22. Vita Nuova by Dante AlighieriMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Piangere! Sospirare! There's a great deal of weeping & sighing involved, but I enjoyed the Italian.
I thought this was going to be a book of poetry, and thus better read in the original Italian. And there are poems but there's also a great deal of prose and commentary on the sonnets by the narrator.
Dante's writing is very long-winded. He is the king of semi-colons and run-on sentences.
So for the content, I give it a 2. However this particular version, Vita Nuova: Italian Text With Facing English Translation by Dino S. Cervigni and Edward Vasta is the way to go if you want to read the original text and your Italian is rusty.
His Italian is archaic, so there's also that. I didn't read all the additional commentary that's in this volume.
It did rekindle my affection for Italian. I'd like to read something easier in Italian, some (relatively) current light fiction, maybe a YA novel, or even kid's books if you have any suggestions.
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