Ludovico AriostoReviews
Author of Orlando Furioso
Reviews
English (25) Spanish (5) Italian (5) Catalan (3) German (2) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) Dutch (1) All languages (42)
Ariosto's purpose, according to the introduction, was to entertain -- and he admirably succeeded.
This verse epic has everything: knights, evil sorcerers, good sorcerers, Christians, Pagans, love, lust, rape, sodomy, and even some virtue here and there.
Cross-dressing knights? Check. Visit to the Underworld? Check, followed by a trip to the moon (to recover lost wits, naturally). Gender-bending female knight who's constantly saving her boyfriend? Check and check (and mate).
There's a manipulative damsel-in-distress who blueballs each knight in turn, with each new suitor doing the dirty work of ridding her of the previous. The titular Orlando spends half the work rampaging through Europe like the Hulk, naked and unstoppable. There are so many characters in this thing that even the swords have names -- as do the horses, and possibly even a saddle or two.
Barbara Reynold's translation is a lot of fun, and a remarkably fast read given its length.
1 
JeffersonBallard | 19 other reviews | May 7, 2022 |
JeffersonBallard | 19 other reviews | May 7, 2022 | Epic italian poem, featuring knights, damsels, magic and the occasional monster. Its not so much a single story as an entire library of them all mixed together. Set against the backdrop of the Moors invading France. This gives the work a lot more cohesion than other epics like the Faerie Queene.
The author does a pretty good job of reminding you who's who and whats been happening, whenever he switches characters. This helps a lot and i wasn't often confused about which character was which.
The best thing about this is the moral greyness of it all. It really is almost 'Game of Thrones' in places. Heroes lie, make bad deals to save their own skin, kill hundreds of soldiers or farmers, and in one intance tried to rape some woman who they just rescued.
I do have to say it has a LOT less attempted sexual assaults than the Faerie Queene, but a lot more consensual sex. It also has less monsters and magical creatures than than Spenser's work but i like that, it means that when things do get strange it has more of an impact.
A few of minor issues, one is the lists of famous people rammed in to the work here and there, these are only of interest to people of the day or historical scholars, but are easily skippable.
The other thing that can annoy is the structure, most of the switches between character are fine but occasionally it happens at an exciting moment and instead of hearing what happens next your forced to get through a completely unrelated plot before getting back to the action.
Also this is a direct sequel to the unfinished 'Orlando Innamorata' and while the version i read contained a quick summary of events from that work i still felt confused at the start and on occasions when it refers back to previous events from Innamorata.
Overall despite not being able to read it in its native language, its REALLY good. There's just so much in here and some of it is just the right amount of morally gray for a modern audience to appreciate. Oh and there's some kick ass females in here aswell.
Still he was the first writer to tell the reader to look at the amount of remaining unread book, when the heroine is in peril.
There has been critical disagreement over the main themes of the poem and Reynolds in her excellent introduction claims them to be chivalry, war and love, but my first impression is that the overarching theme is one of love and the human condition. It is a narrative based on a war between the Christians and the Saracens some time in the chivalric past. Each side has it's heroes and heroines (the female warriors are just as skilled and fierce as the men) who fight and love throughout the poem with a number of set pieces such as: the siege of Paris, the madness of Orlando, the infighting in the Saracen camp, Astolfo's trip to the moon, the final duels to the death between the Saracen and Christian champions and then the resolution of the love affair between Ruggiero and Bradamante. However there are so many stories within stories that the sheer variety will keep most readers amused; there are bawdy tales, moral tales, magic realism, fantasy stories, and some of the most brutal battle scenes all interwoven to provide a tapestry that is both rich and human.
This is the poem that signals the real break from the medieval literature of the past. Although one of it's major themes is chivalry it is couched in a realism that speaks volumes to the modern reader, as the thoughts fears and emotions of the characters come vividly alive. Gone are the lists of characters and the obsession with pedantic heraldry to be replaced with real story telling. Ariosto was a student of human nature and he takes time out in many of the opening stanzas of the canto's to expound on a particular theme, The fickleness of men in love for example:
Be on your guard against those in the flower
Of ardent youth, whose amorous desires
Blaze up and die away in a brief hour,
Just as burning straw at once expires,
The hunter, chasing hares, will gladly scour
The Land, up hill, down dale, through brakes and briars,
In cold and heat, but, once a hare is caught,
He chases others, for this caring naught.
