As an early form of committed literature for the masses, the romanzo storico risorgimentale between 1820 and 1870 held up the heroic past of the country to a wide Italian readership. In a melodramatic and stylized form it offered contemporary audiences historical figures and action models by means of which they were enable to experience themselves as Italians and as part of a national community welded together by destiny. Alessandro Manzoni's novel »I promessi sposi« (1827) also qualifies for treatment from this specific historical vantage, though with its dialectic and reflective description of history it has qualities that far exceed the normal run of romanzi storici risorgimentali.