Be Specific About Books Supposing Orlando Furioso
| Original Title: | Orlando furioso |
| ISBN: | 0192836773 (ISBN13: 9780192836779) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Roland, Charlemagne, Ginevra, Ruggiero |
| Setting: | The Hebrides, Scotland France Scotland |
Ludovico Ariosto
Paperback | Pages: 656 pages Rating: 4.02 | 2901 Users | 124 Reviews
Chronicle During Books Orlando Furioso
Perhaps it speaks more to the age I live in than that of the author, but I'm always surprised to find a reasonable, rational mind on the other end of the pen. Though Ariosto's unusual work is full of prejudice and idealism, it is constantly shifting, so that now one side seems right, and now the other. His use of hyperbole and oxymoron prefigures the great metaphysical poets, and like them, these are tools of his 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--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--tell me a man is great once, and I will believe you, tell me five times, and I'll start to think you're covering for something. Since we will all be oblivious hypocrites at some point (for most of us, nearly all the time), the only useful defense is finding 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 just as (un)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 make them whole--they are women with or without a man beside them. 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 keep him chained. 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 universal 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 the other epic 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 wits, all humanists, all men--never to be surpassed.
Describe About Books Orlando Furioso
| Title | : | Orlando Furioso |
| Author | : | Ludovico Ariosto |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Oxford World's Classics |
| Pages | : | Pages: 656 pages |
| Published | : | January 28th 1999 by Oxford University Press (first published 1516) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Classics. Fantasy. European Literature. Italian Literature. Fiction. Epic |
Rating About Books Orlando Furioso
Ratings: 4.02 From 2901 Users | 124 ReviewsNotice About Books Orlando Furioso
Perhaps it speaks more to the age I live in than that of the author, but I'm always surprised to find a reasonable, rational mind on the other end of the pen. Though Ariosto's unusual work is full of prejudice and idealism, it is constantly shifting, so that now one side seems right, and now the other. His use of hyperbole and oxymoron prefigures the great metaphysical poets, and like them, these are tools of his rhetoric and satire. Every knight is 'undefeatable', every woman 'shames all othersMy brother got me a hardcover 1st of the new translation of the Furioso for Xmas - hell yes bro!
A few years ago when I read Irving Stone's amazing work The Agony And The Ecstasy about the life of Michelangelo, the poet Ludovico Ariosto was mentioned somewhere as being a dinner guest of the Pope of the day. With my typical curiosity, I wondered if Ariosto was a real person (he was); what did he write (Orlando Furioso, for one); and could I find a copy of the work at my favorite online library Project Gutenberg (yep!!). It took a few years to get to to the top of my Someday List, but I did
Why is this epic not better known? Sure, there are ample academic texts written about it, its importance to later literature is widely acknowledged, and I've read more than one reference to it in the works of other great authors, but the vast majority of readers have never even heard of Orlando Furioso. Though originally published less than fifty years after Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur, Orlando Furioso is not nearly as well-known or as widely read, which is a shame because it's a far better
This book is so intricately woven. It really is one of those classics that so many other stories draw from. The characters are fabulous and the stories legendary.
Let me confess: I read the French prose translation not the Italian verse original I am thus unable to comment on the poetic qualities of the Italian. What I was able to comprehend convinced me that this is an extraordinary adventure tale from the Renaissance and with a very modern perspective on many issues that we are still grappling with today.If you have the good fortune to be taking this work on a university course, you should obviously concentrate on the interpretation that your professor
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