There is much more condensed philosophy; on honour, jealousy, loyalty, hypocrisy, love, the treatment of women and they have a ring of truth about them so that we can identify with Ariosto's thoughts.
A poem that features magic swords, magic rings of invisibility, hippographs (winged horse) a shield that renders enemies unconscious, a magic horn that frightens people into submission and monsters on land and in the seas is rich in the fantasy tradition. It is all due to the art of Ariosto that he can weave these fantasy elements into the sometimes brutal realism of battle scenes and the tragedy of love and death that makes this poem such a joy to read. Astolfo's trip to the moon is a case in point; a chariot piloted by St John Evangelist takes Astolfo on his journey where he meets the inhabitants of the moon who are guardians of the wits of men and women who are insane on earth. they are guardians of many other things that have been lost on earth and are also involved in weaving a sort of tapestry of lives and the fates of human kind. All fantastical stuff but interwoven into the story because here Astolfo recovers the wits of the insane Orlando (he has been driven to insanity by unrequited love)
There is much irony in Ariosto's writing perhaps the supreme example is to name his poem Orlando Furioso, when although Orlando is one of the Christian heroes, he hardly features in the climax to the poem once he is cured of his insanity. The panegyrics dedicated to Ariosto's patrons become increasingly over the top as the poem proceeds and certainly today they read with more than a hint of satire. Irony and a lightness of touch in some of the writing serve to give the poem an added dimension, but it is the deep felt human emotions and the realism of some of the fighting that leaves a lasting impression; here is a stanza from the final epic battle between Ruggiero and Rodomonte:
On cheek and shoulder he receives the blow,
The impact makes him reel from left to right,
He staggers, off his balance to and fro,
And scarcely can he hold himself upright.
Now is the moment for the pagan to
Close in and take advantage of his plight,
He tries to do so, but too hastily:
His thigh wound brings him down upon one knee.
Ariosto enjoys himself with much authorial intervention; either entering his story to encourage or chide his readers or speaking through the voices of one of his characters. Many of the Canto's end with cliff hangers as Ariosto makes some excuse why he cannot continue with this particular thread to the narrative. There are many threads to the narrative and many of the characters have stories to tell of their own, that fly off at a tangent from the main narrative and one suspects that this is Ariosto not being able to resist the sheer delight of story telling. There are two other essential features in this poem that speak to its feeling of modernity. Women are treated on an equal footing to men in many of the battle scenes and Ariosto has no time for the view that women are a lascivious and fickle sex that is so predominant in much medieval and renaissance writing. When he tells a bawdy tale in the vein of Boccaccio he apologises for its depiction of women in the story saying that this is not how they really are, but is how many male authors depict them. He also treats the Christians and Saracens on an equal footing. The Saracen heroes are as well rounded in character representation as the Christians and perform equally brave and chivalric deeds on the battlefield. They have one monster in the brutal Rodomonte, but his excesses are balanced out by Orlando during his period of insanity. Here is Rodomonte creating havoc inside the citadel of Paris:
His cruel sword the Saracen rotates
And few there are he does not leave for dead
A foot with half a leg he here truncates
There from a torso spins a severed head.
He splits them to their haunches from their pates,
Or cuts them clean across with transverse blade
Of all he kills or wounds or seeks to chase
Not one delays to look him in the face
The penguin classic edition with a translation by Barbara Reynolds is in two books, each running nearly to eight hundred pages. There is an excellent introduction and mercifully a list of characters so that the reader can keep a track of who is doing what to whom in the narrative. The list also contains a description of the magic swords, the named horses and other magical items. There are good notes and a copious index. I loved the flow to the translation that Reynolds achieves. When I initially approached this poem I had a couple of other books of lighter reading beside me, but I got so caught up in this magical poem that I stayed with it right to the end. A five star reading experience.
5 baswood | 7 other reviews | Nov 3, 2013 |
baswood | 7 other reviews | Nov 3, 2013 | World Books Podcast: Of Naked Maidens and Sea Serpents (February 2, 2010)
The Italian Renaissance epic “Orlando Furioso,” was once a hot volume, at least among the literati, such as Shakespeare, and musicians, such as Scarlotti and Haydn. But Ludovico Ariosto’s long tale of knights and monsters duking it out largely dropped off the radar screen in the 20th century, though it was Italo Calvino’s favorite work of literature. Translator David R. Slavitt wants to rectify that with his English translation of the poem, the first in 30 years. World Books Editor Bill Marx talks to Slavitt, a veteran translator of over eighty volumes of poetry and fiction, about how his playful version reflects the giggly, surrealist mischievousness of the original.
