A 100-Year-Old Dream Realised: Concetta Brincat’s Lost Novel Published

Until the emergence of Mary Meylak in the 1940s, Maltese literature was largely dominated by male writers. Meylak’s Nokkla Sewda, published in 1958, has long been recognised as the first novel in Maltese by a woman.

However, a recent discovery has rewritten that chapter of literary history.

A conference held in October at the University of Malta, hosted by the Department of Maltese, revealed that a novel in Maltese penned by a woman actually dates back to 1919. The author was Concetta Brincat, whose long-forgotten manuscript has finally come to light, over a century after it was written.

Born Concetta Sciberras in Birkirkara in 1870 and educated in Constantine, Algeria, Brincat wrote two novels in Maltese: Il-Familja de Valereux jew Louis Mitluf Ġewwa l-Bosk (1919) and Is-Saħħara Nerelis (1922). Neither was published during her lifetime.

Her first novel, now issued for the first time by Klabb Kotba Maltin, is set during the French Revolution, while the second unfolds in the era of Emperor Nero.

Concetta’s dream of seeing her novel in print has finally been realised - one hundred years later.

According to Professor Adrian Grima, Head of the Department of Maltese, the style and content of the manuscript of Il-Familja de Valereux suggest that Brincat’s novel was an original work, and not a translation or adaptation as were most of the novels in Maltese at the time. The novel appears to have been written with publication in mind.

The manuscript survived thanks to Brincat’s descendants. It passed from her daughter Emma, to her granddaughter Desdemona, and finally to Nicholas, Desdemona’s husband, who sought Prof. Grima’s advice on how to bring the work to light.

At the interdisciplinary conference held at the University, Dr Simone Azzopardi from the Department of History explained how, although set in late eighteenth-century Paris, the novel vividly mirrors Maltese life at the turn of the twentieth century, particularly the domestic realities of ordinary people.

Dr Marilyn Mallia from the Department of French highlighted the novel’s Gothic elements, such as its strong moral tension, and described Brincat’s prose as “flowing and suspenseful, keeping readers on edge.”

The others speakers were Dr Noel Buttigieg (Department of Tourism Management), Annamaria Gatt, Fr Ray Gatt OP, Maria Simiana, Caroline Tonna, and Francesca Xuereb.

The event, held in Sala Pietru Pawl Saydon (ALT) at the University of Malta, attracted a large audience of academics, researchers, students, members of the public, and descendants of Concetta Brincat.

Il-Familja de Valereux was edited by Prof. Adrian Grima and transcribed from the handwritten manuscript by Maria Simiana, who holds an MA in Maltese Literature.

After a century of waiting, Concetta Brincat’s voice has finally found its place in the story of Maltese literature.

[Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff]