La Vita Nuova (la Vie Nouvelle)

A slender volume that invented the modern notion of romantic love. Written by a young Dante in the 1290s, it interweaves prose and poetry to tell the story of his first sight of Beatrice Portinari when they were both children, and the devastating, glorious passion that followed. The narrative traces his emotional evolution from overwhelming desire to spiritual transcendence, culminating in her death and his realization that loving her had transformed his soul. This is where the western tradition of the beloved as a gateway to the divine begins. The book that prefigures The Divine Comedy, that gave Italian its first great literary voice, that made every subsequent love poem possible. For readers who believe love is worth suffering for.