"The Sleepwalker": A new novel by Bianca Pizzorno that challenges myth and champions women's freedom in nineteenth-century Italy
Literary and critical circles in Italy witnessed a state of great welcome and celebration with the publication of the new historical and dramatic novel titled “La sonnambula” (The Sleepwalker) by the prominent Italian novelist and thinker Bianca Pizzorno. The work published in Italian by the prestigious publishing house “Pompiani”, affiliated with the “Gionetti” group, in an editionElegant, located in four hundred and sixteen pages of medium length, represents a distinctive literary event that revives the literature of adventure and suspense with a liberation feminist flavour. The novel presents a profound social and psychological analysis of the situation of women at the end of the nineteenth century, exploring the mysterious worlds of human consciousness and the ability to rebel against patriarchal restrictions. Pizzorno proves through her enjoyable chapters that human courage and rationality are the true pen capable of writing his destiny and determining the course of his life away from the illusions of superstition and control.others.
The novel derives its exceptional sobriety and historical depth from the distinguished intellectual and literary career of its writer. Professor Bianca Pizzorno, who was born in the city of Sassari on the island of Sardinia in 1942 and whose work is based in Milan, is one of the leading novelists and translators in Italy, with an impressive record of more than seventy successful literary and sociological books whose sales have exceeded two million copies and been translated into dozens of international languages. Pizzorno is distinguished by her translation of giants of world literature such as TolkienAnd Sylvia Plath and David Grossman, with her extraordinary ability to excavate neglected historical archives and extract human stories full of life and political boldness, as demonstrated in her previous works such as “The Sewing Machine Dream,” “Deception,” and “The Sexual Life of Our Ancestors.”The events of the novel start from a disturbing philosophical idea; Fate rarely reveals its features since childhood, but this early determination is the tax paid by the heroine of the narrative, Ophelia Rossi. Since her childhood, Ophelia has suffered from sudden and severe fainting spells, from which she always wakes up with mysterious visions and accurate predictions of imminent future events. In the face of this terrifying distinction, her family tries to hide this “spiritual strangeness” in every way, believing that marrying her to a well-off man will be enough to put her in safety.And protect it from the views of the surrounding community. However, reality proves the exact opposite, and the traditional marriage contract turns into the most dangerous and destructive trap for her human being, forcing her to make a fateful decision to flee and run far away to rely on her own strength and sharp mind to rebuild her life from scratch.Ophelia's real adventure begins in one of the cities on the island of Sardinia, where she opens a modest and private salon on "Red Flower Street", calling herself "the famous sleepwalker." She uses this place as an independent space to earn a decent living by providing prophecies and psychological and spiritual consultations in exchange for five liras. Ophelia succeeds in attracting customers, who mostly represent women from the bourgeois and poor classes who carry in their hearts hidden anxiety, repressed desires, and great fears for themselves or for those who...They love. The heroine's genius is highlighted here. She does not practice magic, but rather masters the time-honored skill of listening and listening to women's problems, then she simulates entering into an imaginary trance, holding a goose quill to write rational responses and solutions wrapped in the language of prediction, using her intelligence to direct their lives for the better, until the moment when unexpected events occur that go beyond her careful arrangement, and her dark past comes back to knock on her door forcefully.In the depth of her narrative text, which is entirely inspired by a real historical newspaper clipping dating back to the end of the nineteenth century, Bianca Pizzorno reveals an extraordinary ability to cleverly manipulate the classic patterns of the usual love and adventure novels. She immerses her leaders and her novelist pen in an enchanting mixture of dark Gothic literature and the raucous picaresque novel, to present a text brimming with life, fantastic dreams, sarcastic sarcasm, and frank political criticism of the structure of the ruling society at the time. Highlights the beauty of the paintingThe narrative depicts the character of the “sleepwalker” as a subject completely free from the superstitions of the era and prevailing ignorance, and ready to face the storms of her destiny with unparalleled dignity and courage as a lonely and proud woman in a hostile and cautious male world.The novel “The Sleepwalker” received very high critical acclaim upon its release in bookstores from major critics and literary platforms. Pizzorno's thesis was described as the most important intellectual and aesthetic antidote to reviving historical female resistance and combating the alienation of women. The writer succeeded in crafting an integrated text that very skillfully blends narrative pleasure with sociological and political depth, stressing that the true power of human beings does not stem from the unseen, but rather is born from the womb of the will to change and solid awareness, which makes thisThe enjoyable work is an indispensable literary and cultural reference for all lovers of serious and influential historical novels.
