Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics) | 
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews:
• Brilliant 24 February, 2005
Dante will remain my favorite author, ever, final, no questions asked, and though I love the Divine Comedy, it was refreshing to read something that told more of his own story: the agony over Beatrice and the trials of his own life. This is a must read for any Dante fan...understand the man behind the art...understand one of the most beautiful poets the world will ever know.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AR08H70QMVHCQ
• What Has Never Been Written Of Any Other Woman 04 June, 2008
Anyone who has read Dante's legendary "Divine Comedy" will know of his passion for a woman named Beatrice, who was his tour guide through heaven.
But that is only the tip of the iceberg, as "La Vita Nuova (The New Life)" shows in detail. This exquisite little book describes Dante's passion for Beatrice, and the emotional rollercoaster he went through as a result. This is Dante's unsung, more intimate masterpiece.
"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. Dante's feelings might seem a bit odd by modern standards, because Dante and Beatrice were never romantically involved. In fact, both of them married other people. But at the time, courtly love was considered the best, purest kind there is, and Dante's emotions are a perfect example of this.
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 passion. Not the sort of stuff in trashy romance novels, but love and passion that come straight from the heart and soul. A true-life romance of the purest kind.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1D2C0WDCSHUWZ
• Should Have Read This When I Was 16!!! 10 June, 2008
I received this book when I was half-way through the Divine Comedy because that book was so good, but based on other opinions, I braced myself with the belief that this book would not be as good. Well, I read it in three days, after I finished the Divine Comedy, and there were so many great things about this story. Simply the fact that it gave some background information on the Divine Comedy was great enough, but the lyrical prose that surrounded Dante's 31 poems was stellar in addition to the great poetry. It was not only that, because this story was something I could relate to, except for the part when Beatrice dies. The reason behind this is that, even 700 years ago, gossip was still a large part of a person's experience as a child, which is something I think all of us have experienced at some time in our lives. This happens primarily in the first half of the book and reminds me of myself when I was a few years younger, as I am 18 years old, which is why it would have been great to read when I was 16, and which is why I recommend it especially for younger readers.
***Notes on Edition***
I was a little put off at first by the fact that the translator has the summary of the book at the beginning, meaning that if you read it, you cannot really find out what happens as you read it. However, after finishing the book, I found that it was actually helpful to understand the story better, as well as to trace the thematic elements through the book, such as the importance of the number 9, and the structure of the book. It then allowed me to refer back to it if I thought I might have missed something, which I would not have noticed otherwise. Plus, the translator, Musa, has provided notes at the end for parts of the story that might be alluding to historical insights, but I did not really understand that some of the notes were just a translation into the vernacular Italian. Nevertheless, it was still a great edition. However, one criticism that I do have was the fact that Mark Musa did not translate it in a fashion that mirrored how Dante had written it, which I had become accustomed to after reading Ciardi's translation of the Divine Comedy, but this is a small complaint that should not hinder your purchase of this wonderful story, no matter what translator you choose!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3HITYFOMYXHN4
• Wake Me Up When It's Over 19 April, 2006
I LOVED The Inferno, so I approached this book with the enthusiasm of a gourmand at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Sadly, the bread turned out to be stale, the steak overdone and the desserts moldy. Okay. Now that I've run that metaphor into the ground, let's talk about Vita Nuova. I found it to be pretty darn tedious and highly melodramatic. The prose is self-indulgent and dry; the poetry, while slightly better, falls into the same camp. You just want to say to the guy--get a life! At several points during the book, Dante's fellow townspeople mock him because of his constant waterworks and woe-is-me-ing. I sympathized with them, found myself laughing at this whiny, timid little man. Dante, as he portrays himself in this book, is a bore, a sniveling, spoiled child.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1CDENKNGVOSNK
• Sweet Unrequited First Love 03 January, 2005
This is a beautiful collection of poetry inspired by Beatrice, the great love of Dante's life, even though she barely even knew him and they were never together romantically, not even as childhood sweethearts. It's also mixed in with autobiographical remembrances. Dante and Beatrice first happened to see one another when they were nine and eight years old, respectively, and didn't cross paths again for nine more years, but Dante always remembered how stunningly beautiful this girl was. Every single time he saw this woman from their second meeting on (in church, on the street, by his house, wherever else she was) he was even more and more inflamed by love for this beautiful otherworldly creature, and so began writing the poetry which comprises much of this slim but poignant volume. Dante was so madly in love that he prefaced each poem or sonnet by explaining in detail what every bit of them meant, if it's broken down into sections by theme, everything that would let him gush on and on about his beloved one even more. One of the sonnets tells about a terrifying dream/premonition Dante had about a year before Beatrice died on 8 June 1290, in the prime of her life, a dream which was so strong, real, and terrifying that he was actually brought to tears and asked by one of Beatrice's friends whatever the matter was with him. He said he'd had a horrifying vision that his lady had died, but didn't provide her name and so let Beatrice's friend believe it was some other woman he was madly passionately head over heels in love with. Shortly after Beatrice really did die, one of her brothers visited Dante asking him to write some poetry for a certain death that recently occurred. The man has disguised himself and not told Dante the details about the death in question, but he knows that this is one of Beatrice's five brothers, and that Beatrice is the dead person in question whom he's being asked to immortalise in poetry. Because he doesn't want anyone to get the wrong impression about his feelings for Beatrice, Dante goes through three poems in the quest for creating just the right one.
After the sad untimely death of Beatrice, Dante was visited by another beautiful woman who cheered him up and inspired him to write poetry again, this time for her and not for Beatrice, but very soon after this occurs he feels upset and ashamed of himself because he let another woman be his muse. The last chapter of this book contains the genesis of the idea that would eventually lead to the writing of Dante's longest and most greatest work, the Divine Comedy. Dante wanted to write a much much longer poem celebrating his great love for her and how beautiful Beatrice was, immortalising her for all time even though they were never husband and wife, lovers, or even sweethearts. It's true there's a fine line between love and obsession, but in this case whichever of the two it might have been doesn't matter, since the end result was a beautiful timeless work of art.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A62G4QX6XQVLP
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