Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics)

Vita Nuova (1292-94) is regarded as Dantes 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 Dantes 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.