There too he imbibed the anti-Catholic creed of Voltairianism. He was even supposed to marry the daughter of Antoine Destutt de Tracy. At Auteuil, he developed a lifelong interest in liberalism. Upon the death of his father in 1807, he joined the freethinking household of his mother at Auteuil, and spent two years mixing with the literary set of the so-called ' ideologues', philosophers of the 18th-century school, among whom he made many friends, notably Claude Charles Fauriel. At fifteen, however, he developed a passion for poetry and wrote two sonnets of considerable merit. Manzoni was a slow developer, and at the various colleges he attended he was considered a dunce. For this reason, Alessandro was brought up in several religious institutions. In 1792 his parents broke their marriage and his mother began a relationship with the writer Carlo Imbonati, moving to England and later to Paris. The young Alessandro spent his first two years in cascina Costa in Galbiate and he was wet-nursed by Caterina Panzeri, as attested by a memorial tablet affixed in the place. The poet's maternal grandfather, Cesare Beccaria, was a well-known author and philosopher, and his mother Giulia had literary talent as well. Pietro, his father, aged about fifty, belonged to an old family of Lecco, originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina. Manzoni was born in Milan, Italy, on 7 March 1785. His work and thinking has often been contrasted with that of his younger contemporary Giacomo Leopardi by critics. He was an influential proponent of Liberal Catholicism in Italy. Manzoni also contributed to the stabilization of the modern Italian language and helped to ensure linguistic unity throughout Italy. The novel is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Italian: I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed (orig. Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni ( UK: / m æ n ˈ z oʊ n i/, US: / m ɑː n( d) ˈ z oʊ n i/, Italian: 7 March 1785 – ) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher.

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni