Giovanni Boccaccio: The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta Sent by Her to Women in Love: (9 Studies in Italian Culture Literature in History)

The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta is narrated by a woman who recounts her love affair with a young man she calls Panfilo and his betrayal of her. Medieval works depict courtly love as a disease suffered by upper-class men; the Elegy depicts the process of falling in love from the woman's point of view. It is important both in its own right as a literary work and because of its authorial feminism; Boccaccio makes us appreciate both the folly of the narrator and the treachery of Panfilo and (by extension) of all men. In addition, it is a precursor of the psychological and epistolary novels and is of importance in the history of prose fiction.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Authorial feminism in medieval texts; love poetry and prose narratives; obsessive love; autobiography; psychological novel.

About the Author :
The Translators: Roberta L. Payne is an adjunct assistant professor of English at the University of Denver. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Denver in 1986. She is the author of The Influence of Dante on Medieval English Dream Visions (Peter Lang, 1988). Alexandra Hennessey Olsen is Professor of English at the University of Denver. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977. She is the author of numerous articles and four books, including Speech, Song, and Poetic Craft: The Artistry of the Cynewulf Canon (Peter Lang, 1984) and Between Ernest and Game: The Artistry of the Confessio Amantis (Peter Lang, 1990).

Review :
Professors Payne and Olsen have undertaken the formidable task of translating into English a lesser-known although influential and important work by Giovanni Boccaccio. The principles of translation which they chose to follow have allowed them to render Boccaccio's difficult, rhetorical prose into extremely readable, modern English. (Ralph A. DiFranco, University of Denver) This exquisite modern translation of Boccaccio's 'Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta' by Roberta L. Payne and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen accomplishes precisely what it has set out to do: that is to render readable Boccaccio's refined and ornate prose fiction for an undergraduate and general audience, while retaining the turbulent quality of the 'weeping pen' which directed its narration. (Roberta K. Waldbaum, University of Denver)