Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533)

A ripping yarn!

Ariosto's purpose, according to the introduction, was to entertain -- and he admirably succeeded.

This verse epic has everything: knights, evil sorcerers, good sorcerers, Christians, Pagans, love, lust, rape, sodomy, and even some virtue here and there.

Cross-dressing knights? Check. Visit to the Underworld? Check, followed by a trip to the moon (to recover lost wits, naturally). Gender-bending female knight who's constantly saving her boyfriend? Check and check (and mate).

There's a manipulative damsel-in-distress who blueballs each knight in turn, with each new suitor doing the dirty work of ridding her of the previous. The titular Orlando spends half the work rampaging through Europe like the Hulk, naked and unstoppable. There are so many characters in this thing that even the swords have names -- as do the horses, and possibly even a saddle or two.

Barbara Reynold's translation is a lot of fun, and a remarkably fast read given its length.… (mer)

I read the 1831 verse translation by William Stewart Rose. However there are a small number of pieces missing in that translation which i filled in using the 1591 translation by John Harrington.

Epic italian poem, featuring knights, damsels, magic and the occasional monster. Its not so much a single story as an entire library of them all mixed together. Set against the backdrop of the Moors invading France. This gives the work a lot more cohesion than other epics like the Faerie Queene.
The author does a pretty good job of reminding you who's who and whats been happening, whenever he switches characters. This helps a lot and i wasn't often confused about which character was which.
The best thing about this is the moral greyness of it all. It really is almost 'Game of Thrones' in places. Heroes lie, make bad deals to save their own skin, kill hundreds of soldiers or farmers, and in one intance tried to rape some woman who they just rescued.
I do have to say it has a LOT less attempted sexual assaults than the Faerie Queene, but a lot more consensual sex. It also has less monsters and magical creatures than than Spenser's work but i like that, it means that when things do get strange it has more of an impact.
A few of minor issues, one is the lists of famous people rammed in to the work here and there, these are only of interest to people of the day or historical scholars, but are easily skippable.
The other thing that can annoy is the structure, most of the switches between character are fine but occasionally it happens at an exciting moment and instead of hearing what happens next your forced to get through a completely unrelated plot before getting back to the action.
Also this is a direct sequel to the unfinished 'Orlando Innamorata' and while the version i read contained a quick summary of events from that work i still felt confused at the start and on occasions when it refers back to previous events from Innamorata.
Overall despite not being able to read it in its native language, its REALLY good. There's just so much in here and some of it is just the right amount of morally gray for a modern audience to appreciate. Oh and there's some kick ass females in here aswell.… (mer)