Orlando Furioso
SynopsisPlot
The poem follows the exploits of various knights, including the valiant Orlando (Roland), the fearless Ruggiero, and the beautiful Angelica. These characters embark on a series of quests, confront monsters, and engage in epic battles, all while navigating the complex world of courtly love and intrigue. The central theme of the poem is the love of Orlando for Angelica, a passion that drives him to madness, earning the nickname "Furioso." "Orlando Furioso" is celebrated for its poetic brilliance, imaginative storytelling, and its influence on subsequent literature, including the works of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Ariosto's vivid descriptions, witty commentary, and compelling characters continue to captivate readers and scholars to this day.
Story
About this book
Orlando Furioso is a long narrative poem by Ludovico Ariosto, first published in 1516 and revised through 1532. It is written in ottava rima, a stanza of eight rhymed lines, and continues a story begun by Matteo Maria Boiardo. The setting is a war between Charlemagne's Christian forces and a Saracen army threatening Paris, though the fighting mainly frames dozens of intertwined personal stories.
The poem follows knights, princesses, sorcerers, and monsters across Europe, North Africa, and places further afield. Orlando, a paladin of Charlemagne modelled on the French hero Roland, is consumed by his love for Angelica, a princess from Cathay. That passion turns into violent madness, which gives the poem its title. A second major thread traces the warrior Ruggiero and the female knight Bradamante.
Ariosto arranged the 46 cantos so that storylines break off and resume later, keeping many plots in motion at the same time. The work draws on Arthurian romance, classical epic, and earlier Italian chivalric poetry, mixing combat, enchantment, and satire with an ironic narrator who comments on the action from a distance. Ariosto worked in Ferrara, and the poem gives a place of honour to the Este family who ruled there.