I thought that, since I hadn't read more than excerpts in undergrad, I should try to read the entire work. Well, not really - let's just say the first half, since the entire text is even more massive than this version. Note this fact from the wikipedia page:
Ariosto's work is 38,736 lines long in total, making it one of the longest poems in European literature.
So at 658 pages this isn't the complete poem. From the preface:
"What we have in this volume is slightly more than half of what Aristo wrote - primarily because the production costs of an enormous and unwieldy volume (or volumes) would have made for a discouragingly expensive book, which would have defeated my purpose of broadening Aristo's Anglophone audience."
I read a used copy which has been marked and underlined, with notes added here and there, by former owner Kate Miley (I think). Kate has won me over by the odd doodles and the random cartoon bear she sketched on the last page. At first I was rolling my eyes over the "lol" added here and there, but then I began to really get into the reading, and when I'd come to a "lol" I'd say to the book "I know, right?!" Because yes, there are some really funny moments. (And of course I had to quote them, see below.)
I should also note here that the earliest version of this came out in around 1516. So when you read the more modernized text of this version - the sentiments are still original and some wildly unusual for that time. (Here's the William Stewart Rose translation on Gutenberg, from 1823-31.)
So what's the book like? Hmmm, how to describe this to you...well, it's not like reading your average piece of 16th century poetic literature, not in this translation anyway. Think of this as a cross between a pulp novel, a comic book, a session of Dungeons and Dragons (where the DM has a great sense of humor), and a bodice-ripper romance that's heavy on the near-rape scenes (some of those made me wince, some made me say "oh great, not again" - because yes, it's a trope). In fact it's now inspired me to go read other translations just to see how others have translated some of these words. (Though I'm probably not going to get around to doing that anytime soon.)
I should add that I started reading this book during a particularly crappy time in my life, and I vaguely hoped that reading it might get my mind off of reality. But I was also expecting it to be a standard poetic epic that I'd have to work to understand what's going on - like, say, The Faerie Queene (which I still have not finished). I was actually trying to use it as Put Yourself To Sleep Reading at Bedtime. Instead I ended up reading it, enjoying it, and laughing every so often. And forgetting the crappiness I was in the midst of. Which I very much needed, and not at all what I expected from an epic. Also I'm the quietly-snickering-to-herself type more than laughing type - but I confess, I did laugh. So now I'm going to regard the book fondly just for helping me out. It gets a special bookshelf place. (After it's loaned to my father who's dying to read this translation.)
How much did I enjoy this read? Read the following quotes, and then the Reading Progress section. The amount I've bothered to quote is always a sign I'm having fun. For those wanting the quick version without having to read the HUGE amount of quotes - I think I quoted this book more than anything else I've read. Because I wanted a place to quick reference some of these lines. And then note how many stars I gave it.
IMPORTANT! My reaction is completely due to this particular translation. Having looked at one or two examples of previous translations - reading them would be a completely different experience.
Quotes:
(Not always copying the full stanza, just the funny and interesting bits.)
Canto II, 10
Rinaldo raises up Fusberta, which,
believe it or not, is the name of his broadsword.
.......
Canto II, 11
She's fleeing from Rinaldo, and here he stands,
victorious, and no one is left to protext her.
Unless she wants to give in to his demands,
as, if she remains there, he would expect her
to do, she had better make some other plans
and leave at once, out of self-respect or
simply fear. She does not make excuses
but with a twitch of the reins of her horse vamooses.
.......
Canto II, 58
The knight once more falls silent. You remember the knight
is talking to Bradamante. Those quotation
marks were reminders of this. But his story was quite
long, and during the course of his narration,
you may have forgotten the frame. But that's all right.
.......
Canto II, 72
And there it is, easy as pie, although
why pie is easy is difficult to explain.
.......
Canto II, 76 (last stanza before Canto III)
And then? Is this the end? But surely not.
The smaller twigs of the elm branch break her fall,
as you might have guessed, with all those pages you've got
in your right hand. So this cannot be all
there is. She doesn't die here, but just what
happens to her after this close call
that leaves her on the bottom, stunned and hurt so
we'll get to soon, perhaps in Canto Terzo.
