VERGA, GIOVANNI (1840-1922), Italian novelist, was born at Catania, Sicily. In 1865 he published Storia di una pec catrice and I Carbonari della montagna, but his literary reputation was established by his Eva and Storia di una capinera (1869). Other novels followed, Malavoglia (i88i) and Maestro Don Gesu aldo (1889 Eng. trans. 1923). His finest work, however, is seen in his short stories and sketches of Sicilian peasantry, Medda (1874) and Vita dei campi (188o) and his Cavalleria Rusticana (Eng. trans. of this and other stories 1928) acquired new popu larity from its dramatization and from Mascagni's opera on this subject. Verga and Fogazzaro between them may be said to have
faithfully chronicled the inner and popular life of southern and northern Italy. D. H. Lawrence translated many of Verga's works into English. Verga died in Rome on Jan. 27, 1922.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Laura Gropallo, Autori italiani d'oggi—Giovanni Verga, etc. (1903) ; L. Russo, Giovanni Verge (192o) ; C. A. Levi, Autori drammatici italiani, G. Verga, etc. (1922) ; N. Scalia, Giovanni Verga (1922).