The Flaming Heart: Essays on Crashaw, Machiavelli, and Other Studies of the Relations between Italian and English Literature from Chaucer to T. S. Eliot (Norton Library

by Mario Praz

Here, in his own translations and in original English versions of his own, Professor Praz has gathered many important essays central to his life's work, in a continuous study of the vital currents which have flowed between two cultures, the English and the Italian. The classic writers of Italy--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso, and others--are studied in their effects on English literature.

Genres: Criticism

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Mario Praz was an Italian-born critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, "La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica" ("The Romantic Agony" 1933) - written in 1930 - was a comprehensive survey of the erotic and morbid themes that characterized European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries. He was Professor of Italian Studies at the Victoria University of Manchester, 1932-1934. He taught English literature at the University of Rome from 1934 to his retirement in 1966. In 1962, Queen Elizabeth II made him a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE).
His works of art criticism include an Illustrated History of Interior Decoration, a study on Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, and numerous essays. His last residence, an apartment in Palazzo Primoli, has become a museum, and is open for visits in Rome.