.......
Canto III, 67
"...the odds would still be against you, for that mad
necromancer inside that arrogant
steel castle of his rides about on that bad
hippogryph that flies in extravagant
aerial maneuvers. But worse, you'll find,
is his shield with which he can render his foes blind.
68
"when he uncovers it. And do not expect
that you can contrive some stratagem - to fight
with your eyes closed perhaps. ..."
.......
Canto III, 77
She does not let him sit too close to her knowing
that he could rob her and then absquatulate.
.......
Guinevere, a king's daughter, is accused of being unchaste and thus law decrees she will be put to death. Rinaldo thinks this is a bad law, even if Guinevere has slept with someone:
Canto V, 66
"If the same ardor moves both men and women
to the sweetness of love, it is unfair
that women should be punished for being human
once, while men are praised as debonair
for doing it as often as they can do. Man
and woman should be treated the same. I declare
that I mean, with the help of God, to right this wrong
that is so outrageous and has gone on so long."
.......
Canto VI, 20
The island was like the one that Arethusa
lived on (it was Ortygia, I recall),
fleeing the river god. (You have to use a
book of myths to get these stories all
in order.) Let's say it was nice (and who's a
critic of islands anyway?) The small
island loomed much larger as they got lower,
and the hippogryph flew gentlier and slower.
.......
Ruggiero must fight the "cruel giantess" Erifilla:
Canto VII, 3
Her armor, first, was set with gems of many
colors - rubies, emeralds, chrysolite.
She was mounted, not on a horse that any
person might want, but a wolf on which she'd fight.
Ruggiero took a second look at this when he
approached and wondered if she had trained it to bite.
And it wasn't a normal wolf but enormous in size,
tall as an ox, and with gleaming yellow eyes.
.......
Canto VIII, 71
...He tries to focus his mind without
success and these notions, whirling about like perns
in a gyre, or, say, like moonbeams put to rout
as they bounce off the surface of water and one discerns
on the ceiling a dance of their tiny lights that are acting
as if they were terrified - it can be distracting.
.......
Orlando wondering where Angelica is, and worrying about her possible rape (because her loss of virginity would be such a trauma for *him* because of course she belongs to him - all males in this story seem to have this attitude towards Angelica), among other dangers:
Canto VIII, 77
"And where are you now, my hope, my love, without
my protection? Do wicked wolves surround you,
their slathering jaws agape as they circle about
their prey? That delicate flower that I found, you
beautiful blossom the angels gave me. I doubt
that you can survive untouched, unplucked, your dew
still on those lovely petals. Or have they by force
taken you? I worry about that, of course.
78
"And if the worst that I can imagine has come
to pass, what can I wish for but a quick
death? O God, I pray to you to have some
mercy. Afflict me some other way, sick
crippled, blind, dishonored, deaf and dumb,
but spare her. Otherwise, I shall have to pick
some painful form of suicide." ...
.......
Must give you three stanzas here so that you can see how fun Aristo is - what at first seems a pacifist rant then becomes something else in stanza 90. All about the modern technology of destruction - in this time period - the cannon.
Canto IX, 88
And neither is Orlando hanging around.
He departs, having taken but one
thing - that machine of fire, iron, and sound,
a weapon of mass destruction, that terrible gun,
which he does not want for his own use, having found
it to be unfair and unsporting: only a son
of a bitch would think to use it in a fight.
It isn't at all appropriate for a knight.
89
It ought to be destroyed, he thinks, to keep
anyone from ever making use
of it against men to kill and to estrepe.
He cannot think of any sane excuse
for it to exist, and he throws it into the deep
of the sea to make men and women safer, whose
futures will not be blighted by such an obscene,
inelegant, and dangerous machine.
90
He also finds it politically incorrect
in the way it makes a weak man equal to
the strongest, so that all rank and respect
are fundamentally threatened, for otherwise who
would know his place or observe the correct
distinctions? Civilization as he knew
it would be over, equality would reign.
The very idea gives our paladin pain.
.......
I had no idea orc had so many definitions. In this case it's a sea monster:
Canto X, 101
Ruggiero, however, has his lance at the ready,
and with it he strikes the orc, a writhing mass
that is more a blob than a beast, except for the head he
is aiming at. Its mouth is a dark crevasse
with protruding teeth like a boar's. Ruggiero's steady
lance strikes at the forehead but he has
little success. It's as if he is striking blows
on granite or iron. It's perfectly otiose.
