Dictionary.net

A celebrated Italian poet and novelist; born in Sicily, 1840. His works include: "Story of a Cricket" (1872); "Eva" (1873); "Stories" (1874); "Nedda" (1874); "Eros" (1875); "Royal Tiger" (1876); "Helen's Husband" (1877); "Life in the Fields" (1880); "I Malavoglia" (1881), translated as "The House under the Medlar Tree"; "Rustic Tales" (1883); "Rustic Chivalry" (1884), from which the libretto of Mascagni's famous opera "Cavalleria Rusticana" was derived; "The How, the When, and the Wherefore"; etc.