen woman. The section closes with domestic unease, the sacristan boy’s brisk chatter, and a pointed exchange about priestly celibacy, underscoring the moral conflict now set in motion. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/bwb_S0-CRT-584/page/n5/mode/2up 20251017192325deledda 1923 US en Italy -- Fiction Mothers and sons -- Fiction Sardinia (Italy) -- Fiction Italian fiction -- Translations into English Priesthood -- Fiction PQ Text 299639 2025-11-30T10:41:05.594056 text/html 275027 2025-10-22T21:53:51 text/html 334910 2025-11-30T10:41:09.827020 application/epub+zip 331999 2025-11-30T10:41:06.486047 application/epub+zip 239715 2025-11-30T10:41:06.035006 application/epub+zip 745732 2025-11-30T10:41:12.673025 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 718627 2025-11-30T10:41:09.475046 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 272364 2025-11-30T10:41:05.157033 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 252661 2025-10-22T21:53:51 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17097 2025-11-30T10:41:12.952975 application/rdf+xml 8731 2025-11-30T10:41:06.223024 image/jpeg 1486 2025-11-30T10:41:06.127026 image/jpeg 275242 2025-11-30T10:41:05.622034 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia it.wikipedia