.......
Hey look, it's more cannon ranting! And the devil is to blame!
Canto XI, 22
Had it been up to Orlando we would all
be much better off. But the cannon's cruel inventor
was the one who tempted Eve and contrived the fall
of mankind from the garden, the arch tormentor,
whose clear intention was that what we call
guns and cannons would one day re-enter
the world of men, in our grandparents' time or before
and would transform both society and war.
23
A hundred fathoms down it wasm but some
necromancer raised it from the deep
and gave it to the Germans who learned from
repeated trial and error how to keep
from blowing themselves up. The curriculum
of the devil suited them well and with a steep
learning curve they rediscovered its use.
But secrets tend to spread and reproduce.
24
...And what this means is that anyone, high or low,
is the equal of anyone else. It has done away
with rank and order, and honor, and valor, too,
and the rabble are just the same as me and you.
.......
Enchantress Melissa (one of the good ones) explains the castle that's a magical trap set by the villain Atlas - and in which the reader can see as a metaphor...:
Canto XIII, 49
She reveals his trick of intuiting the desire
of every person and offering just that
for which the man's or woman's heart is on fire,
but whatever it is, it's just out of reach, which is what
keeps them there, searching through the entire
structure for that voice they keep hearing but
can never quite locate. It is a quest
that can never succeed but from which they can never rest.
.......
1 bookishbat | 19 other reviews | Sep 25, 2013 |
bookishbat | 19 other reviews | Sep 25, 2013 | 
1 olgalijo | 19 other reviews | Sep 30, 2011 |
olgalijo | 19 other reviews | Sep 30, 2011 | His use of hyperbole and oxymoron prefigures the great metaphysical poets, and like them, these are tools of rhetoric and satire. Every knight is 'undefeatable', every woman 'shames all others by her virtue', and it does not escape Ariosto that making all of them remarkable only makes more obvious the fact that none of them are.
Ariosto's style flies on wings, lilting here and there, darting, soaring. He makes extensive use of metafiction, both addressing the audience by means of a semi-fictionalized narrator and by philosophical explorations of the art of poetry itself, and the nature of the poet and his patron.
As with most epics, Ariosto's asides to the greatness of his patron are as jarring as any 30-second spot. His relationship to his various patrons was extremely difficult for him, as he was paid a mere pittance and constantly drawn away from his writing to deliver bad news to the pope (if you're thinking that's a bad job, Ariosto would agree--the See nearly had him killed).
This is likely the reason that these moments of praise fall to the same unbelievable hyperbole as the rest. His patrons could hardly be angry at him for constantly praising them, but his readers will surely be able to recognize that his greatest compliments are the most backhanded, and merely serve to throw into stark contrast the hypocrisy of man.
Since we will all be oblivious hypocrites at some point (for most of us, nearly all the time), the only useful defense is the humility to admit our flaws. Great men never have it so easy: they cannot accept their mistakes, but must instead be buried by them.
Though Ariosto often lands on the side of the Christians, his Muslims are mighty, honorable, well-spoken, and as reasonable in their faith. The only thing which seems to separate the two sides is their petty squabbling.
Likewise, he takes a surprisingly liberal view of sex and gender equality, with lady knights who are not only the match for any man, but who need no marriage to complete their characters. He even presents homosexuality amongst both sexes, though with a rather light hand.
His epic is not the stalwartly serious sort, like Homer, Virgil, or Dante. Ariosto is a humanist, and has none of the fetters of nationalism or religious idealism to hold him in place. His view of man is a contrary, shifting, absurd thing. The greatest achievements of man are great only in the eyes of man.
By showing both sides of a conflict, by supporting each in turn, Ariosto creates a space for the author to inhabit. He is not tied to some system of beliefs, but to observation, to recognition; not to the ostensible truth of humanity, but to our continuing story.
Ariosto took a great leap from Petrarch's self-awareness. While Petrarch constantly searched and argued in his poems, he found a sublime comfort in the grand unknown. Ariosto is the great iconoclast, not only asking why of the most obvious conflicts, but of the grandest assumptions. The grand mystery is only as sacred as it is profane.
Ariosto is also funny, surprising, and highly imaginative. Though his work is defined by its philosophical view, this view is developed slowly and carefully. It is never stated outright, but is rather the medium of the story: a thin, elegant skein which draws together all characters and conflicts.
The surface of the story itself is a light-hearted, impossible comedy. It is no more impossible than the grand heights of any other epic, but only seems so because it is not girt tightly with high-minded seriousness. Perhaps Ariosto's greatest gift is that he is doing essentially the same thing all other authors do, the same situations and characters, but he makes you laugh to see it.
To be able to look at life simply as it is and laugh is the only freedom we will ever know. It is all wisdom. For this gift, I hail fair Ariosto, the greatest of all epicists, all poets, all writers, all humanists, all men, and never to be surpassed.
4 Terpsichoreus | 19 other reviews | Jun 9, 2009 |
Terpsichoreus | 19 other reviews | Jun 9, 2009 | And that's just for starters.
The tale follows each of these characters, switching back and forth, weaving in more and more characters (including Merlin), confounding and confusing the story more and more with each new twist in the tale. By the time I thought I'd finally caught onto a bit of the story, the narrator tells the reader that he is going to leave those characters and describe the events of another, and by the end, I finally didn't care much what was happening to whom. "Orlando Furioso" read like a Renaissance soap opera, with all the men being incredibly, ruggedly handsome and chivalric, and all the women miraculously fair of face, so much so that men fall hopelessly in love with a single glance. Don't get me wrong; I usually enjoy these types of multiple-stories-in-one, but I couldn't keep track of who was who and more than once mixed up which character was where.
I have a feeling, though, that back in the 16th Century, this would have been incredibly popular, and I can picture ladies of the court marveling over the heroic deeds and daring do. In fact, "Orlando Furioso" by Ludovico Ariosto, first published in 1516, is actually a sequel to "Orlando Innamorato" written by Count Matteo Maria Boiardo in the late 1400s. An incredibly popular sequel, I might add.
But for me, it was a bit too busy.
Ariosto picks up from Boiardo's Orlando Innamoratto and assumes the reader has some knowledge of that poem, alluding tangentially to it throughout the work. The basic plot revolves around Charlemagne's defense of France from the Saracens, although, for most of the book, this is just back story. The siege of Paris is described in detail as are several smaller engagements - although their veracity is questionable - but primarily the story follows a panoply of characters through numerous quests, conflicts and magical interludes. The tales are drawn from many sources, contemporary to the time as well as historical and mythical. The Greek myths, in particular are woven throughout, although often gloriously unrecognizable. The tale jumps around the world - literally, as characters fly and sail from Europe to Africa, Asia and the newly discovered North America. Even the moon is a destination.
The characters range from the well known Orlando (Roland of the Charlemagne legend) and Charlemagne himself, to lesser known lights of the time drawn from other romances. The Saracens and Christians are treated almost equally - at times you have to refer to the dramatis personae to figure out which side an individual is on - and there is very even-handed treatment of both sides. Ariosto also has a rather advanced, for his time, view of women, casting several as military heroes every bit the equal of men and giving almost all of his female characters strong, independent roles. No fainting wall-flower princesses here. Even the modern Disney princess pales in comparison to the fierce Marfisa (Saracen and female and a knight) and the magnificent force that is Bradamante.
The male characters are also headstrong, proud to a fault and seem more like rutting mountain goats at times, than men. They display few weaknesses, and are always ready for a challenge. The complicated plot seems designed to pit each of the heroes against each other in a complicated play-off scheme worthy of college football.
The tale ranges from brutal to poetic with scenes of beauty, nobility, cruelty and violence juxtaposed in close succession. The occasional bawdy interlude lightens the mood occasionally but this is no Decameron. The emphasis here is on chivalry and nobility of heart. Comparisons with Tasso are inevitable but probably unfair. Tasso's work is a much tighter, uniform work which reads more like a modern novel. Ariosto's work, in my opinion, belongs to a different genera entirely, consisting, as it does, of a loosely woven set of tales, held together by the slenderest of threads. Tasso and Ariosto each have their own particular charm but should not be ranked against each other.
Repeated encomiums for the house of Este, Ariosto's patrons, cloud the narrative somewhat. The fawning praise and false histories do, however, weave the thing into a whole, providing an overarching theme (the union of Ruggiero and Bradamante) which is otherwise somewhat lacking. The madness of Orlando, which lends the poem its title is really only one of many threads in the tale.
