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F. Marion Crawford
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A Roman Singer Kindle Edition

by F. Marion Crawford (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
2.9 2.9 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
See all formats and editions
I, Cornelio Grandi, who tell you these things, have a story of my own, of which some of you are not ignorant. You know, for one thing, that I was not always poor, nor always a professor of philosophy, nor a scribbler of pedantic articles for a living. Many of you can remember why I was driven to sell my patrimony, the dear castello in the Sabines, with the good corn-land and the vineyards in the valley, and the olives, too. For I am not old yet; at least, Mariuccia is older, as I often tell her. These are queer times. It was not any fault of mine. But now that Nino is growing to be a famous man in the world, and people are saying good things and bad about him, and many say that he did wrong in this matter, I think it best to tell you all the whole truth and what I think of it. For Nino is just like a son to me; I brought him up from a little child, and taught him Latin, and would have made a philosopher of him. What could I do? He had so much voice that he did not know what to do with it. His mother used to sing. What a piece of a woman she was! She had a voice like a man's, and when De Pretis brought his singers to the festa once upon a time, when I was young, he heard her far down below, as we walked on the terrace of the palazzo, and asked me if I would not let him educate that young tenor. And when I told him it was one of the contadine, the wife of a tenant of mine, he would not believe it. But I never heard her sing after Serafino—that was her husband—was killed at the fair in Genazzano. And one day the fevers took her, and so she died, leaving Nino a little baby. Then you know what happened to me, about that time, and how I sold Castel Serveti and came to live here in Rome. Nino was brought to me here. One day in the autumn a carrettiere from Serveti, who would sometimes stop at my door and leave me a basket of grapes in the vintage, or a pitcher of fresh oil in winter, because he never used to pay his house-rent when I was his landlord—but he is a good fellow, Gigi—and so he tries to make amends now; well, as I was saying, he came one day and gave me a great basket of fine grapes, and he brought Nino with him, a little boy of scarce six years—just to show him to me, he said. He was an ugly little boy, with a hat of no particular shape and a dirty face. He had great black eyes, with ink-saucers under them, calamai, as we say, just as he has now. Only the eyes are bigger now, and the circles deeper. But he is still sufficiently ugly. If it were not for his figure, which is pretty good, he could never have made a fortune with his voice. De Pretis says he could, but I do not believe it. Well, I made Gigi come in with Nino, and Mariuccia made them each a great slice of toasted bread and spread it with oil, and gave Gigi a glass of the Serveti wine, and little Nino had some with water. And Mariuccia begged to have the child left with her till Gigi went back the next day; for she is fond of children and comes from Serveti herself. And that is how Nino came to live with us. That old woman has no principles of economy, and she likes children
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  1. Print length
    164 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Library of Alexandria
  5. Publication date
    December 27, 2012
  6. File size
    621 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B0XKOES
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Library of Alexandria (December 27, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 27, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 621 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 164 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    2.9 2.9 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

About the author

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F. Marion Crawford

F. Marion Crawford

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Customer reviews

2.9 out of 5 stars
2.9 out of 5
5 global ratings

Top review from the United States

hereswhatithink
4.0 out of 5 stars A Roman Singer
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is the story of a rather ugly boy with a great voice. While still non-famous he falls in love with a Count's daughter and pretends to be a professor to gain access to his lady love while tutoring.

One day, he goes on a "field trip " with Hedwig, her father and another man to the Roman ruins at midnight so Hedwig can see the full moon through the hole in the ampitheater ceiling. While there, in the darkness he gets the urge to sing and does so but no one can tell where the voice is coming from. Nino says it's his cousin who has now disappeared into the night.
Hedwig falls in love with the voice and keeps asking about his cousin...

Then the day of his debut arrives and Hedwig and her father are in the audience...

To cut a long story short, the Count refuses to allow his daughter to marry a phlebian musician and he takes his daughter away to an undisclosed castle location far in the mountains of Italy.

There's a villain, and a love story, a great escape and a subtheme of opera. Add to that, the dialog has fantastic wit which makes it a winner in my books. (see my status updates for examples)

I took it down a star because I dislike someone else narrating the story. (in this case it was Nino's adoptive father). You miss so much with explanations of "how I know what happened ".

But its a good fairytale like story and I enjoyed it.

CONTENT: G
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