Orlando Furioso
10 best books like Orlando Furioso (Ludovico Ariosto): The Late Mattia Pascal, The Time of Indifference, I Malavoglia, Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, The Divine Comedy, Metamorphoses, Mandragola, Jerusalem Delivered, The Song of Roland, Vita Nuova
| Author | Luigi Pirandello |
| ISBN | 1590171152 |
Mattia Pascal endures a life of drudgery in a provincial town. Then, providentially, he discovers that he has been declared dead. Realizing he has a chance to start over, to do it right this time, he moves to a new city, adopts a new name, and a new course of life—only to find that this new existence is as...
| Author | Alberto Moravia |
| ISBN | 1586420054 |
In 1929, the fifth year of the Fascist era and the twenty-first year of Alberto Moravia's life, the Italian literary world was stunned by the appearance of his first novel, The Time of Indifference. It is a deceptively simple story – five characters, the events of a few days, the intrigues of families...
| Author | Giovanni Verga |
| ISBN | 8811582962 |
Nei Malavoglia (1881) Verga si immerge nella realtà locale di un paese siciliano, Aci Trezza, e racconta la semplice e rissosa quotidianità in cui vivono i Toscano, detti appunto i Malavoglia. Avvertendo come poco espressive le realtà borghesi, Verga cerca di rompere l'impianto romanzesco classico,...
Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis
| Author | Ugo Foscolo |
| ISBN | 1843910020 |
Written as an epistolary monologue, Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis is a compelling portrayal of a troubled mind. Published here for the first time in the English language, it is presented with Foscolo's highly acclaimed poem, Of Tombs. Banished from his homeland and from the woman he loves, Jacopo Ortis...
| Author | Dante Alighieri |
| ISBN | 0679433139 |
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory...
Prized through the ages for its splendor and its savage, sophisticated wit, The Metamorphoses is a masterpiece of Western culture--the first attempt to link all the Greek myths, before and after Homer, in a cohesive whole, to the Roman myths of Ovid's day. Horace Gregory, in this modern translation,...
| Author | Niccolò Machiavelli |
| ISBN | 0917974573 |
Mandragola = The Mandrake, Niccolò Machiavelli
The Mandrake is a satirical play by Italian Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Although the five-act comedy was published in 1524 and first performed in the carnival season of 1526, Machiavelli likely wrote The Mandrake in 1518 as...
| Author | Torquato Tasso |
| ISBN | 0801863236 |
Arguably the greatest Italian poet after Dante, Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento in 1544 and died in Rome in 1595, having served as the court poet in Ferrara, been confined for years in a madhouse after attacking a servant with a knife, and composed one of the great works of Renaissance literature....
| Author | Unknown |
| ISBN | 0140440755 |
On 15 August 778, Charlemagne’s army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a remote Pyrenean pass. Out of this skirmish arose a stirring tale of war, which was recorded in the oldest extant epic poem in French. The Song of Roland, written...
| Author | Dante Alighieri |
| ISBN | 0192839357 |
Vita Nuova (1292-94) is regarded as one of Dante's most profound creations. The thirty-one poems in the first of his major writings are linked by a lyrical prose narrative celebrating and debating the subject of love. Composed upon Dante's meeting with Beatrice and the "Lord of Love," it is a love story...
| Author | Giacomo Leopardi |
| ISBN | 0374235031 |
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
Giacomo Leopardi is Italy's greatest modern poet, the first European writer to portray and examine the self in a way that feels familiar to us today. A great classical scholar and patriot, he explored metaphysical loneliness in entirely original ways....
| Author | Francesco Petrarca |
| ISBN | 8806179497 |
In concomitanza con il settimo centenario della nascita del poeta, la curatrice, tra i massimi specialisti del Petrarca volgare, conclude un lavoro durato quasi vent'anni. Commentando minuziosamente ogni verso e ogni espressione petrarchesca, il fittissimo richiamo dei testi classici e della...
| Author | Dante Alighieri |
| ISBN | 0195087453 |
This is a great book, but does require the notes to make any sense of it. Hundreds of characters from Danté's Italy not to mention host of mythological and Biblical ones tended to distract me just reading the poetry and appreciating Dante's wonderful descriptions. I have to stop at the end of each chapter...
| Author | Carlo Goldoni |
| ISBN | 8804236167 |
Messa per la prima volta in scena sul palcoscenico del Teatro Sant'Angelo a Venezia nel 1753, La locandiera piacque subito molto, anche se forse non riuscì ad affascinare del tutto il pubblico del tempo. Originale, spiazzante, giocata su una storia d'amore che non si sviluppa secondo gli schemi consueti,...
