Two Gentlemen of Verona Summary

Introduction

A.J. Cronin was a Scottish novelist and physician. His works won him a large Anglo-American readership.

Synopsis

“Two Gentlemen of Verona” is a motivating story about two young boys who take life in all seriousness and dignity beyond their years. They do odd jobs for their living when the economy there is at its hard times. The boys are more passionate about life. As the writer is more curious to know about these spirited boys, he discovers even more fascinating story behind their inspiration. It is their sister, Lucia who is hospitalized suffering from tuberculosis. Jacopo and Nicola, the young boys prove to be mature beyond their years in their work, manner and attitude.

Theme

The story opens on the backdrop of the foothills of the Alps. Two small boys selling wild strawberries on the outskirts of Verona stop the writer’s car. The boys do not look well-dressed though, the visitors are easily attracted to them. Nicola, the elder was thirteen; Jacopo was nearly twelve.

Next morning the writer finds them at the Public Square shining shoes. When they are asked if they do not sell only fruit for living, Nicola says that they do many things. The visitors ask them to take them round the town. The writer is surprised to see their remarkable demeanour. They are childish and quite artless. But in those boyish faces there is seriousness, an air of purpose beyond their years.

The boys prove to be very useful to the visitors in the following week. If the tourists want a pack of American cigarettes, or seats for the opera, or the name of a good restaurant the boys can be relied upon with their usual cheerful competence. They work without any grouse. During the summer days under the hot sun, and in the long evenings they shine shoes, sell fruit, hawk newspapers, conduct tourists round the town and run errands.

One night the visitors find them late at the Square. When the writer asks Nicola why they work so hard, do not spend on clothes and eat little enough and what they do with their money. They just say that they save money, for they have other plans.

As the writer tells them that the visitors would be leaving on Monday, he asks them if he can drive them to Poleta, their country.

The following afternoon they drive to the tiny picturesque village. They draw near a large red-roofed villa. The boys disappear into the building. He follows them. There inside he finds a pleasant looking woman dressed in the white uniform. The nurse takes him upstairs and shows through a little cubicle where sit the two boys at the bedside of a girl about twenty who look like her brothers.

The writer does not want to intrude upon them, instead he begs the lady to tell him more about them.

Their father, a widower, had been killed in the war. A bomb had destroyed their home and thrown the three children into the streets. For months they had managed to live in a sort of shelter built amidst the rubble. Then, the German Elite Guard established headquarters in Verona. The boys hated those harsh unwanted masters, they joined the resistance movement. They were used to carry messages to the forces of liberation and more dangerously to gather information on the movements of the German troops. When the hard times were over, they came back to their beloved sister Lucia only to find that she was suffering from tuberculosis. They admitted her to this hospital and worked harder to earn to pay the hospital bills.

The boys safely try to keep their secret. This silent epic of youthful devotion touches the writer deeply. They had accepted an untimely maturity forced upon them with dignity and courage. They are the gentlemen and better humans far above their age.

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