YMMV / The Betrothed

• Genius Bonus: The Unnamed's real identity, Francesco Bernardino Visconti, is heavily hinted to historians of that period of Italian history by his Heel–Face Turn being cemented in an encounter with cardinal Federico Borromeo, his base of operations being an actual castle (popularly known as "Castello dell'Innominato" as a shout-out to the novel) on the border between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan that the historical bandit used to avoid being hunted down by the authorities, while the first version made his identity clear by referring to him with the nickname of "Count of the Churchyard" (that the historical character earned by having his victims murdered in churchyards).
• Memetic Mutation: Thanks to the novel's popularity in Italy (especially with teachers), this novel created or popularized many worlds and phrases:
  • "Enough with your latinorum!": Renzo's reply when Don Abbondio tries to use Techno Babble (well, Church Babble) on him. To this day, "latinorum" is the Italian equivalent of Techno Babble.
  • "Carneades, who was him?": Don Abbondio found him mentioned in a panegyric, and said this quote because he couldn't remember him, leading to "Carneade" (the Italian form of Carneades) becoming synonim with "lesser known person", in spite of Carneades being actually a relatively famous philosopher.
  • Azzeccagarbugli: the nickname of the lawyer Renzo initially goes for help with don Rodrigo's veto, meaning literally "knot weaver" (with "garbugli", the word used here for knots, also doubling as "loopholes") in Milan's dialect and used to designate lawyers (or even people) extremely skilled in the art of the Loophole Abuse. The word originates in one of Niccolò Machiavelli's lesser known works, but The Betrothed's use of the word to nickname this memorable character is what made it popular.
  • "Defender of losing lawsuits": derived from Azzeccagarbugli's other nickname, "lord doctor of the losing lawsuits", an Ironic title he got for his penchant for winning even when filing impossible or frivolous lawsuits. The meme lost the irony, however, and the phrase returned to designate lawyers that lose often.
  • "Farewell to the mountains": the title given to Lucia's lyrical lament when she has to abandon her village, this expression is now used (sometimes ironically) for people who leave their hometown and/or emigrants.
  • The whole Italian language as it is: the original version of the novel was written in the dialect of Milan, but as he revised it he chose to write it in the one of Florence, long used as the written language of Italian intellectuals, and between the popularity of the final revision and him using the dialect as spoken by the people it settled the secular debate if the language of a united Italy should be a Conlang or one of the dialects (and which one) in favor of Florentine.
    • This led to another memetic phrase among Italians: "rinsing his clothes in the Arno", that is how Manzoni described his action of revising the novel's language (the Arno is the river crossing Florence).
• Signature Scene: Lucia's "farewell to the mountains" is possibly the most famous passage from the novel, thanks to its lyrical style that has often been compared to a poem in prose.
• The Woobie:
  • Lucia, who gets molested by Rodrigo, has two noblemen betting on raping her knowing full well they will face no consequence, and is separated from her love because of it and faces violence, illness and kidnapping alone. They do eventually get together, but before that she really can't catch a break.
  • Gertrude is more of a Jerkass Woobie: it's hard to forgive her for murdering another nun and selling Lucia to the Unnamed, but the fact that she was forced into the convent by her abusive and manipulative parents, and her following actions come mainly from the resulting rage and envy, makes her a lot more sympathetic.