The Woman and the Priest/Translator's Note

The Woman and the Priest (1922)
by Grazia Deledda, translated by Mary G. Steegmann
Translator's Note by Mary G. Steegmann
Mary G. Steegmann4608264The Woman and the Priest — Translator's Note1922Mary G. Steegmann

Translator's Note

The Woman and the Priest[1] is an unusual book, both in its story and its setting in a remote Sardinian hill village, half civilized and superstitious. But the chief interest lies in the psychological study of the two chief characters, and the action of the story takes place so rapidly (all within the space of two days) and the actual drama is so interwoven with the mental conflict, and all so forced by circumstances, that it is almost Greek in its simple and inevitable tragedy.

The book is written without offence to any creed or opinions, and touches on no questions of either doctrine or Church government. It is just a human problem, the result of primitive human nature against man-made laws it cannot understand.

  1. Translated from the Italian novel La Madre.