Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Dante Alighieri (Author), Mark Musa (Translator), Dante Alighieri (Author)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: June 10, 1999

Vita Nuova (1292-94) is regarded as Dante's most profound creation. The thirty-one poems in this, the first of his major writings, are linked by a lyrical prose narrative celebrating and debating the subject of love. Composed upon Dante's meeting with Beatrice and the "Lord of Love," it is a love story set to the task of confirming the "new life" this meeting inspired. With a critical introduction and explanatory notes, this is a new translation of a supreme work which has been read variously as biography, religious allegory, and a meditation on poetry itself.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Cervigni and Vasta have reedited and translated Dante's autobiography under the influence of Paul Ricoeur's theories of temporality and narrative. They delete the chapter and paragraph divisions of Michele Barbi's standard Italian edition in order to shift the focus from the visual assumptions of our contemporary print culture to the oral assumptions of the medieval manuscript culture. The new edition of the Italian is faced with a serviceable translation. In addition to a lucid and informative introduction and appendixes on editorial matters, this version includes a concordance. While this is an important contribution for Dante specialists, the modern translations of Mark Musa (1973) and Barbara Reynolds (1969) remain the versions of choice for students and general readers.?T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"An accurate and readable translation with useful introduction and notes, very suitable for classes on "Dante-in-translation."--Steven Botterill, University of California

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192839357
• ISBN-13: 978-0192839350
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That Which Has Never Been Written of Any Woman, September 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

La Vita Nuova (c. 1293; The New Life) is the first of two collections of verse that Dante made in his lifetime, the other being the Convivio. Each is a prosimetrum, a work composed of verse and prose. In each case the prose is a device for binding together poems composed over approximately a ten-year period. The Vita Nuova brought together Dante's poetic efforts from before 1283 to about 1292-93; the Convivio, a bulkier and more ambitious work, contains Dante's most important poetic compositions from just prior to 1294 to the time of La Divina Commedia.

The Vita Nuova, which Dante called his libello, or little book, is a remarkable work. It contains 42 brief chapters with commentaries on 25 sonnets, one ballata, and four canzoni; a fifth canzoni is left dramatically interrupted by the death of Beatrice (perhaps Bice Portinari, a woman Dante met and fell in love with in 1274 but who died in 1290). In Beatrice, Dante created one of the most celebrated women in all of literature. In keeping with the changing directions of Dante's thoughts and career, Beatrice underwent enormous changes in his hands--sanctified in the Vita Nuova, demoted in the canzoni (poems) presented again in the Convivio, only to be returned with more profound comprehension in La Divina Commedia as the woman credited with having led Dante away from the "vulgar herd" to Paradise.

The prose commentary provides the frame story, which does not emerge from the poems themselves (it is, of course, conceivable that some were actually written for occasions other than those alleged). The story, however, is simple enough and tells of Dante's first sight of Beatrice when both were nine years of age, her salutation when they were eighteen, Dante's expedients to conceal his love for her, the crisis experienced when Beatrice withholds her greeting, Dante's anguish that she is making light of him, his determination to rise above the anguish and sing only of his lady's virtues, anticipations of her death in that of a young friend, the death of Beatrice's father, and Dante's own premonitory dream, and finally, the death of Beatrice, Dante's mourning, the temptation of the sympathetic donna gentile (a young woman who temporarily replaces Beatrice), Beatrice's final triunph and apotheosis, and, in the last chapter, Dante's determination to write at some later time about Beatrice, "that which has never been written of any woman."

Yet, with all of this apparently autobiographical purpose, the Vita Nuova is strangely impersonal. The circumstances it sets down are markedly devoid of any historical facts or descriptive detail (thus making it pointless to engage in debate as to the exact historical identity of Beatrice). The language of the commentary also adheres to a high level of generality. Names are rarely used...Cavalcanti is referred to three times as Dante's "best friend," Dante's sister is referred to as "she who was joined to me by the closest proximity of blood." On the one hand, Dante suggests the most significant stages of emotional experience, but on the other, he seem to distance his descriptions from strong emotional reactions. The larger structure in which Dante arranged poems written over a ten-year period and the generality of his poetic language are indications of his early and abiding ambition to go beyond the practices of the local poets.

