''The Bravo'' is a novel by
James Fenimore Cooper first published in 1831 in two volumes. Inspired by a trip to Europe where he traveled through much of Italy, the novel is set in Venice. ''The Bravo'' is the first of Cooper's three novels to be set in Europe.
[ This group of three novels, which one critic would call Cooper's "European trilogy", include '' The Heidenmauer'' and '' The Headsman''. Like his other novels set in Europe, ''The Bravo'' was not very well received in the United States. The book largely focuses on political themes, especially the tension between the social elite and other classes.
]
Background
In 1829–1830, Cooper toured Italy with his wife and family. Starting in Florence, where he spent considerable time absorbing the Tuscan culture, Cooper departed on a sailing trip around Italy, visiting many historic cities including Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
and much of Southern Italy. In Sorrento, Cooper finished '' The Water-Witch'', after which, he again departed, sailing again through the Adriatic. Upon reaching Venice, Cooper was so struck by the architecture that he was inspired to write the novel that would become ''The Bravo''.
Plot
Style
In ''The Bravo'', Cooper uses lightness and darkness to paint the scenes. However, unlike some of his other books, ''The Bravo'' is predominated by dark settings and language. Following his political themes, the official political powers in the novel are often draped in dark settings. In this context, the few chapters which present Venice as brightly lit, depict daylight as a hypocritical false front. However, Moonlight, unlike sunlight and artificial lighting, illuminates scenes of hope to overcome the dark "official Venice".
Themes
''The Bravo'' deals with many political themes. Cooper would later explain that he wrote the novel because " the great political contest of the age was not, as is usually pretended, between the two antagonist principles of monarchy and democracy, but in reality between those who, under the shallow pretense of limiting power to the elite of society, were contending for exclusive advantages at the expense of the mass of their fellow-creature."
Adaptations
The novel was adapted into a play, ''La Vénétienne'', by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois
Auguste Anicet, later Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois (25 December 1806 – 12 January 1871) was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris.
The first play to bear his name is ''L'Ami et le mari, ou le Nouvel Amphitryon'', a vaudeville in one act. It ...
; this in turn served as the basis for an opera, ''Il bravo
''Il bravo, ossia La Veneziana'' ("The Assassin, or The Venetian Woman") is an opera in three acts by Saverio Mercadante to an Italian-language libretto by Gaetano Rossi and Marco Marcello. Their libretto was based on the play ''La Vénétienne'' ...
'', by Saverio Mercadante, which premiered in 1839 at La Scala.
References
Further reading
*
External links
''The Bravo'' (London 1831, 3 volumes)
at Open Library
Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...
''The Bravo'' (New York 1860, 1 volume)
on Google Books
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1831 American novels
Novels by James Fenimore Cooper
Novels set in Venice
American novels adapted into plays
Novels adapted into operas