Although verismo’s influence as a literary movement had waned by the first decade of the new century, Messina was nonetheless inspired by Verga’s humble characters, deemed unworthy as literary subjects for previous generations of Italian writers. Her first studies were those individuals she encountered daily within the confines of the family home or immediate neighborhood, “the washerwoman, the peasant who came from the countryside to sell his produce, the servant girl who helped her mother with the domestic chores” (A. Messina 1988, 12). Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, one of the earliest and most discerning critics of Messina’s work, refers admiringly to the young author as “a student of Verga” (Borgese 1923, 164), a compliment that was likely a source of tremendous pride for the aspiring writer.5 The inevitable, if at times misleading, association with Verga is borne out in the themes, characters, language, and overall style of her first collection, as well as in titles that reflect the fundamentally indifferent and cruel nature of the peasant world. “Janni lo storpio” (Janni the Cripple) is a boy with a debilitating limp; “Solo pane” (Just Bread) an epileptic who begs, asking only for bread; “Pettini-fini” (Fine Combs) a carter who peddles mirrors, combs, and other trinkets to neighborhood women, while his wife carries on with the local don. The prevailing image of Sicily is that of a world far removed from the rhythms and sensibilities of modern life, where passions at their most basic level—infidelity, jealousy, revenge, and the longing for material possessions—clash with ingrained Christian teachings of suffering and resignation.