In The Liberation of Jerusalem (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 it troubled historical context and
sheds light on its narrative framework and historical accuracy as well
as its reception and
influence.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
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