Description
Book SynopsisFreccero enables us to see the Divine Comedy for the bold, poetic experiment that it is. Too many critics have domesticated Dante by separating his theology from his poetics. Freccero argues that to fail to see the convergence of the letter and the spirit, the pilgrim and the poet, is to fail to understand Dante's poetics of conversion.
Trade ReviewA volume whose arrival must rank as one of the major events of Dante scholarship in recent decades… No summary can do justice to the subtlety, richness and learning of this invigorating book. * Times Literary Supplement *
Freccero writes with both elegance and authority. After reading him we know not only more about Dante and the Middle Ages, the making of poetry and the psychology of conversion, but about ourselves. I shall often return to this wise book. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
This Dante is the real right thing. Freccero is a masterly exegete with an uncannily fine ability to make his general insights blossom among real particulars. -- William Arrowsmith
John Freccero’s readings of the
Commedia achieve a power and intricacy altogether worthy of their subject. -- James Merrill
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Rachel Jacoff 1. The Prologue Scene 2. The Firm Foot on a Journey Without a Guide 3. The River of Death: Inferno II, 108 4. Pilgrim in a Gyre 5. Infernal Irony: The Gates of Hell 6. The Neutral Angels 7. Medusa: The Letter and the Spirit 8. Dante's Ulysses: From Epic to Novel 9. Bestial Sign and Bread of Angels: Inferno XXXII and XXXIII 10. The Sign of Satan 11. Infernal Inversion and Christian Conversion: Inferno XXXIV 12. Casella's Song: Purgatorio II, 12 13. Manfred's Wounds and the Poetics of the Purgatorio 14. An Introduction to the Paradiso 15. The Dance of the Stars: Paradiso X 16. The Final Image: Paradiso XXXIII, 144 17. The Significance of Terza Rima Notes Sources Indexes
