Breakdown of Volevo leggerlo fino a stanotte, perché esso è stupendo.
essere
to be
perché
because, why
leggere
to read
volere
to want
Questions & Answers about Volevo leggerlo fino a stanotte, perché esso è stupendo.
Why use esso here instead of just dropping the pronoun and saying perché è stupendo?
In everyday spoken Italian, you would indeed just drop the pronoun and say perché è stupendo. However, esso is the formal or literary subject pronoun for a masculine inanimate object ("it"). You will encounter it frequently in written Italian, literature, or formal contexts, which is why it appears in this sentence.
What does the esso refer back to, and how do we know?
It refers to the same thing as the -lo attached to the end of leggerlo ("to read it"). Because both lo (direct object) and esso (subject) are masculine singular pronouns, we know the speaker is talking about a masculine noun, such as a book (il libro). If they were talking about a magazine (la rivista), they would have used leggerla and essa.
As a quick refresher, why is the imperfect tense (volevo) used here instead of the passato prossimo (ho voluto)?
The imperfect tense (volevo) is used to describe an ongoing state, desire, or intention in the past. This perfectly fits the continuous feeling of "I wanted to." If you used the passato prossimo (ho voluto), it would imply a sudden, completed action or a firm resolution, translating closer to "I insisted on reading it" or "I decided to read it."
Why do we need the preposition a in fino a stanotte?