Identify Books During 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
Particularize 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 |
Explanation Toward 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.
Rating About Books Orlando Furioso
Ratings: 4.02 From 2901 Users | 124 ReviewsWeigh Up About Books Orlando Furioso
Roland FuriousLudovico Ariosto, called LArioste (1474-1533)Orlando Furioso is an Italian romantic epic by Ludovico Ariosto. The work can be seen as the summary of all chivalry literature since its early existence in the middle ages to the Renaissance. The primary and real subject of Ariostos work is the sublimation of The Codes of honour of the errant knight:His deep religious Christian belief, unquestioned loyalty to the King, bravery in battle for fame and glory, never-ending faith and loyaltyMy 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
This poem is about the siege of Paris by the Mauritanians and the Saracens. Christian King Charlemagne has to confront the African Agramand and his Mauritanian allies, who come from Spain. But this is not the only theme that dominates the poet's narrative.Love is the greatest force that drives the threads of history. The main characters, and many of the secondary who make their way through the narrative, are in love and have to go through many ordeals in order to gain a moment of happiness. It
Written in 1532, Orlando Furioso is a wonderful Italian Renaissance chivalric romance, taking inspiration from the Arthurian cycle as well as classical Greek and Roman epic and romance (Homer, Vergil, Apuleius etc.), but which is uniquely itself. Set vaguely during the time of Charlemagne and the Saracen invasion of France, it really inhabits a mythic world full of errant knights, distressed damsels, wicked enchanters, marauding monsters and not a few female knights who are quite capable of
Not sure about this translation; I read it in Sir John Harington's, 1591, assigned to him by the the First Elizabeth for his witty account of his invention, the water closet or water "jakes": the Metamorphosis of Ajax-pron. a Jakes. (The Elizabethan Brits called a toilet by a French name, whereas the French called it a John. Foreign names to imply the lower life of foreigners.) I've also read maybe 30 pp in Italian, ottava rima in iambic hendecasyllables, not the Latin hendecasyllables Catullus
Orlando Furioso is a miracle of lightness, speed, and wit. Imagine all the brightest qualities Byron, Spenser, Calvino, and Cervantes jumbled deliciously together, and spiced with a dash of Kafka. It's little wonder so many Italian operas sprang from such fertile soil. The poem is about the labyrinthine impossibility of desire and the wild weavings of destiny, told in a wry tone that jumps so quickly from person to person and scene to scene that the reader is soon swept up in Ariosto's ironic
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