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generalheff's review against another edition
2.0
On page three of Barbara Reynolds' book on Dante we are given the bizarre information that Dante's "cranial capacity was 1,700 cubic centimetres. The weight of his brain has been estimated as a possible 1,470 grams. These measurements suggest that his brain was above average in size and weight". Upon reading this pointless piece of information I should have put the book down (there is minimal evidence brain size correlates to IQ let alone creative ability); unfortunately for me I slogged through the remaining 400-odd pages.
And what a slog they were. Far from a portrait of "The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man" that the title proclaims, we get a modestly interesting biography embedded within a tedious summary of all his major works, with about half of this book given over to a canto by canto paraphrasing of the Divine Comedy. I cannot overstate how boring this was: I have read the Commedia (as Reynolds slightly pretentiously refers to it throughout); I also read the notes to it that explain who the obscure figures are that Dante refers to. As such, I didn't need a blow-by-blow exegesis. Rather, I had hoped - based not unreasonably on the title - to read an engaging biography of the man perhaps enriched or informed by his writing. I was particularly interested to hear how he was funded (given my total lack of knowledge of the writing profession in the early 14th century) but we only hear a tiny bit about Dante's patrons all the way near the end in chapter 42. In short, instead of giving me more information on Dante the writer ("the Man" etc etc) what I got was an undergraduate textbook.
Unfortunately, Reynolds does not really succeed in delivering a coherent or convincing reading of Dante's works either. Firstly, we are promised significant "discoveries" on the "veltro and the DVX, the first a prophecy by Virgil, the second by Beatrice, of a leader who was to bring peace and order to the world .... by keeping an open mind I have almost by accident, hit upon what I consider are the solutions to both conundrums." Inevitably, for conundrums that have lasted "seven centuries" any novel solution now is highly unlikely to be clearcut otherwise it would have been stumbled upon already. In particular, the 'resolution' of the DVX proposed by Reynolds (essentially that it links to the line number in Inferno of the first prophecy, the veltro) seems to my unacademic eyes less than groundbreaking. But with such lofty promises it is hard not to feel a little let down when you do eventually reach these "solutions". I actually appreciate the boldness to say something new on an old topic but it is ultimately something of an anticlimax.
While this issue at least stems from an attempt to be innovative and novel - and is certainly laudable for that - my next problem with this work is much less so. The author is vastly over attached to her subject and speaks too often, too hyperbolically of the Florentine author. For example, we are routinely treated to descriptions of fairly common literary devices as if they were revelatory. One such instance is in Inferno: "The choreography of these transformations is masterly. Five thieves are identified, all Florentines [list of names]. Hearing the name of one of them, Dante signals to Virgil to listen, laying a finger on his lips, dal mento al naso ("from chin to nose"), a glimpse of a gesture as vivid as if made before our eyes, probably made by the reader, perhaps Dante himself." Is this really such a "vivid" gesture worthy of comment? Such praise of trivial aspects of Dante's verse abounds in this book and gets fairly ridiculous at times. The insistence on quoting the Italian (even for something where the aural effect as here is not relevant) grated after a while, no more so than when no translation was offered.
What makes the unabashed hero-worship of Dante so much more galling is when Reynolds accurately points out a lapse on the author's part but in almost the next sentence still claims he can do no wrong. The best example of this is in Reynolds' criticism of Dante for the vulgar, totally out of character final words given to Beatrice. These are a searing rebuke of the papacy and Pope Boniface VIII in particular which, in Reynolds' words, are "in strident and inexplicable conflict with the idealisation to which [Beatrice's] persona has so recently been exalted." Yet having just called Dante out for this, barely half a page later in describing how Beatrice departs in a symmetric manner to Virgil at the close of the Purgatorio, Reynolds gushes how "this master stroke of balance is once again evidence of the perfect control Dante the writer had over the structure of his narrative. Despite his many misgivings as to the inadequacy of his powers of expression, this he never loses". Having just given Beatrice inappropriately vituperative final words, this is unfortunately ill-timed praise.
Ultimately, Dante: the Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man, is not the book it claims to be. It is a study guide to Dante's works and not an examination of the man himself. As a study guide, Reynolds deserves plaudits for attempting to bring new ideas to what, I can only assume, is a slow moving field (the study of a venerated writer who has been examined forensically for over 700 years). But her almost comical over-effusiveness ultimately veers from charmingly enthusiastic to slightly comic to, in the end, occasionally self-contradictory.
