Enrichetta Blondel

Manzoni’s readers tend to perceive his first wife, Henriette, in terms of the anguish and inconsolable loss “engraved in fire” in the dramatic lines of his unfinished poem Natale del 1833. In this poem, his doubts on “Providence” reach an unprecedented peak of violence, a protest verging on blasphemy (Mentre a stornar la folgore / Trepido il prego ascende, / Sorda la folgor scende / Dove Tu vuoi ferir), and instead of the Christian bowing his head before providence what readers hear is a believer crushed by the weight of God’s unfathomable will, against which he painfully and pointlessly tries to rebel. Paradoxically, therefore, it is death, poetically sublimated in the last of Manzoni’s sacred hymns, which marks the most visible moment of a silent and hidden life that was apparently of no interest. Nonetheless, some indication of Henriette’s personality and daily life in the Manzoni household are offered by her letters, written in (at times incorrect) French and indicating a simple culture, unlike that of her husband. Her letters were written hastily “in bits and pieces” in between the many household chores and physical ailments of her monotonous life. In her letters, Henriette does not mention Alessandro’s works or literary interests, indicating a role that was very different to that played by Manzoni’s second wife, Teresa Stampa. She also confesses her “depression” in letters to her confessors, Degola and Tosi, expressing her sadness and resignation at a married life that turned out differently from her initial expectations as a teenage bride. Apart from “suffering” twelve pregnancies, she played a secondary role within the family, which was dominated by her mother-in-law Giulia Beccaria. Nonetheless, the letters written to her daughter Vittoria, who had been sent to boarding school in Lodi (not without doubts on Henriette’s part), are determined and emotional in tone.