Excerpt from Stories From Old Italian Romance Much struck with this observation, the King dispatched messengers to Spain to inquire exactly into the bringing up of the horse. They returned, bearing word that its mother had died soon after it was born, and that it had been reared with a young ass. The King was greatly astonished to find the prisoner's opinion thus justified, and ordered that in future he should be given half a loaf of bread a day in his prison, at the royal expense. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Early Italian Love Stories But notwithstanding all that is lost in the re-telling, in a different language and at a different day, something remains, independent of both the old life and the old language, which the past has and can bestow even upon the unlettered readers of an alien country and an alien time, and that is the stories themselves, apart from their treatment and expression. Even retold their charm cannot, we are fain to hope, wholly evaporate. It is at all events possible to convey in some measure, by a simple recital of their contents, some idea of the positive genius for the picturesque in incident, episode, and surroundings, characteristic of the school to which they belong; of the blind intensity with which a single passion is painted, dominating and determining the living and dying of men and women of bygone generations; of the simple and undeviating directness of aim, good or evil, upon which the plots are constructed with such excellence of art that they seem a mere accident of instinct. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Italian Romance Writers An attempt to retrace modern romance through story, tale, fable, epic, ballad, and legend to its earliest origines in the dawn of civilization is outside the purpose of this work. Indeed, from the earliest imaginative narrative down to the tales of Daphnis and Chloe and of the Golden Ass, there was no real prototype of our novel. Doubtless the romance of the European Middle Ages, with its stories of chivalry and tales of love and adventure, was foreshadowed by the Greek and Latin epics. Those stories of the wanderings of Ulysses and of AEneas, of the siege of Troy, and of the search for the Golden Fleece. Doubtless also the Milesian Tales, recounting chiefly love in its grosser form, were the precedents of the Italian novelle and French fabliaux and chansons de geste. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Excerpt from Graziella a Story of Italian Love House hallowed by so many sacred associations. He seized the deed from the table, tore it in fragments, and wrote to the Paris publisher: I accept. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Romance of the Italian Villas (Northern Italy) Are these stories true?" Yes, true as brain and heart can make them. I have not, like Froude "attempted in cold blood to impart verisimilitude to otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative." Earnestly and without regard to the labour involved I have sought the essential truth. Returning from rambles in northern Italy, where I have been a guest, as at Villa Giusti, in Edens whose Eves have been long forgotten by their own descendants I have sought until their faces were revealed in a darkening canvas on the wall of some old palace and their lives as by flash-light by poets such as Dante, Bonifazio, or Cino. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.