Description: A young woman, trapped in a provincial town, dreams of being rescued by love. But the Marchesa Colombi puts a twist on that old plot in her story of Denza Dellara, a clumsy Cinderella too big for her hand-me-downs and saddled with a family that seems to go to great lengths to frustrate her hopes -- and to make her see reality. To escape everyday boredom, Denza conceives a love for the most unlikely of Prince Charmings, the gargantuan Onorato, a rich local who quotes opera to her but cannot possibly marry a girl without a dowry. Denza carries on a romantic vigil for her "gray elephant" while lamenting her many woes, until she catches the attention of a prosperous farmer. This Frog Prince has an enormous wart on his forehead but he can end her daydreaming and save her from impending spinsterhood . . . if she lets him.

Natalia Ginzburg claimed the book as an influence on her own work, saying, "What I found unusual . . . was a way of presenting people and facts without romanticizing or idealizing them, in a straightforward, light and nonchalant way that I wasn't accustomed to in books, because the books that I was used to reading overflowed with cloying sentimentality". This edition at last introduces this forgotten novel to an English-speaking audience.

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