La Cartuja de Parma

On May 15, 1796, Napoleonic troops entered Milan, liberating it from Austrian rule. The Marquis del Dongo quickly began plotting against the invaders, but his wife secretly entered into a relationship with a young French lieutenant. A few months later, a son was born, whom they named Fabrice. Raised as the Marquis's son in the family mansion on Lake Como, the boy developed an intense fervor for the Napoleonic cause, to such an extent that, at the age of seventeen, he ran away with false papers, endured countless hardships to reach France, and arrived at Waterloo in 1814 in time to witness the last battle—and final defeat—of his hero. Upon his return, confused and adrift, he entrusts his future to two formidable protectors: his aunt, the Duchess of Sanseverina, who "astonished the court of Parma with her unassuming kindness and the noble serenity of her thoughts," and her lover, Count Mosca, minister to the Prince of Parma. But the fact is that, before long, young Fabrice finds himself in prison, condemned to death for having killed a romantic rival in a duel…