Fior di Sardegna

Siamo in Sardegna, nella parte montuosa della Sardegna, in una piccola città che ci contenteremo di chiamare solo X*, benchè nella carta sia segnata con un nome assai sonoro e lungo. X* possiede la sua brava passeggiata, le sue piazze, esenti ancora di fontane di marmo, e di statue, i suoi caffè splendidissimi, il suo club, e qualche volta anche a intervalli di due o tre anni, si permette il lusso del teatro: tutto ciò però non impedisce che vi si tragga la vita più noiosa di questo mondo, sicchè la più piccola novità basta per mettere in fermento gli abitanti pacifici e poco interessati nelle gravi questioni d'oltre monti e d'oltre mari. Ai primi dell'anno 1881, la novità più salient...

Deledda was born in Nuoro, Sardinia, into a middle-class family, to Giovanni Antonio Deledda and Francesca Cambosu, as the fourth of seven siblings. She attended elementary school (the minimum required at the time) and was then educated by a private tutor (a guest of one of her relatives) and moved on to study literature on her own. It was during this time that she started displaying an interest in writing short novels, mostly inspired by the life of Sardinian peasants and their struggles. Her teacher encouraged her to submit her writing to a newspaper and, at age 13, her first story was published in a local journal. Some of Deledda's early works were published in the fashion magazine L'ultima moda between 1888 and 1889. In 1890 Trevisani published Nell'azzurro (Into the Blue), her first collection of short stories. Deledda's main focus was the representation of poverty and the struggles associated with it through a combination of imaginary and autobiographical elements. Her family wasn't particularly supportive of her desire to write.