The Betrothed: The Great Plague of Milan

Love and survival in a world devastated by war and plague.

Set in Lombardy in the late 1620s, this great historical novel follows two young lovers whose promised marriage is threatened by violence, injustice, and the terrible plague that strikes Milan in 1630. As famine spreads and armies move across the countryside, ordinary lives are overturned by fear, disorder, and disease.

Rich in historical detail, the story recreates with remarkable power the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Italy. The unforgettable chapters devoted to the Great Plague of Milan offer one of the most vivid and compelling portrayals of epidemic life in European literature, capturing both the suffering of the population and the confusion of the authorities faced with an unknown disaster.

At once an epic love story and a vast historical panorama, this enduring classic remains one of the masterpieces of European fiction and one of the greatest novels ever written about life during an epidemic.

"They heard with a smile of incredulity and contempt any who hazarded a word on the danger, or who even mentioned the plague. The same incredulity, the same blindness, the same obstinacy, prevailed in the senate, the council of ten, and in all the judicial bodies. Cardinal Frederick alone enjoined his curates to impress upon the people the importance of declaring every case, and of sequestrating all infected or suspected goods. The Tribunal of Health, prompted by the two physicians, who fully apprehended the danger, did take some tardy measures; but in vain. A proclamation to prevent the entrance of strangers into the city was not published until the 29th of November. This was too late; the plague was already in Milan."