The Liberation of Jerusalem (Oxford World´s Classics New Edition)

• The first translation since the 17th century which faithfully reflects the verse form of Tasso's Renaissance epic.
• The Liberation of Jerusalem (Gerusalemme liberata) is an epic poem concerning the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099, combining war and military action with a love theme between Christian and pagan, in which the magic devices of romance play their part.
• Hugely influential, the poem has been a source of inspiration to poets from Spenser and Milton to Goethe and Byron, composers from Monteverdi and Vivaldi to Handel, Haydn, Rossini, and Dvorak, and painters from Tintoretto to Delacroix.
• Mark Davie's introduction sets Tasso's work in the context of the conflicting pressures on the poet in the troubled world of counter-Reformation Italy, its narrative framework and historical accuracy, its reception and influence.
• Includes a Glossary of Proper Names and an Appendix on Tasso's Liberation of Jerusalem in Literature, Art, and Music.

'The bitter tragedy of human life-- horrors of death, attack, retreat, advance, and the great game of Destiny and Chance. '

In The Liberation of Jerusalem (Gerusalemme liberata, 1581), Torquato Tasso set out to write an epic to rival the Iliad and the Aeneid. Unlike his predecessors, he took his subject not from myth but from history: the Christian capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade. The siege of the city is played out alongside a magical romance of love and sacrifice, in which the Christian knight Rinaldo succumbs to the charms of the pagan sorceress Armida, and the warrior maiden Clorinda inspires a fatal passion in the Christian Tancred.

Tasso's masterpiece left its mark on writers from Spenser and Milton to Goethe and Byron, and inspired countless painters and composers. This is the first English translation in modern times that faithfully reflects both the sense and the verse form of the original. Max Wickert's fine rendering is introduced by Mark Davie, who places Tasso's poem in the context of his life and times and points to the qualities that have ensured its lasting impact on Western culture.

Readership: Readers of poetry and epic; students of Renaissance Literature, the European epic, Italian literature, comparative literature, cultural studies, background for courses on Milton and Spenser.