author
Francesco Mastriani
1819–1891
A hugely popular 19th-century Neapolitan storyteller, he filled his novels with suspense, melodrama, and a sharp eye for life in Naples. His work ranged across genres and was widely read in serialized form, with several stories later adapted for film.
2 Audiobooks
Federico Lennois : romanzo
by Francesco Mastriani
Il mio cadavere
by Francesco Mastriani
About the author
Born in Naples on November 23, 1819, Francesco Mastriani became one of the best-known Italian writers of popular fiction in the 1800s. Reliable reference sources describe him as a novelist who also worked as a journalist and playwright, and note that he wrote across several genres rather than staying in just one lane.
Mastriani is especially associated with serialized novels and with stories rooted in Neapolitan life. Reference sources highlight The Blind Woman of Sorrento (1852) as one of his most successful books, and later readers continued to discover his work through film adaptations made from some of his novels.
He died in Naples in 1891. Although critical opinion has shifted over time, his reputation as a vivid, prolific voice in 19th-century Italian popular literature has endured.