1. Charles Dickens to W.H. Wills, 28 April 1859, in G. Store(ed.) (1997), The Letters of Charles Dickens, vol. 9 (1859–61) (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 54–5.
2. Lorenzo Benoni sold well, not only in Britain, but also in Germany and France, where it was translated in 1854 and 1855 respectively. It was reviewed in the major literary journals of the day and — with the exception of the Athenaeum, whose anonymous reviewer lamented the book’s unidi-omatic language and ‘mixed’ genre — was widely praised for the vividness and truthfulness of its depiction of Italian life. Lorenzo Benoni was still popular at the end of the century, as testified by Nietzsche’s enthusiastic reading of the book during his stay in Amalfi in 1877. Doctor Antonio, instead, was not so widely reviewed and despite the favourable criticism of the Athenaeum, which praised Ruffini’s ‘pure and flexible style’, in 1856 its sales had not yet covered the expenses of the publication. Ruffini’s later books, especially the Risorgimento stories of Lavinia and Vincenzo, were almost ignored by both the reading public and critics, mainly because the British interest in the political affairs of Italy rapidly withered after unification. Nevertheless, in the 1860s Ruffini’s novels were popularised in Europe thanks to Tauchnitz, the prestigious German reprint house that included Ruffini’s complete work in its renowned ‘Collection of British and American Authors’, started in 1841. On the reception of Ruffini’s novels in Britain see A. Obertello (1931) ‘L’opera di Giovanni Ruffini in Inghilterra’, in Giovanni Ruffini e i suoi tempi: Studi e ricerche (Genoa: Il Comitato Regionale Ligure della Società Nazionale per la Storia del Risorgimento), pp. 420–81.
3. On this topic see C. Viazzi (2000) ‘Il dottor Antonio in televisione’, in F. De Nicola (ed.) Giovanni Ruffini, patriota italiano, scrittore europeo (Atti del Convegno Nazionale di Studi, Imperia, 5 dicembre 1998) (Genoa: De Ferrari), pp. 76–82. The first cinematic adaptation of the novel was produced by Manderfilm in 1938 and directed by Enrico Guazzoni.
4. A. C. Christensen (1996) A European Version of Victorian Fiction (Amsterdam: Rodopi);
5. M. Marazzi (1999) Il romanzo risorgimentale di Giovanni Ruffini (Florence: La Nuova Italia).