The Liberation of Jerusalem (Oxford World's Classics)

Book was in great condition

This is a good translation, but I'm not convinced that the struggle to emulate the poetic form really works -- English is just too limited in rhymes to make a translation very accurate, you have to work around the line ends too much. Ralph Nash's (not Paul) prose version is much, much closer to the Italian, though it (like all translations) falls down, particularly when it comes to the lyrical passages. However, this edition (unlike Nash's) has decent notes.For someone coming to Tasso for the first time in our time, the whole enterprise of celebrating the First Crusade is cultural trouble. The poem is redeemed by tiny flashes of humanization of the Saracens, by the sheer beauty of the scenes with the women: Armida, Clorinda, and Erminia; and Tasso's solid grip on how to tell a big story. It is a very different poem that its forebear, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which is a vast complex centrifugal beast, racing off in all directions -- Tasso almost always knows where he is going, even through the various digressions. A good accompaniment to any version of this poem would be to go online and look at the paintings the poem generated -- Rinaldo and Armida in her magic garden, Tancred and Clorinda after their fight, Erminia and Tancred, when she thinks him dead -- these scenes were wildly popular and iconic for centuries.

A real masterpiece, a master translation. Also the book publisher, Oxford, did an excellent job of presentation. In addition, the glossary and footnotes at end were very very informative and educational.

I'm somewhat prejudiced because the translator is personally known to me, but I think this translation beats Esolin's (from Johns Hopkins U Press) hands down, as well as Paul Nash'e prose version, simply by convincingly matching the versification of the Italian original. It's just the best since the first English translation (by Edward Fairfax) in the Renaissance, which however, spirited as it was, took considerable liberties in diction and meaning. Wickert is, as several published reviews point out, scrupulously faithful to Tasso's literal sense and yet is able to create a convincing facsimile of his music.

Two cantos in, and I am enthralled and delighted - Wickert's translation is magnificent! He has done English readers a great service. Haven't enjoyed an epic this much since my first time with Spenser.

One of those Epics that does not always get mentioned in every list, but very entertaining and well worth adding to your classical literature shelves! And best of all, even though taking many liberties, "Liberation of Jerusalem" mentions favorites from the Crusades, a big plus for me! They don't write 'em like this anymore!

I cannot judge the edition of the translation as I read it in Italian from an Italian edition. If you wondered where Monterverdi's famous music piece "The Duel Between Tancredi and Clorinda" comes from, here's your answer.Written in the context of Counter-Reformation christianity, around the time of the battle of Lepanto and Turkish menace, after the Italian wars, it revisits through tragic prisms of the late renaissance the familiar medieval theme of a unified christianity against an external enemy. Early renaissance optimism is over, and a dark cloud is to descend over Europe. You will find quite a few Shakespeare vibes (though the Bard was a child when this was written).No time or space here to give the fuller context--you can easily research it--but if you are into classics you need this one.

A classic, foundational ....

In the Gerusalemme Liberata Tasso sets out, and succeeds, in writing what may be the quintessential Renaissance epic: drawing obviously on Homer and Vergil he doesn't just try to match classical epic but to over-reach it. By Christianising the heroic quest he gives a different kind of moral and spiritual framework to the genre which is both recognisable and transformed.But this is no dry, dull read: exciting, dramatic and passionate, this is set during the first crusade as the Christian army besige Jerusalem and is full of heroism, love, romance and magic.Tancred's love for the 'pagan' female warrior Clorinda; Rinaldo's sexual obsession with the beguiling enchantress Armida; Erminia's own love for Tancred fill the poem with human emotion. And the fight scenes of heroic duels are quite nail-biting at points.Wickert translates this brilliantly into eight-line stanzas, and uses rhyme rhythmically and well. As with other epic poems, the best way is to forget the fact that it's poetry and simply follow the sense of the text: the rhyme then takes care of itself and adds a subtle rather than plodding emphasis and pleasure to the text.Hugely influential, this certainly influenced Spenser and Milton. But it's worth reading not just for its status within the epic tradition but as a genuinely pleasurable and engrossing story in its own right.

Thanks to Max Wickert for bringing this great poem back to life. All the grandeur, the excitement, the eroticism. The explanatory apparatus is also good. Wickert has done the English reader a mighty service. Up there with Pound.

Amazing classic that has unfortunately fallen into more obscurity than more well known epic poems. While the entire thing is amazing, once it gets to the second half it really becomes absolutely amazing. The last three Cantos are some of the best things I've ever read in my life.

I'd read this in Italian a while ago using a prose translation. I think this verse edition was actually more enjoyable. The poem itself is not the greatest epic but if you like the genre it is a pretty good example and the translation is well done.

Let me first address why this review falls short of five stars; ironically it is for the reason that makes me admire the undertaking here...the very structure of the poem. Tasso has written a classic; aping the tradition of Homer, Virgil and even drawing on Aristoto. Each verse is eight lines long with rhyming couplets ending the line. This means that sometimes sentences run over a paragraph and into the next as this structure is maintained. I also admire the translation ensuring that the very heart of the peopm is maintained. It is exquisite.But it was the very structure that put me off. By sticking so solidly to the strucutre it looses some readability and made this a huge effort to read, most especially towards the beginning. In some ways I would draw a parallel (probably the only time this will be drawn) with Crichton's Eaters of the Dead where you have to struggle through the historically accurate opening chapters in order to reach a slightly more mystical and rewarding story. A woven tale of historical truths and untruths.As a casual reader of the classics, I most prize readability, even over a gripping tale as I believe you should derive pleasure from the very words as well as the meaning behind them. Finishing this book I am glad to have done so, and also I recognise that a second reading may leave me feeling slightly warmer about it. For now, I would point others in the direction of Virgil rather than Tasso.