Stories of Warriors and Sweethearts at the Holy Crusades

Book excerpt: The First Crusade to the Holy Land, transformed by the imagination and religious fervor of an Italian gentleman of the late sixteenth century. A mission of war armed protagonists, watched over by angelical and diabolical forces, interrupted by adventures, enchantments, love stories, unexpected transgressions. In Tasso’s world, dedication to a cause is always something extreme and fatal; love is characterized by unhappiness and defeat (Erminia, Tancredi, Clorinda) and the war is ferociousness without either pity or a solution.