La Vita Nuova (Penguin Classics) by Dante Alighieri Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of La Vita Nuova (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: So passionate, so rich in feeling!
Summary: 5 Stars
The sonnets in this work are wonderful. They are perfect insights to a human's secret love. I was impressed that this medieval writer could express the longings of his loving heart so clearly, like he could read the words of his own heart as if it were like a glass ball. These words can really crush, yet move the soul. This is an excellent book for Dante fans and for anyone who's interested in medieval romantic verse.Book Review: That Which Has Never Been Written of Any Woman
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: mandatory for the Dante aficionado
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard not to assign 5 stars to this early work of the author of the Divine Comedy. In any serious Dante course, a professor will usually pick the Vita Nuovo as an introduction to Dante's work. The work is not at all intimidating -- rather, it's quite accessible to the modern reader. Dante, in his youth, writes a series of love tributes to Beatrice, his ultimate guide in the Divine Comedy. Anyone who is contemplating reading the Divine Comedy should start here and read this first as mandatory background to the Commedia. Dante rules!Book Review: A Prologue to the Comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
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.Book Review: La donna amata
Summary: 4 Stars
Mi ? molto piacciuto questo libro. E mi ha dato voglia di leggere altri libri di Dante. Ci sono molti simboli come quelli della donna amata, dell'amore cortese, del numero nove. Mi piaccerebbe avere informazioni supplementari.