{"id":2871,"date":"2025-05-17T13:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2025-05-17T13:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:53:12","slug":"two-books-on-dante-dantes-divine-comedy-a-biography-by-joseph-luzzi-and-the-divine-comedy-by-dante-alighieri-translated-by-charles-s-singleton-introduced-by-simone-marchesi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2871","title":{"rendered":"Two books on Dante: Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Biography by Joseph Luzzi, and The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated by Charles S. Singleton, introduced by Simone Marchesi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both these books consider how Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy<\/em> has been transmitted to and through later readers but they do so in radically different ways. One explores the poem\u2019s influence on a selection of later writers and artists. The other republishes a single, historically important translation which the introduction flags as \u2018An American Voice for Dante\u2019. This republication is introduced by a scholarly introduction and accompanied by interpretative illustrations. I\u2019ll look at both books in terms of what I think they can offer non-specialist literary readers, though it\u2019s only fair to say that the republication of Charles S. Singleton\u2019s translation seems primarily aimed at specialist academic students.<\/p>\n

To take the broader study first, Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy: A Biography<\/em> by Joseph Luzzi is both scholarly and highly accessible: it offers vivid narrative, clear accounts of changing cultural contexts, clear explanations of complex ideas and a light touch in using textual detail to illuminate broad points. Illustrating the richness of Dante\u2019s work by showing how differently it\u2019s been read in different periods and what diverse inspirations artists have found within it, the author is able to zoom in on particular episodes and passages, giving enough context for them to be understood in themselves without demanding prior knowledge on the reader\u2019s part. Illuminating both the Commedia<\/em> itself and the writers it has influenced, Luzzi\u2019s ideas will interest both people who already know Dante and lovers of these other writers. Many of the latter, I suspect, will be drawn into reading Dante for themselves.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something of a shifting balance between the two kinds of appeal. In terms of their basic subject matter, chapters 1 \u2013 4 will mean most to people who already have at least some interest in the Commedia<\/em>, whether from a literary or historical point of view. However, Luzzi\u2019s gift for seeing facts and situations in terms of their concrete meaning for those involved adds a human depth that more narrowly academic studies can miss. So does the agility with which he moves among ideas and makes connections between them. For example, Chapter 1 \u2013 \u2018Inventing \u201cItalian\u201d Literature\u2019 \u2013 revolves round well-established ideas about Dante\u2019s immediate impact and about how the vastness of his achievement influenced the subsequent development of the Italian language. However, I can\u2019t remember an equally vivid presentation of the novelty and scale of ambition involved in his use of the vernacular when \u2018Basically, he sought to forge, ex nihilo, a literary tradition [of vernacular love poetry] in an \u201cItalian\u201d tongue that did not yet exist\u2019, and wrote his epic of unprecedentedly universalist scope in the Tuscan dialect rather than the Latin that would have made his work accessible throughout Europe. The decision to do this limited his contemporary readership even within Italy. In a deft application of anecdote, Luzzi tells us that \u2018as late as the nineteenth century, Milanese nobles traveling to Sicily were mistaken for Englishmen, so incomprehensible was their dialect to locals\u2019. Against such a cost, though, Luzzi sets the poetic and humane value Dante found in what he called the \u2018lingua materna\u2019: \u2018In De vulgari eloquentia<\/em>, Dante developed his views on the necessity of the vernacular by describing how poets preserve what is lasting and lovely in everyday speech \u2026he knew that no mere scholarly or \u201cdead\u201d language could capture the intimate rhythms, cadences and meanings of everyday speech and, by extension, the resonances and experiences of everyday life.\u2019 Reading this, we feel how Dante\u2019s embrace of the vernacular gave his writing its astonishingly concrete, specific power of dramatic evocation. At the same time, I think, we feel how crucial it was to the power and poignancy of his religious vision that it brought together these evocations of concrete, local and ephemeral earthly life and the eternity such life confronts.<\/p>\n

The balance changes with Chapter 5. From here on, what Luzzi has to say will draw in readers with no prior knowledge of Dante as well as being full of interest for people who do know the Commedia<\/em> itself well. Crucial to both kinds of appeal is the sensitivity with which he focuses on the artistry of Dante\u2019s work, and his ability to present it in ways that draw the reader directly into particular situations. An example would be his comments on Dante\u2019s influence on Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein. <\/em>First he shows how Victor Frankenstein\u2019s speech urging the sailors not to abandon pursuit of the monster develops from Ulysses\u2019 report of his speech to his own sailors in Inferno<\/em> 26; then he reflects eloquently and suggestively about what Shelley and Dante seem to be saying about their respective heroes\u2019 pursuit of knowledge without constraint, and the egotistical manipulativeness of their rhetoric.<\/p>\n

This comes in Chapter 5, \u2018Romantic Apotheosis\u2019. I think that\u2019s where the book will most fully catch fire for the general reader. Luzzi\u2019s own prose, lively though it is in the first four chapters, seems to glow more brightly as this and the following chapter show how excitedly Romantic writers responded both to Dante himself as a heroic figure and to the intense passions and larger-than-life characters he described in his work. Chapter 6 focuses mainly on Byron and the great Dante translator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Again, Luzzi\u2019s comments are as illuminating about these two as about Dante\u2019s poem, and his account of Longfellow is particularly moving, at least to someone who knows as little about him as I do.<\/p>\n

Chapter 7 moves on to \u2018The Modernist Dante\u2019 and a sharp contrast with the Dante of the Romantics. Luzzi\u2019s skill as a communicator appears in the ease with which he moves between lucid outlines of such larger contexts, generously illustrated by quotation, and the sensitive but lightly touched close reading of particular passages. For example, he points out how the epigraph to \u2018The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock\u2019 \u2013 a quotation from Guido da Montefeltro\u2019s speech in Inferno<\/em> 27 \u2013 uses a triple subjunctive followed by a conditional. He makes his point clear by quoting the passage in both Dante\u2019s Tuscan and English, using a change of font to isolate the subjunctives and conditionals. Anyone can feel how in its original language the passage\u2019s strange maze of sounds and slippery syntactical repetitions and its hovering indeterminacy make it unforgettable \u2013 I\u2019ve been haunted by it since studying Eliot at A Level, well before I could read Italian \u2013 but Luzzi extends this immediate sensation into a striking commentary first on how Guido\u2019s use of such subjunctives reflects his character and then on the radical expansion of such subjunctive being in Prufrock:<\/p>\n

He [Guido] is the ultimate backroom operator who sells his words and actions to the highest bidder. His language thus articulates a series of hedged bets predicated on hiding the cards he has been dealt and hopes to redistribute to his advantage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Protagonist of the eponymous poem, Eliot\u2019s Prufrock is fully a creature of the subjunctive. The poem is everywhere a disavowal of agency and direct action.<\/p>\n

So far we\u2019re dealing with a contrast of fictional characters. On this scale, as Luzzi says, it\u2019s astonishing that<\/p>\n

Dante\u2019s verse could fuel the impassioned eloquence of Mary Shelley\u2019s Victor Frankenstein as he exhorted a crew of sailors to pursue the monster and<\/em> the involuted paralysis of T.S. Eliot\u2019s narrator as he contemplates as anodyne an act as parting his hair or eating a piece of fruit.<\/p>\n

As a whole, though, the chapter offers a much larger contrast between the Romantic assertion of subjectivity, on the one hand, and Modernists\u2019 embrace of sheer poetic technique \u2013both as experimental poetics and as evolving tradition. Again the point is that the vastness and originalityof Dante\u2019s achievement make it bear very different kinds of fruit in the work of subsequent artists:<\/p>\n

In a testament to the variety of readings that Dante could inspire, the Commedia<\/em>, which had served to bolster the self in the Romantic age, became in Eliot\u2019s Modernist age a vehicle for occluding it.<\/p>\n

Subsequent chapters illustrate this fecundity in other ways and contexts, bringing us right up to modern times and the papacy of Pope Francis. Altogether, though the book is quite short it\u2019s interesting and illuminating in many different directions, the more so for presenting ideas and perspectives in a concise and suggestive manner rather than trying to nail them down too exhaustively. It has a great deal to offer, both to those who already know the Commedia<\/em> itself and to those who don\u2019t but who do have an interest in comparative literature and the processes of literary influence.<\/p>\n

If Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy: A Biography<\/em> is above all a study of Dante\u2019s artistry and the inspiration it has provided for subsequent artists, Simone Marchesi\u2019s introduction to the Singleton translation is an essentially academic presentation of its relation to earlier literary tradition and the theological ideas of its own time. Marchesi refers in vivid terms to different scenes and episodes but his references will only makes sense to readers already familiar with them. When it comes to Dante\u2019s artistic technique, Marchesi\u2019s focus is on relatively abstract considerations, like the author\u2019s implicit contract with the reader (\u2018The reading contract Dante proposes rests on a number of coordinated strategies\u2019), or Virgil\u2019s status as \u2018a metaphorical and metonymical representative of the classical world\u2019. He has very interesting things to say on such scores, but they\u2019re of a kind that will appeal to the professional or at least fairly advanced dantist. The real question for readers of the kind I\u2019m thinking of in this review will be whether or not Singleton\u2019s actual translation presents Dante in a way that will be meaningful for them.<\/p>\n

Even for someone like me, whose Italian is limited and who needs the help of an English parallel text to read much of Dante\u2019s Tuscan, there\u2019s no substitute for reading the Commedia<\/em> in the original, however laborious the process may be. Most fundamentally, this is to do with the double action of the terza rima form: as Dante\u2019s stories, situations and reflections evolve, details are framed, isolated and defined within<\/em> tercets at the same time as they\u2019re drawn into the continuous onward movement between<\/em> tercets by the rhyming of the second line of each with the first and third lines of the following one.<\/p>\n

Verse translations can at least faintly echo this effect because their line and stanza divisions focus attention on small units of meaning while the developing narrative carries us forward. If they\u2019re by poets, those details will be vividly expressed in themselves. What I\u2019d look for in a prose translation of the Commedia<\/em> is clear, sensitive and expressive evocations of scene and mood, character and idea, in a style that made each separate impression as distinct, impressive and memorable as it could be.<\/p>\n

Singleton rises to the occasion magnificently in Ulysses\u2019 last words in Inferno<\/em> xxvi:<\/p>\n

Five times the light beneath the moon had been rekindled and as many quenched, since we had entered on the passage of the deep, when there appeared to us a mountain dark in the distance, and to me it seemed the highest I had ever seen. We rejoiced, but soon our joy was turned to grief, for from the new land a whirlwind rose and struck the forepart of the ship. Three times it whirled her round with all the waters, and the fourth time it lifted the stern aloft and plunged the prow below, as pleased Another, till the sea closed over us.<\/p>\n

Here, departures from normal English word order and vocabulary give an impression of solemnity that not only lends scale to the disaster but also suggests that it\u2019s an inevitable consequence of the mariners\u2019 blasphemous approach to the island mountain of Purgatory, which is only to be reached by the judgement of God. By throwing emphasis on a series of key phrases, these departures both slow the action and create suspense as to what comes next, in an effect approaching the double action of Dane\u2019s terza rima form. Heightening grandeur of style combines with concrete vividness of detail to bring home the symbolic import of what\u2019s happening. In the wider context of the Commedia<\/em> as a whole, it\u2019s important that this moment stands out in the reader\u2019s mind, contrasting Ulysses\u2019 failed journey with Dante\u2019s successful one. At this point, Singleton has given an expressive rhythm to his prose that captures a good deal of the feeling of the original and seems almost to insist on being read and savoured aloud.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t often the case, at least on first reading. On such reading, two things make great stretches of Singleton\u2019s version seem both cumbersome and indistinct. One is the absence of the framing effect of verse that I\u2019ve discussed above. The other is that too often his archaic phrasing creates a sense of imaginative distance and his elaborately periphrastic constructions dissipate meaning. He tends to follow the ordering of the Italian in a very close, literal way that may be motivated by an idealistic desire to represent the original as faithfully as possible but that sounds stilted and clumsy in English. In a parallel text format this approach might have been useful to someone using Singleton\u2019s words as a crib to the Italian but that isn\u2019t the situation here.<\/p>\n

