Written following the Italian war for independence by a sub-lieutenant who had fought in the siege of Rome in 1870, Heart is the fictional diary of a boy's third year in a Turin municipal school. It was written to foster juvenile appreciation of the newfound Italian national unity, which the author had fought for in the recent war. The book is often highly emotional, even sentimental, but gives a vivid picture of urban Italian life at that time. A master, introducing a new pupil, tells the class, "Remember well what I am going to say. That this fact might come to pass--that a Calabrian boy might find himself at home in Turin, and that a boy of Turin might be in his own home in Calabria, our country has struggled for fifty years, and thirty thousand Italians have died." The novel became internationally popular, and has been translated into over twenty-five languages, and is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.Edmondo de Amicis (1846-1908) established a reputation as a writer in various genres after his experience as a soldier.

艾得蒙多·德·亚米契斯（Edemondo De Amicis）1846年10月31日生于意大利利古里亚大区因佩里亚省一个收奥内利亚的海滨城市。他从小喜爱军旅生活，16岁进入莫德纳军事学院学习，1865年毕业后成为军官，1866年积极参加了意大利第三次独立战争。1868年发表处女作《军营生活》，并因此而成名。1870年罗马解放后，他放弃军事生涯，定居都灵，成为意大利主要报纸的记者，并从此开始从事专业文学创作。1908年3月11日在博尔迪凯拉病逝。

亚米契斯早期曾周游世界，写下不少游记，如《西班牙》、《荷兰》、《伦敦记事》、《摩洛哥》、《君土坦丁堡》、《美国游记》、《西西里的回忆》等。1879年至1889年的10年间是亚米契斯创作的繁荣时期，他写了许多有关社会题材的作品，有《散文集》、《朋友们》、《爱的教育》、《大西洋上》等。他关注社会问题，继而投身政治，参加社会主义运动，1891年加入社会党此后，他先后出版了《一个教师的小说》、《工人的教师》和《公共电车》等作品。