Wisdom and Woe

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of the most important figures in world literature. He is known for his philosophical verses exploring human suffering, the indifference of nature, and the elusiveness of happiness. Poems (Canti, first published in 1835) is his poetical masterpiece.

Leopardi wrote at the start of the bloody movements that brought Italy independence, and his odes are rooted in both his and his nation's existential struggles. With bleak despair for the present and romantic hope for the past, he summons Italy's "glorious ancestors" to revive its lost patriotic hopes. But his particular political message is part of grander metaphysical concerns about life, love, and a cosmic sense of pessimism.

Leopardi rejected both the easy allure of Catholic faith and the unbridled optimism of Enlightenment science. His temperament and outlook on religion, morality, and life so contrasts with that of Manzoni that it was the subject of a popular motto during the Risorgimento: "To church with Manzoni; to war with Leopardi!" So widespread was this sentiment that "Leopardi's patriotic odes had to be confiscated by the Austrian censorship lest they should incite people to revolt."

In the estimate of Francis Henry Cliffe: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Dante, there is... no poet of modern times who equals him in depth of thought. Every subject he treats he pierces to the core.... Leopardi leads us to the brink of abysses, and shews us their unfathomable depth." And yet the "miraculous thing about his poetry," according to Italo Calvino, "is that he simply takes the weight out of language, to the point that it resembles moonlight."

Poems:

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) ranks among the most influential public intellectuals of the 19th century. Although today he is mostly remembered as a spiritual father of Italian unification, he saw his patriotic goals as part of a larger struggle for the emancipation of all oppressed people--notably, slaves and women--inspiring revolutionary movements around the world, for which he had been called "the Apostle of Modern Democracy."

Individualism and nationalism had emerged as the twin mandates of nineteenth century European history. But the French Revolution and Napoleonic expansionism, respectively, had become emblematic of their excesses. Mazzini, holding a dialectical view of progress and human history (strongly influenced by Hegel), rejected these extremes and instead envisioned a perfect synthesis of the individual and society, freedom and necessity, thought and action, secularism and Christianity.

He denied the Enlightenment notion of political rights as entitlements against external restraint. Instead, Mazzini conceives of freedom positively as a choice to do good, only secured through action, arguing that "the sole origin of every right" is duty. Only by a proper dedication to one's obligations--to family, country, humanity, and God--can a people achieve "the progress of all through all" and defeat (as he sees it) the "two lies" menacing the world: Machiavellianism and materialism.

For this meetup, we will read The Duties of Man (Doveri dell'uomo, 1858).

The Duties of Man:

[These virtual sessions are hosted by the New Bedford Whaling Museum. To register, see below.]

Join NBWM's Moby-Dick Book Club, a virtual series exploring Herman Melville’s iconic American novel. The final session will be on the third Tuesday of November 2025. These sessions will prepare readers for the 30th Moby-Dick Marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, taking place on January 3, 2026.

Tuesday, November 18 at 5:30pm EST:
Chapter 96 to the Epilogue
Theme: Melville and the Ocean
Featured Guests: Professors Mary K. Bercaw Edwards & Jennifer Baker

In 1831, Giuseppe Mazzini founded Young Italy, an organization dedicated to furthering liberty, equality, and humanity within his nation. It soon spawned offshoots such as Young Poland, Young Ireland, Young Turks, and Young America. These movements promoted socio-political visions that might be termed "international nationalism": both radically inclusive and (as their names suggest) innately modern and patriotic. As Herman Melville later wrote, "There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowness should go together."

The cultural front of the Young America movement advocated a literary exceptionalism rooted in American subjects, scenes, and sensibilities, in contradistinction to the (allegedly) aristocratic traditionalism of Europe. The 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass is illustrative. Whitman declared that great poems must incarnate America's "geography and natural life" and "cheer up slaves and horrify despots." Similar ideas were expressed by writers such as John Neal, William Cullen Bryant, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, animating what F. O. Matthiessen later identified as the "American Renaissance."

But perhaps "the most famous literary manifesto of the American nineteenth century" is Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses" (1850). The essay is putatively a review of Hawthorne's short stories (although it's hardly that and more besides) authored by "a Virginian Spending July in Vermont" (although Melville was a New Yorker spending August in Massachusetts). Echoing the language of the American Revolution, Melville calls for independence from Old World (especially British) dictates of taste, urging American authors to establish an original literary tradition, and for American readers to proudly embrace them.

Evert Duyckinck and Cornelius Mathews provided leading publishing platforms for Young America--including Yankee Doodle, The Literary World, The Democratic Review, and Arcturus--where Melville's works were often showcased. But Melville's attitude toward Young America is complicated by his apparent satirization of Duyckinck in Pierre (1852), and the possibility that the "Arcturion" (a ship described as "exceedingly dull" in Mardi), derived its namesake from Arcturus.

For this meetup, we will read "Hawthorne and His Mosses" and Books 17-18 from Pierre ("Young America In Literature" and "Pierre, As a Juvenile Author, Reconsidered").

Note: This meetup will be recorded for private use.

Hawthorne and His Mosses: