Dante, R. W. B. Lewis
Dante, R. W. B. Lewis
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

Dante

Author: R. W. B. Lewis

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 5 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2001


Synopsis

In Dante, Lewis traces the life and complex development—emotional, artistic, philosophical—of this supreme poet-historian, from his wanderings through Tuscan hills and splendid churches to his days as a young soldier fighting for democracy, to his civic leadership and years of embittered exile from the city that would fiercely reclaim him a century later. Lewis reveals the boy who first encounters the mythic Beatrice, the lyric poet obsessed with life and death, the grand master of dramatic narrative and allegory, and his monumental search for ultimate truth in The Divine Comedy. It is in this masterpiece of self-discovery and redemption that Lewis finds Dante’s own autobiography—and the sum of all his shifting passions and epiphanies.
 
“Lewis has an uncanny ability to capture crucial moments in Dante’s life and development as an artist.”—Booklist

About The Author

R.W.B. Lewis, professor of English and American studies at Yale University, is the author of Edith Wharton: A Biography, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bancroft Prize. His other books include The City of Florence, The Jameses, and American Characters. He most recently was given the award for lifetime achievement as a biographer by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Daniel on November 10, 2019

From Litsy: "A pretty edition and a nice writer, but there‘s not much here. Bibliography is thin, and it devolves into a chapter by chapter Schmoopy book report of the Comedia. Maybe I would have liked it better if it was the first book I had read on Dante. (side note - never thought of reading the......more

Goodreads review by Alex on February 19, 2016

Read this just to get a more broad summary of his life for the context of his Divine Comedy. The details can get trivial, but still an excellent book: may Dante's legacy live on.......more

Goodreads review by Margaret on November 09, 2010

This was a gentle literary biography of Dante. I've been trying to get up to speed on medieval European literature (oddly enough that's part of my job), and this helped me understand Dante's context and writing. There were parts that were repetitive-- reminders that didn't need to be there, but in g......more

Goodreads review by Rob on March 23, 2018

A good short biography of Dante, including a modicum of historical context, and a large measure of interpretive work of his literary works--most especially the Comedia. Especially interesting to me is the summary of Dante's influences, up into the present day. I hadn't realized the debt of Eliot to......more

Goodreads review by Susan on December 07, 2022

supremely useful This book was recommended by Professor Henry of the 100 Days of Dante project as a readable biography. It is a valuable resource for disentangling some of the historical and political events the Comedy makes use of. Strongly recommended.......more