Not much is certain about Dante's Alighieri life. Everything that is known about the creator of the "Divine Comedy" is disputed. Did he have five children or six, maybe three, did he support the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor or the Pope, who was this Beatrice his poetic inspiration?__ How then a new biography and one that purports to solve most of these disputes. Italianist Barbara Reynolds of Cambridge University(retired) gives it a try in her new book: "Dante: the Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man." After a close reading of all the documents Reynolds states her case. Does she succeed? Perhaps__ but the book is speculation, an interpretation of a shadowy persona from the 14th century. If you are interested in Dante and want to know as much detail about his life as possible Reynold's delivers. It is elegantly written and Reynolds marshals all the details. The conclusions drawn from the details are another matter. This book is revisionist and demolishes the standard picture of Dante as an aloof poetic genius who created inspired poetry, instead in Reynold's view Dante emerges as a strong willed man with a political agenda.__hmm__ a supporter of a secular emperor and a disdainer of the pope. Reynolds even suggests Dante used marijuana as the engine of his poetic inspiration! Sound like a modern interpretation? Dante has been reinvented before. Most notably by the Florentines themselves who claimed he was a devil when alive and a literary genius after his death, venerating him by commissioning Giovanni Boccaccio to write a biography. During Italy's unification he was depicted as a strong political symbol for Italian unification__but then again in England he had morphed into a gentle poetic soul. Reynold's may be correct in her interpretation. She has studied Dante all her life. That's what brings particular strength to her interpretation.. Reynold's does know her Dante and she does an excellent job interpreting his writing especially the difficult Paradiso. This is a worthwhile read and also a worthwhile addition to Dante scholarship.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
BOOKS: Dante: the Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man
Not much is certain about Dante's Alighieri life. Everything that is known about the creator of the "Divine Comedy" is disputed. Did he have five children or six, maybe three, did he support the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor or the Pope, who was this Beatrice his poetic inspiration?__ How then a new biography and one that purports to solve most of these disputes. Italianist Barbara Reynolds of Cambridge University(retired) gives it a try in her new book: "Dante: the Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man." After a close reading of all the documents Reynolds states her case. Does she succeed? Perhaps__ but the book is speculation, an interpretation of a shadowy persona from the 14th century. If you are interested in Dante and want to know as much detail about his life as possible Reynold's delivers. It is elegantly written and Reynolds marshals all the details. The conclusions drawn from the details are another matter. This book is revisionist and demolishes the standard picture of Dante as an aloof poetic genius who created inspired poetry, instead in Reynold's view Dante emerges as a strong willed man with a political agenda.__hmm__ a supporter of a secular emperor and a disdainer of the pope. Reynolds even suggests Dante used marijuana as the engine of his poetic inspiration! Sound like a modern interpretation? Dante has been reinvented before. Most notably by the Florentines themselves who claimed he was a devil when alive and a literary genius after his death, venerating him by commissioning Giovanni Boccaccio to write a biography. During Italy's unification he was depicted as a strong political symbol for Italian unification__but then again in England he had morphed into a gentle poetic soul. Reynold's may be correct in her interpretation. She has studied Dante all her life. That's what brings particular strength to her interpretation.. Reynold's does know her Dante and she does an excellent job interpreting his writing especially the difficult Paradiso. This is a worthwhile read and also a worthwhile addition to Dante scholarship.
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