Abstract

In the refined system of values with whom Alberto Asor Rosa masterfully “readµ some essential novels by Joseph Conrad (L’eroe virile. Saggio su Joseph Conrad, 2021), heroism has as its ethical premise the potential bitterness of a complete but at the same time tenacious, generous defeat, beyond any reasonable reserve and caution. The author of this essay believes that the category of “manly heroµ that derives from it, is fruitfully adoptable also for Verga’s Mastro-don Gesulado (1889). It will help to outline a portrait of the protagonist who – freed from the cliché that sees him solely as a ruthless and serial accumulator of goods – opens up to a perspective of ethical redemption through the unhappiness, loneliness and defeat that mark his life.