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Damiano

Giulio Carcano

Damiano

Paper book: €59.99

Digital: €14.99

Original publication
1852
Bilingual edition
12 June 2026
Pages
1090
Difficulty
Medium
Genres
Romance
Moods
Fall in love, Understand myself
Translated from
Italian

Book summary

In Milan, in May 1831, Vittore, a former soldier of Napoleon, dies in poverty. His eldest son, Damiano, must then support his mother, his sister Stella and his young brother. Yet he dreams of being a painter, and has secretly learnt to draw from a poor old artist.

Subtitled “Story of a Poor Family”, this novel brings to life the humble people of the outskirts of Milan. It speaks tenderly of duty, of poverty and of the dignity of ordinary people.

This touching family story is a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

The plot

A young man who paints in secret. At dawn, Damiano, aged twenty, climbs up to a poor old painter’s room. There he paints a picture for a competition.

The world of the book

Milan, in northern Italy, in 1831. The novel opens in the spring of 1831. The city is then ringed by walls and crossed by canals. Twenty years earlier, it was the capital of a Kingdom of Italy created by Napoleon.

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