In Orlando furioso, Ariosto describes a very lively world full of knights and wizards in which the reader can resort to his/her own imagination. It has always been a major source of inspiration (for Vivaldi's operas or Ingres’ paintings), and centuries after Ariosto's death, Orlando furioso is still inspiring multiple media, such as fantasy novels, comic books and even a movie adaptation...

Ariosto's new adventures in novels

Some writers are really fascinated by the epic world of Ariosto as they are trying to give it a second life in their own novel, and to draw near the universe of the Italian author. In the American novel The Castle of Iron written by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, the hero Harold Shea - a psychologist traveling to several magical worlds which coexist with our own - discovers the Universe of Ariosto 's Orlando furioso.