"Recollections of an Italian Gentleman" is a tale of a young man turned collaborator in a Rome occupied by French troops and then annexed to Napoleon's empire. The young collaborator recalls the events that marked these turbulent days, among them the abduction of the Pope by the French—His Holiness fiddled with his snuffbox during the entire operation—and the trial and execution of the notorious bandit Spatolino.
Genre: novella
Length: 10,900 words
Date of English translation: 2012