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Loading... La Vita Nuovaby Dante Alighieri, H. Oelsner (Editor)
None. Everyone should take the chance to yell at a long-dead Florentine and call him a jackass; my edition is en face, which makes it much more fun, but regardless, I cannot be the only person to read this and boggle. Because, seriously, this is not a relationship, this is not even the relationship of a muse to an artist, this is pure symbolism and abstraction, and I keep getting so angry on Beatrice's behalf -- yes, I am projecting, thank you. (  ) cricketbats | Mar 30, 2013 |  I've read the Vita Nuova many times, but I keep returning to this outdated translation by Rossetti. I guess I'm fond of it, cobwebs and all. (  ) JacobHolt | Mar 30, 2013 | What I think I like best about this little book is the way the young Dante's character comes through – earnest, naive, idealistic. At least two things are happening here: he is describing his unrequited teenage love for Beatrice, and he is becoming a poet. Love and the desire to write about it are timeless, which is why the book still has the power to delight us today, more than seven centuries later. There is a spiritual allegory here as well, in the images of Love as a godlike figure who must be obeyed and the spiritualized Beatrice as an image of the pure virgin goddess/the Virgin Mary – all bound up in the tradition of courtly love. The poems (sonnets and canzoni) are lovely, and, in the Hesperus edition, impressively translated by J. G. Nichols. This edition also includes an engaging foreword by the novelist Louis de Bernières, who describes the importance the book had for him when he was himself a teenager, and a very helpful introduction by Nichols, who places the book in the context of the literary traditions of the 13th century. Although there is a certain repetitiveness in the narrative, and Dante's redundant "explanations" of his poems can become tedious, all in all this is a charming book. (  )2  rolig | Apr 7, 2011 | Dante lived in an era when 'courtly love' or 'unrequitted love' was common. This was during the age of chivalry, and was often a secret love between members of nobility. Dante was very much in love with Beatrice, but he had to keep his love secret. To do so he used what he called 'screen loves' in which he showed admiration to other women so that no one would know who his true love was. For Dante, his love for Beatrice was so deep that with only a smile or a gracious word, she could cause him to become weak. To show his love, Dante wrote poetry in honor of Beatrice. Dante felt that Beatrice was so special that he held her in higher esteem than other humans. In fact, her name means 'blessed' and when she died Dante believed that God saw how good Beatrice was and He wanted her to be near Him, so he took her up to be with Him in heaven. Dante felt that we didn't deserve to have her here on earth with us. In his 'Divine Comedy,' Dante will place Beatrice in one of the very highest levels of heaven. Dante often talked of Beatrice as being a 'nine' which to him was a nearly perfect number. The number three was special because of its association with the Trinity, and nine was three times three, therefore he held it to be of the highest importance. (  ) gcamp | Feb 20, 2011 | Arguably the very best book of poetry I will ever read, though that's mostly because I hate poetry and love technical writer stuff. Seriously, the Lord of the Rings is about half as long for me as it was for it's author - I read perhaps two lines of poetry in the entire thing before giving up. Weirdly, the explanations in this one actually made me want to go back and read the poems. Also awesome from a former-history-major standpoint. If you'd like to know how educated young people in the 13th century thought, it's a must-read. I particularly appreciated my translator (Penguin Classics edition) - she didn't bother with "thee" and such, and made the whole thing a lot more accessible (and I say this as a girl who prefers her Bible to be the King James Version.) (  ) lloannna | Aug 20, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140442162, Paperback)This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:46:27 -0500) "La Vita Nuova (1292-1294) has many aspects. Dante's libello, or "little book," is most obviously a book about love. In a sequence of thirty-one poems, the author recounts his love of Beatrice from his first sight of her (when he was nine and she eight), through unrequited love and chance encounters, to his profound grief sixteen years later at her sudden and unexpected death. Linked with Dante's verse are commentaries on the individual poems--their form and meaning--as well as the events and feelings from which they originate. Through these commentaries the poet comes to see romantic love as the first step in a spiritual journey that leads to salvation and the capacity for divine love. He aims to reside with Beatrice among the stars." "David Slavitt gives us a readable and appealing translation of one of the early, defining masterpieces of European literature, animating its verse and prose with a fluid, lively, and engaging idiom and rhythm. His translation makes this first major book of Dante's stand out as a powerful work of art in its own regard, independent of its "junior" status to La Commedia. In an Introduction, Seth Lerer considers Dante as a poet of civic life. "Beatrice," he reminds us, "lives as much on city streets and open congregations as she does in bedroom fantasies and dreams.""--BOOK JACKET.… (more) |
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