Monsù Tomè : racconto by Anton Giulio Barrili
"Monsù Tomè : racconto" by Anton Giulio Barrili is a novella written in the late 19th century. The tale profiles an aged Piemontese veteran of Napoleon’s wars whose anecdotes swell into a vivid first-person war memoir, centered on the Piedmont front and the defense of Cosseria. Framed by affectionate humor and melancholy, the narrator sketches the veteran’s rituals, pride, and soldierly code before yielding to his battlefield voice. Readers should expect a
lively historical yarn about courage, blunders, and camaraderie in the Revolutionary era. The opening of the story presents the narrator’s youthful memories of an elderly Monsù Tomè in Loano: a solitary former officer with a ceremonious Sunday drinking rite and a store of war stories unlocked by the right prompt. Coaxed by a friend’s mention of a vivandière, he launches into his “Cantami o Diva,” switches to first person, and offers an “eagle’s view” of the early Revolutionary campaigns, criticizing Austrian command while tracing the strategic situation in Savoy and the County of Nice. The focus narrows to the battalion level: Tomè serves among the grenadiers of Monferrato under the cool, charismatic Colonel Filippo Del Carretto. After a night march from Montezemolo through Millesimo, they clash at Montecàla with Augereau’s advancing French, then fall back to the ruins of Cosseria, where “Avanti, Monferrato!” drives a fierce bayonet counter. Captain Rubin is killed, the defenders fortify the shattered castle, and Tomè details officers, shortages, and the critical lack of water and ammunition. A parley with General Provera weighs their thin resources and doubtful support from Colli, setting a tense stage for the impending defense. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.html.images | 451 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.epub3.images | 454 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.epub.images | 450 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.epub.noimages | 295 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.kf8.images | 545 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.kindle.images | 512 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76855.txt.utf-8 | 400 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/76855/pg76855-h.zip | 532 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
About this eBook
| Author | Barrili, Anton Giulio, 1836-1908 |
|---|---|
| Title | Monsù Tomè : racconto |
| Original Publication | Milano: Treves, 1885. |
| Credits | Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library) |
| Language | Italian |
| LoC Class | PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Subject | Italian fiction -- 19th century |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76855 |
| Release Date | Sep 10, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 225 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |