History (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Elsa Morante
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: World War II
- Setting: Rome and its environs
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism, Historical fiction, War fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life, Mothers, Parents and children, Revolutionaries, 1940’s, World War II, Mental illness, Rape, Nightmares, Jews or Jewish life, Anti-Semitism, Death or dying, Italy or Italians, Fascism, Rome, Epilepsy
- Locales: Rome, Italy
Characters Discussed
Ida Ramundo (EE-dah rah- MEWN-doh), a widow and schoolteacher, the mother of two children. After the death of her mother, she discovers that she is half Jewish. She is frail and timid, and her life is a daily battle against a threatening and aggressive world. Her general sense of estrangement from society is exacerbated by her suffering from occasional epilepsy-like seizures. Impressionable and imaginative, she is also quite prone to troubling and powerful dreams that continue to haunt her during her waking hours. She worries about her teenage son, but her...
[The entire page is 883 words long]
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