Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adam_mcphee 's review for:
Orlando Innamorato = Orlando in Love
by Matteo Maria Boiardo
2018 review: Really glad I re-read this, I definitely got more out of it this time. There's a lot left out, but that's going to happen in any translation of Boiardo or Ariosto. So much plot! But this time I made a bit more sense of it, all of the episodic stories are essentially re-tellings of the Matters of France, Britain or Rome but always with a reversal (Charlemagne the conqueror conquered, stoic warrior Orlando falls in love, ladies' man Rinaldo rebuffed and then disgusted by love, the wizard Malagigi undone by magic, etc). Meanwhile the overarching story connecting the episodes is a riff on the Siege of Troy: Angelica as Helen locked up in the citadel, but because she fled from her Paris; Roland as the great warriors Achilles and Hector, refusing service to Charlemagne in France so he can protect Angelica in the far east; Rinaldo also as both heroes, killing Truffaldino by dragging him behind as Achilles dragged Hector's corpse; Rogero as wandering Odysseus kept apart from the action and his beloved Bradamante by the wizard Atlantes; the tournament on the Steps of Merlin as a sort of rigged Judgement of Paris that catalyzes the action.
The maneuvering of the Saracen kings was more interesting and coherent this time around, though it's still funny that they go from being kings leading armies to knights errant on solitary quests as the author finds appropriate. Reminds me of that renaissance criticism of the gestes (from Aretino? Folengo?) about how the knights are made to sleep in their boots and armour, ie that their mundane parts of their lives are neglected to an absurd degree. It's a funny hangover from the gestes.
Overall, I think I can see a bit more structure in it than the Furioso, though I'm due for a re-read of that too. Certainly it feels like it retains more of a connection to the chansons de geste, where these characters feel like a continuation of the chansons and there's almost something of a canon at work, whereas in the Furioso it's much more classical and the characters feel much more divorced from the chansons.
Also big shoutout to Jo Ann Cavalo's stuff on Boiardo, she makes the allegorical side of the episodes less opaque and I'm grateful for it.
(William Stewart Rose translation.)
Earlier review: I think it's a crime that people still read and study the King Arthur mythos but the Chansons de Geste are more or less forgotten. I mean, I guess it's problematic and it encourages the wrong sort of right wingers when they fight Muslim caricatures in Chanson de Roland, but here he tames giants and travels the world. The Saracens aren't even evil so much as just on the other side, Boiardo and later Ariosto could admit that brave knights could serve either side. It just stinks that no one remembers Roland. (Charles Stanley Ross translation.)
The maneuvering of the Saracen kings was more interesting and coherent this time around, though it's still funny that they go from being kings leading armies to knights errant on solitary quests as the author finds appropriate. Reminds me of that renaissance criticism of the gestes (from Aretino? Folengo?) about how the knights are made to sleep in their boots and armour, ie that their mundane parts of their lives are neglected to an absurd degree. It's a funny hangover from the gestes.
Overall, I think I can see a bit more structure in it than the Furioso, though I'm due for a re-read of that too. Certainly it feels like it retains more of a connection to the chansons de geste, where these characters feel like a continuation of the chansons and there's almost something of a canon at work, whereas in the Furioso it's much more classical and the characters feel much more divorced from the chansons.
Also big shoutout to Jo Ann Cavalo's stuff on Boiardo, she makes the allegorical side of the episodes less opaque and I'm grateful for it.
(William Stewart Rose translation.)
Earlier review: I think it's a crime that people still read and study the King Arthur mythos but the Chansons de Geste are more or less forgotten. I mean, I guess it's problematic and it encourages the wrong sort of right wingers when they fight Muslim caricatures in Chanson de Roland, but here he tames giants and travels the world. The Saracens aren't even evil so much as just on the other side, Boiardo and later Ariosto could admit that brave knights could serve either side. It just stinks that no one remembers Roland. (Charles Stanley Ross translation.)