Giacomo Leopardi was the greatest Italian poet after Petrarch and one of the great prose writers of the 19th century. Caught between devotion to the classical past and a sense of the impoverished present, Leopardi rejected both the Catholicism of his childhood and Enlightenment optimism. In his world, all that we love and value is illusory, and therefore to be loved the more. His existential resolve makes him the most compelling of Italian poets. J.G. Nicholls provides a translation of the complete "Canti", explanatory notes, and a selection of Leopardi's prose, keyed to related poems. Further background is provided by Nicholls's introduction and a brief biography woven from Leopardi's own words.
- ISBN10 1857546946
- ISBN13 9781857546941
- Publish Date 24 April 2003
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
- Imprint Fyfield Books
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 178
- Language English