242 pp. / Paperback / 2009 / ISBN 978-0-7727-2051-1 / $31.95
Edited and translated by Jon R. Snyder.
Originally published in 1622, Love in the Mirror tells the unforgettable and path-breaking story of a passionate love affair between two women in early modern Florence. Despite the risk of social sanctions, Florinda and Lidia freely consent to love each other “breast to breast and mouth to mouth,” with some surprising consequences for the institution of marriage.
This bilingual edition of the play introduces the English-speaking reader to one of the most remarkable creative artists of the Baroque age, Giovan Battista Andreini (1576-1654). Actor, playwright, and son of the first great diva of the European stage, Isabella Andreini, Giovan Battista was renowned in his lifetime as an avant-garde theatrical innovator. While drawing on the Italian commedia dell’arte, his comedies go far beyond its limits in order – like Claderón, Corneille, and Shakespeare – to subvert traditional views of the relationship between art and life, representation and reality.
Love in the Mirror, which was lost from view for centuries, is here translated for the first time into a highly accessible and fully annotated English version. The volume includes a wide-ranging introduction to this experimental comic masterpiece, as well as to the life and works of Giovan Battista Andreini.
To view an excerpt of this work, please click here [PDF].
Jon R. Snyder is Professor of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written extensively on European literature, art and culture, with particular emphasis on early modern Italy, and has translated many works from Italian to English.
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Annali d’Italianistica, 28 (2010), pp. 543-546. Reviewed by Melina Madrigal.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies no longer sells or distributes books in “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series.” Starting July 2015, volumes can be purchased by individuals and institutions from the Chicago Distribution Center. Contact CDC by email (orders@press.uchicago.edu), by fax (800-621-8476 or 773-702-7212), or by phone (800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000).
242 pp. / Paperback / 2009 / ISBN 978-0-7727-2051-1 / $31.95
