La regina delle tenebre

A venticinque anni, bella, ricca, fidanzata, senza aver mai provato un dolore veramente grande, un giorno Maria Magda si sentì improvvisamente il cuore nero e vuoto.
Fu come il principio d'un malore fisico, che andò di giorno in giorno aumentando, allargandosi, spandendosi.
Ella era felice in casa sua, e un'altra felicità l'aspettava. Ma per raggiungere la nuova felicità, doveva abbandonare l'antica, e le sembrava che allora il rimpianto della famiglia lontana, della dolce casa paterna, della libertà perduta, della patria abbandonata, le avrebbero dato una indicibile nostalgia, avvelenandole la nuova felicità. C'erano ore nelle quali, specialmente di notte, al buio, ella provava una pro...

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.