F. Marion Crawford was an American writer born in Italy in 1854, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1880. He was a prolific novelist and is said to have outsold, in his prime, his friend Henry James. And if that isn't enough to recommend Crawford, the introduction to this edition by Stephen Schmalhofer reports that undergraduates at Notre Dame in the 1920s "devoured his novels, ranking them alongside the works of two other Catholic converts, John Henry Newman and Robert Hugh Benson.

Saracinesca is the first book in a tetralogy that is succeeded by Sant' Ilario, Don Orsino and Corleone, yes Godfather, Corleone. Saracinesca is an Italian noun that in the 19th century was defined according to Schmalhofer as a "grand portcullis, a latticed metal grille, lowered over the opening of a gate. In Crawford's novel Saracinesca is the surname of our eponymous protagonist, Giovanni Saracinesca. The main thread of the plot consists of his love for the lovely and virtuous Corona d'Astrardante, the most beautiful woman in Rome. Unfortunately for the two leads in the story, Corona was married off as a teenager by her impecunious father to an elderly roue, the wealthy Duc d'Astradante.

In the meantime, Giovanni's father is urging a marriage between his son and the recently widowed and wealthy Donna Tullia Mayer. Donna Tullia has a yen for Giovanni that is not reciprocated by the younger Saracinesca. However, the antagonist in our passion play, one Ugo del Ferice lusts after her beauty and fortune, though, he lacks both a fortune in his own right and a noble lineage to recommend his suit. Ugo is an opportunist, a schemer, a liberal who earns an income on the side by spying on his friends and acquaintances. He also harbors a hatred for Giovanni, his superior in every way.

Given the above you would be forgiven if you concluded that this was a 19th century Gothic romance and not much more. However, there is a sub-plot involving the contest between the liberalism of the Italian unification movement and the Papacy of Pius IX and his closest advisor Cardinal Antonelli who are determined to preserve the temporal power of the church over the area that constituted the Papal States whose capital was of course Rome.

The Saracinescas, whose family has historically been on the side of the secular power in their centuries' long rivalry with the Church, do not hesitate to leverage Antonelli's power in their struggle against the snares and plots unleashed against them by del Ferice.

Without giving away any more of the story than outlined above, I can say that I was fully engaged in this beautifully written novel and will continue to follow the fortunes of the contestants through the rest of the four-volume tale. ( )

I recall that I liked this very much when I read it about forty years ago -- if I remember rightly, it concerns an Italian nobleman whose long and faithful love is finally rewarded. When I first read it, I was struck by the fact that the hero was a Roman nobleman loyal to the papal state and opposed to its incorpration into unified Italy -- everything I had read up to that point was very sympahetic to the unification, so having a hero oppose it (and a villain who opportunistically supported it) surprised me. On balance, i still think unification was probably a good thing,but reading this did make me more aware of its imperfections. This is the first of a series of at least three volumes tracing this family. ( )