The Italian of the Vita Nuova is Dante's own gorgeous Tuscan dialect, a limpid, ethereal and luminous Italian that seems as though it could have been written yesterday. In chapter XXX of the Vita Nuova, Dante states that it was through Cavalcanti that he wrote his first book in Italian rather than in Latin. In fact, Dante dedicated the Vita Nuova to Cavalcanti--to his best friend (primo amico).

Anyone who can, should definitely read this beautiful book in its original Italian, but those who cannot can still enjoy the beauty of Dante in a good translation. The book isn't as difficult or intimidating as La Divina Commedia and it makes a beautiful introduction to those who love Dante but just want to enjoy a little less of him in the beginning.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What has never been written of any other woman, March 19, 2004

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E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Genuine romance and passion is missing from most books, either fiction or nonfiction. As a result, it's hard to come across both in such quantity as there is in "La Vita Nuova" ("The New Life"), the unsung masterpiece of poet Dante Alighieri, author of the classic Divina Comedia.

"La Vita Nuova" is a series of poems and anecdotes centering around the life-changing love of Dante for a young woman named Beatrice. The two first met when they were young children, of about eight. Dante instantly fell in love with her, but didn't really interact with her for several years. Over the years, Dante's almost supernatural love only increased in intensity, and he poured out his feelings (grief, adoration, fear) into several poems and sonnets. During an illness, he has a vision about mortality, himself, and his beloved Beatrice ("One day, inevitably, even your most gracious Beatrice must die"). Beatrice died at the age of twenty-four, and Dante committed himself to the memory of his muse.

It would be a hard task to find another book overflowing with such incredible love and passion as "La Vita Nuova"; it's probably the most romantic book I have ever seen. It's brief and only includes one part of Dante's life overall, but it's a truly unique love story. Dante and Beatrice were never romantically involved. In fact, both of them married other people.

But Dante's love for Beatrice shows itself to be more than infatuation or crush, because it never wanes -- in fact, it grows even stronger, including Love manifested as a nobleman in one of Dante's dreams. There is no element of physicality to the passion in "La Vita Nuova"; Dante talks about how beautiful Beatrice is, but that's only a sidenote. (We don't hear of any real details about her) And Dante's grief-stricken state when Beatrice dies (of what, we're never told) leads him to deep changes in his soul, and eventually peace. And though Beatrice died, because of Dante's love for her and her placement in the "Comedia," she has achieved a kind of immortality.

One of the noticeable things about this book is that whenever something significant happens to Dante (good, bad, or neither), he immediately writes a poem about it. Some readers may be tempted to skip over the carefully constructed poems, but they shouldn't. Even if these intrude on the story, they show what Dante was feeling more clearly than his prose.

It's impossible to read this book and come out of it jaded about love or true passion. Not the sort of stuff in pulp romance novels, but love and passion that come straight from the heart and soul, in a unique and unusual love story. A true-life romance of the purest kind.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Prologue to the Comedy, March 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Vita Nuova, La (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I first read the Divine Comedy a few years ago and it was an overwhelming experience. Recently I reread it, this time after reading La Vita Nuova, and with that--and a few years experience--it was richer. But after reading this earlier work it was also tempting to think he wrote The Greatest Poem in History because of an unrequited crush. Hmmm, now the real Beatrice is a footnote (albeit a lengthy one) to the life of Italy's Poet. La Vita Nuova will probably seem strange to most modern readers. It's a hushed and idealized appreciation of Dante's great love. The narrative has some sublime moments and a few of the poems are truly great, but it has dull spots too and sometimes seems too much like an exercise. Still, it's Dante and a necessary read for anyone truly interested in the Comedy.