I said \u2018on first reading\u2019 advisedly, though. For someone who already knows the Commedia<\/em> and enjoys approaching it from different angles, deepening appreciation by seeing how differently different translators refract the original, Singleton still has much to offer. For example, in Canto 30 of the Paradiso<\/em> Dante is initiated into the light of eternity. His initiation develops through several stages. He sees it first as a blinding lightning flash, then as a river of light with sparks flying between it and its flowery banks, then in a series of further images which take him closer and closer to the ineffable heart of the celestial vision. Compare Singleton\u2019s version of six tercets describing the river, sparks and flowers with that by Robert and Jean Hollander for Anchor Books:<\/p>\n

Singleton:<\/p>\n

\u201cEver does the love which quiets this heaven receive into itself with such like salutation, in order to prepare the candle for its flame.\u201d No sooner had these brief words come within me than I comprehended that I was surmounting beyond my own power, and such new vision was kindled in me that there is no light so bright that my eyes could not have withstood it. And I saw a light in form of a river glowing tawny between two banks painted with marvellous spring. From out this river issued living sparks and dropped on every side into the blossoms, like rubies set in gold. Then, as if inebriated by the odors, they plunged again into the wondrous flood, and as one was entering another was issuing forth.<\/p>\n

Robert and Jean Hollander:<\/p>\n

\u2018The love that calms this heaven
\nalways offers welcome with such greetings,
\nto make the candle ready for its flame.\u2019<\/p>\n

No sooner had these few words reached my mind
\nthan I became aware of having risen
\nabove and well beyond my powers,<\/p>\n

and such was the new vision kindled within me
\nthat there exists no light so vivid that my eyes
\ncould not have borne its brightness.<\/p>\n

And I saw light that flowed as flows a river,
\npouring its golden splendor between two banks
\npainted with the wondrous colors of spring.<\/p>\n

From that torrent issued living sparks
\nand, on either bank, they settled on the flowers,
\nlike rubies ringed in gold.<\/p>\n

Then, as though intoxicated by the odors,
\nthey plunged once more into the marvelous flood,
\nand as one submerged another would come forth.<\/p>\n

The Hollanders\u2019 version is much clearer than Singleton\u2019s, partly for lexical and syntactical reasons and partly because of its division into lines. However, it does seem to me that the clarity comes at some cost in intensity. Singleton\u2019s first sentence \u2013 spoken by Beatrice \u2013 is clumsy in a way that almost buries the idea that it\u2019s trying to express. The Hollanders\u2019 wording has a simple beauty. However, Singleton\u2019s \u2018From out this river issued living sparks and dropped on every side into the blossoms, like rubies set in gold\u2019 seems to me a flash of the purest poetry, albeit in prose. The heightened register of \u2018From out this river issued\u2019 lends the sentence a stateliness appropriate to the exalted nature of the vision, but the moment is given piercing force and sensuous intensity in the words that follow. Where in the Hollanders\u2019 version the actions of issuing and settling are separated by a parenthesis, in Singleton\u2019s there\u2019s an unbroken flow of energy bringing together the action of the verbs and the being of the living sparks, the blossoms, the rubies and the gold.<\/p>\n

This is just one example of what I felt overall \u2013 that a reader first approaching Dante through Singleton\u2019s version would struggle with its archaic diction and often find himself sliding over important impressions because they weren\u2019t registered distinctly enough or were actually obscure, but that a reader approaching Singleton\u2019s text as a supplement to what he had already absorbed from other versions would find it full of enhancing details.<\/p>\n

Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy: A Biography<\/em> by Joseph Luzzi, $24.95\/\u00a320.00. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691156774<\/p>\n

The Divine Comedy<\/em> by Dante Alighieri, translated by Charles S. Singleton, introduced by Simone Marchesi, illustrated by Roberto Abbiati, $29.95\/\u00a325.00. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691212777<\/p>\n

I would like to thank David Cooke for permission to repost this piece, originally written for\u00a0 The High Window<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both these books consider how Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy has been transmitted to and through later readers but they do so in radically different ways. One explores the poem\u2019s influence on a selection of later writers and artists. The other republishes a single, historically important translation which the introduction flags as \u2018An American Voice for Dante\u2019. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dante"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2877,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions\/2877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}