This version of the poem, translated as it is into 4000 octavo stanzas, is remarkably readable. The translation manages to retain a noble air, not sounding forced, in spite of rhyming lines and fixed form. The end notes are long enough to aid the reading and short enough to avoid snowing the reader under with useless details. Many pertain to Ariosto's use of historical figures and places of his own time. The two books of Reynold's translation each have an introduction. The first introduction is lengthy but very readable while the second is brief but fills in the gaps of the first quite nicely. A dramatis personae is presented in each book as well although the second only covers new characters introduced in the second half of the poem. These character lists are actually quite necessary for an intelligent reading of the poem as the number of characters approaches infinity. Finally, the book contains a lengthy index which concentrates on the characters and their actions.
The two volume translation is, I imagine, a bit daunting to the average reader, being nearly 1400 pages in length. It is a fairly smooth read, however, and rewards with many literary jewels. The book can be read as a whole quite easily but would also be useful to the scholar given its fairly extensive notes and indices. The one drawback for scholars would be that the paperbacks, given their enormous length, are unlikely to survive repeated readings. A hardcover version of this translation would, however, be an excellent investment.
1 Neutiquam_Erro | 7 other reviews | Sep 29, 2008 |
Neutiquam_Erro | 7 other reviews | Sep 29, 2008 | This episode gave us the legend of the brave Roland, who died blowing his horn to summon Charlemagne to return and rescue the overwhelmed soldiers. The story grew ever more elaborate with every retelling. In Italy Roland became Orlando. By the 1400s France and Italy nostalgically looked back on a lost world that never existed, the world of chivalry. Roland (or Orlando) figured largely in this literature that grew up about knights, ladies, dragons and magicians.
The Italian poet Matteo Boiardo wrote his contribution to the Roland cycle, Orlando Innamorato (1495). Boiardo died before finishing the planned final third part of his poem.
That brings us to Ludovico Ariosto who set out to finish Boiardo’s epic. Ariosto was a superior poet and his Orlando Furioso is a truly major work and an important part of the Western Canon. It is also the most Italian book I have ever read. The mix of magic, history, humor, irony all combine in a way that ends up feeling Italian, yet that I can’t exactly explain why. But anyone who has a close familiarity with Italian culture will understand what I mean. I can give an example. A brave knight saves the beautiful damsel. She offers herself as a reward. The brave knight then starts unbuckling his armor in order to collect his payment. Finally the lady grows bored with the laborious, time-consuming knightly undressing and wanders off. This irreverent original twist on an old story, done with a sly smile is pure Ariosto and pure Italy.
Ariosto is not only a good poet, he is a great storyteller. Because of this Orlando Furioso becomes a wonderful book in Guido Waldman’s prose translation. I have rarely found translations of poetry to be satisfactory. As one man said, you can translate the words, but who can translate the music?
It’s a shame this terrific book has slid off the modern reader’s radar. The Renaissance was more than pictures and statues. It was a complete rebirth of the western mind. Orlando Furioso is as important a work of art as Botticelli’s Primavera or Raphael’s School of Athens.
It’s a big book. Give yourself some time to enjoy this burly, mirthful work. It’s worth it.
2 BillMcGann | 19 other reviews | Aug 16, 2008 |
BillMcGann | 19 other reviews | Aug 16, 2008 | 6 mattmcg | 19 other reviews | Apr 5, 2006 |
mattmcg | 19 other reviews | Apr 5, 2006 | 1 |
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AlCracka | 19 other reviews | Apr 2, 2013 | 
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Suitability for Studying:
Calvino's version is an excellent resource for literature students, particularly those interested in epic poetry and narrative techniques. The book simplifies Ariosto's intricate plot and character relationships, providing a clearer understanding of the original work's themes and structure. Calvino's modern prose and annotations bridge the gap between the Renaissance and today's readers, making it a valuable study tool for exploring literary adaptations and narrative evolution.
Inspiration for Fantasy Novelists:
For fantasy novelists, Calvino's retelling offers rich material for inspiration. The dynamic characters, magical elements, and epic quests in Orlando Furioso can spark ideas for creating elaborate fantasy worlds. Calvino's fresh perspective on these elements can help writers craft engaging plots and complex characters, enriching their fantasy storytelling.
Orlando Furioso raccontato da Italo Calvino is both a scholarly asset and a source of creative inspiration, bridging classical literature with modern literary exploration.