The House By the Medlar-Tree — Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Verga is the most important of the Italian Realist School of novelists. The House by the Medlar-Tree is the story of the Malavoglia, a family of poor Sicilian fisherman, is Verga's moving rendering of the theme of mankind's struggle for self-betterment, the dignity of the struggle in the face of poverty and hardship, and the tragedy that the struggle inevitably incurs.