Orlando Furioso

A Great Classic ¿ with an obscure message

Although ¿Orlando Furioso¿ is one of the Great Classics, in terms of household recognition it has not held its own. It is not nearly as well known as Dante¿s Divine Comedy (for example) -- a work to which it is sometimes compared. It has been aptly described as a combination of Homer and Cervantes¿s ¿Don Quixote.¿ To these I would add Boccaccio¿s ¿Decameron.¿ ¿Orlando Furioso¿ deals with the exploits of Charlemagne¿s paladins (knights) in their attempts to repulse the ¿Saracen¿ (Moorish) invasion of France. Against this rich backdrop all sorts of adventures take place: knightly combat, amorous dalliance, as well as encounters with dragons, nymphs, and sundry other magic. Ariosto wrote ¿Orlando Furioso¿ around 1516, some 750 years after the events purportedly took place. It is therefore not surprising the work contains many anachronisms. His warriors ¿ both Christian and Saracen ¿ fight in full body armor with stirrups and lance. (A mode of fighting did not develop until well after the year 1000.) He makes reference to Tartars and Prester John. But ¿Tartars¿ is another name for Mongols, who were not known in Europe until the 13th century. The legend of Prester John has a similarly late origin. In an age greatly concerned with violence, especially the ¿gratuitous¿ kind, the violence in Orlando comes as something of a shock. There are frequent graphic depictions of heads lopped off and bodies cloven in twain. Also somewhat surprising are the great powers attributed to women. But it is unclear whether Ariosto was an early woman¿s libber. More likely he reflects prevailing views, which gave women more due than we like to attribute to past ages. Perhaps the status of women (and men) is governed by cyclical events, such as population pressures. If there is a dominant message in ¿Orlando Furioso¿ I found it hard to identify. Possibly the title holds a clue: ¿Orlando¿ is the name of the principal protagonist, and ¿Furioso¿ means ¿mad¿ or ¿rabid.¿ What drove Orlando mad? Why, a faithless woman, of course! Yet one gets the impression that Ariosto intends most of the blame to go to Orlando himself. In pursuing this woman (an enemy, to boot) he betrays many of the ideals of courtly love. He turns the great powers of sublimated love to selfish interests. For this he is punished with madness.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Verse printed as prose

Rose's translation is indeed in verse, but Echo Press prints each stanza as if it were a prose paragraph (except that the first word of each line of verse is capitalized). This does allow for a clearly-printed, readable text at a bargain price. Rose's translation is accurate but stiff, and he leaves out entirely passages deemed too salacious for his nineteenth-century readers.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

poetry or prose

i, as a customer, deserve to have correct information displayed to me when deciding on a particular book to buy. in the reader's catalog, there is indication that it is verse. in the description from the editor, there is a claim for prose. one of them, of course, is wrong.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A must-read classic of literature, horribly translated

Orlando Furioso itself is one the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance literature, very well read in Europe and a benchmark of later chivalric epics. Spenser and Byron were both heavily influenced by it, and it truly is a delightful read - however, one should read a more faithful translation, such as the one by Barbara Reynolds.
As the other reviewer pointed out, Slavitt is a little too liberal with his translation, to the point where he uses modern metaphors in lieu of Ariosto's originals. An example: "You think it's easy? No, it's very hard to say nice things to a tree - about how its bark is worse than its bite? You can't even send a card, unless it has that recycled paper mark." In this sense, it becomes more of an adaption of Ariosto, and not good one, as well as incomplete. The incompleteness isn't even counterbalanced by a satisfactory inclusion of the main plot.
Having read the poem in its original Italian, I feel that Slavitt translated the Furioso in service to himself, rather than attempting to faithfully render the poem into English. While there is still a lot of the sense of fun and humor that is central characteristic of the poem, Slavitt's modifications break and distract from that spirit, rather than enhance it. So I must give this book such a low rating due to the poor quality of its translation.

Irresistibly readable, but often more paraphrase than translation

For its irresistible readabilty, I unhesitatingly give this book four stars, but on its merits as a TRANSLATION it would have to rank somewhat lower. Slavitt does faithfully render the STORY (or stories) of most of the first half of "Orlando Furioso" (with selections from the rest), but with respect to the WAY the story is told he feels (in my opinion) much too free to go his own way--while he is delightfully proficient at ottava rima, his stanzas tend to be loose and inventive paraphrases, and, in his determination to convey Ariosto's "fun" and "sprightly" tone, he tends to exaggerate it beyond the point of absurdity. If you dabble in Renaissance literature, epic poetry, or even fantasy classics, and have been tempted to read Ariosto but never quite felt up to the challenge, you will have a LOT of fun with Slavitt, and a lot of your fun will be due to Ariosto. But if you want a more legitimate acquaintance with Ariosto as he really is, you need to try Barbara Reynolds' translation in verse or Guido Waldman's in prose. (And you'll have a lot of fun that way, too!)

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