Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation

The appearance of David R. Slavitt's translation of Orlando Furioso ("Mad Orlando"), one of the great literary achievements of the Italian Renaissance, is a publishing event. With this lively new verse translation, Slavitt introduces readers to Ariosto's now neglected masterpiece--a poem whose impact on Western literature can scarcely be exaggerated. It was a major influence on Spenser's Faerie Queene. William Shakespeare borrowed one of its plots. Voltaire called it the equal of the Iliad,...