Federico De Roberto

Born in Naples on January 16, 1861, and closely connected with Sicily, Federico De Roberto became one of the notable writers of Italian verismo, the realist movement that looked hard at society without sentimentality. He is especially associated with Catania and with the literary world around Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana.

His most famous book is I Viceré (The Viceroys), published in 1894, a historical novel about a Sicilian noble family navigating the upheavals around Italian unification. The novel is admired for its intelligence, irony, and unsparing view of how power survives political change. He also wrote novels, short fiction, essays, and journalism.

De Roberto died in Catania on July 26, 1927. Though not always as widely read outside Italy as some of his contemporaries, he has had a lasting reputation, and The Viceroys is often seen as his masterpiece.