And what a slog they were. Far from a portrait of "The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man" that the title proclaims, we get a modestly interesting biography embedded within a tedious summary of all his major works, with about half of this book given over to a canto by canto paraphrasing of the Divine Comedy. I cannot overstate how boring this was: I have read the Commedia (as Reynolds slightly pretentiously refers to it throughout); I also read the notes to it that explain who the obscure figures are that Dante refers to. As such, I didn't need a blow-by-blow exegesis. Rather, I had hoped - based not unreasonably on the title - to read an engaging biography of the man perhaps enriched or informed by his writing. I was particularly interested to hear how he was funded (given my total lack of knowledge of the writing profession in the early 14th century) but we only hear a tiny bit about Dante's patrons all the way near the end in chapter 42. In short, instead of giving me more information on Dante the writer ("the Man" etc etc) what I got was an undergraduate textbook.
Unfortunately, Reynolds does not really succeed in delivering a coherent or convincing reading of Dante's works either. Firstly, we are promised significant "discoveries" on the "veltro and the DVX, the first a prophecy by Virgil, the second by Beatrice, of a leader who was to bring peace and order to the world .... by keeping an open mind I have almost by accident, hit upon what I consider are the solutions to both conundrums." Inevitably, for conundrums that have lasted "seven centuries" any novel solution now is highly unlikely to be clearcut otherwise it would have been stumbled upon already. In particular, the 'resolution' of the DVX proposed by Reynolds (essentially that it links to the line number in Inferno of the first prophecy, the veltro) seems to my unacademic eyes less than groundbreaking. But with such lofty promises it is hard not to feel a little let down when you do eventually reach these "solutions". I actually appreciate the boldness to say something new on an old topic but it is ultimately something of an anticlimax.
While this issue at least stems from an attempt to be innovative and novel - and is certainly laudable for that - my next problem with this work is much less so. The author is vastly over attached to her subject and speaks too often, too hyperbolically of the Florentine author. For example, we are routinely treated to descriptions of fairly common literary devices as if they were revelatory. One such instance is in Inferno: "The choreography of these transformations is masterly. Five thieves are identified, all Florentines [list of names]. Hearing the name of one of them, Dante signals to Virgil to listen, laying a finger on his lips, dal mento al naso ("from chin to nose"), a glimpse of a gesture as vivid as if made before our eyes, probably made by the reader, perhaps Dante himself." Is this really such a "vivid" gesture worthy of comment? Such praise of trivial aspects of Dante's verse abounds in this book and gets fairly ridiculous at times. The insistence on quoting the Italian (even for something where the aural effect as here is not relevant) grated after a while, no more so than when no translation was offered.
What makes the unabashed hero-worship of Dante so much more galling is when Reynolds accurately points out a lapse on the author's part but in almost the next sentence still claims he can do no wrong. The best example of this is in Reynolds' criticism of Dante for the vulgar, totally out of character final words given to Beatrice. These are a searing rebuke of the papacy and Pope Boniface VIII in particular which, in Reynolds' words, are "in strident and inexplicable conflict with the idealisation to which [Beatrice's] persona has so recently been exalted." Yet having just called Dante out for this, barely half a page later in describing how Beatrice departs in a symmetric manner to Virgil at the close of the Purgatorio, Reynolds gushes how "this master stroke of balance is once again evidence of the perfect control Dante the writer had over the structure of his narrative. Despite his many misgivings as to the inadequacy of his powers of expression, this he never loses". Having just given Beatrice inappropriately vituperative final words, this is unfortunately ill-timed praise.
Ultimately, Dante: the Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man, is not the book it claims to be. It is a study guide to Dante's works and not an examination of the man himself. As a study guide, Reynolds deserves plaudits for attempting to bring new ideas to what, I can only assume, is a slow moving field (the study of a venerated writer who has been examined forensically for over 700 years). But her almost comical over-effusiveness ultimately veers from charmingly enthusiastic to slightly comic to, in the end, occasionally self-contradictory.
ffirmmmino's review against another edition
5.0
Content d'avoir retrouvé la source, j'étais à la recherche de qui était à l'origine d'une rumeur comme quoi Dante était un consommateur de cannabis. Ancienne universitaire de Cambridge, Reynolds suggère même qu'il aurait pu avoir accès à de la proto-mescaline puisque des herbiers de l'époque comme le Tractatus de Herbis recensaient les effets thérapeutiques de l'aloe vera. Voir Dante à l'index, 'possibility of narcotics'.
gothicdouble's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.75
Not really a biography, more of an analysis of the commedia with relevant biographical parts added in. A lot of it just feels like summarization of different cantos
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
More of a study of his works than a straight up biography. Worth reading for the great detailed analysis.
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