This course provides an in-depth study of some of the most important Italian novels produced during the 19th and 20th century.  The course will trace the evolution of the Italian Novel, from the Romantic age to the early 20^th Century, and define its relationship to other European literatures and its indubitable contribution to the idea of Western Modernity.  The course will also investigate how these novels improved, or simply changed, the native tradition of the genre, and how such works reflect the vast political, economic, social and cultural transformations undergone by the new Italian nation (born in 1861).