To approach any classical work — and Dante’s Commedia is no doubt one of the classical works of all Western civilization — requires guidance. Beyond those first couple of (hopefully) enchanting encounters with a great work of literature, one needs at least some kind of assistance. Dante in Love, by A.N. Wilson, is the kind of aid that can go a long way in bringing the reader toward a more nuanced, rich and rewarding experience of Dante’s great poem.
Treating the reader with a tone of respect and cordiality, Wilson writes in the first chapter that he has written this book for those who have approached Dante but stopped short of taking in the whole Commedia. Though not a Dante scholar, as Wilson concedes right away, his long-time interest in Dante and his great poem has resulted in decades of study. It has also given him — perhaps most importantly for this book — a knack for understanding what is required in order for an eager, intelligent reader to fruitfully engage with Dante. Indeed one of the great merits of the book is Wilson’s knowledgeable, yet personal, manner of writing. He has been in the shoes of one eager to better know Dante, and he is here to help.
Wilson covers a tremendous amount of ground in his book. He writes that “[A]s your travel guide in unfamiliar terrain, I know that my work will be difficult. The greatest of all European poems cannot be understood unless you familiarize yourself with the Europe out of which it came.” This line of counsel should be heeded seriously, for Wilson does indeed bring us not only into Dante’s inner-world but the world of 13th- and 14th-century Europe in which he lived.
This means covering a lot. It means learning of Beatrice, the childhood love that shook his world, and the many profound and everlasting influences she had on Dante’s life. Wilson describes Dante as seeing Beatrice as someone with “cosmic significance.” It means also learning of Dante’s Florence and the cultural and historical milieu which deeply affected his thought. Central to this is an understanding of the intricate politics wrapped up in the long-time factions of the Ghibellines and Guelfs. Dante sided with the latter — the clan which supported, generally, the Papacy. But the matter is not so simple as that. Dante, as Wilson points out a number of times, was prone to changing his views. This can make things a bit confusing at times, but Wilson confidently guides us as we learn more and more about Dante’s political stances and why the shifts in his thought occurred (at least in those cases in which we are rather confident).
Indeed Dante, as with perhaps every great artist or thinker, leaves mysteries behind. We don’t know the all the inner-workings of Dante’s mind nor the precise raison d’etre for Dante’s other, smaller works like the De Vulgari Eloquentia and Il Convivio. Why, for example, in the latter, does Dante seem to place such great emphasis on Lady Philosophy when it was Beatrice who held center stage in the Vita Nuova? Wilson explores this “literary puzzle” as well as others, like why certain figures in the Comedy are placed where they are (e.g., Brunetto Latini in Hell rather than Heaven).
The final chapter of Dante in Love provides an overview of the reception of Dante’s work. It’s a wonderfully informative chapter and the perfect chance to step back and reflect on the journey Wilson has taken us on. We learn of the sharp difference between Dante’s reception in the Renaissance and in his own times. The Comedy is a work which has meant different things to different people and different ages. This is something we should always bear in mind. And indeed Wilson uses this chapter to consider not only how we in the 21st century will read Dante, but how each of us — as individual readers — might take him into our lives. It is one of Wilson’s great hopes with this book to provide the necessary tools and foundations for engaging with Dante’s magnificent poem. On this level, and many others, he succeeds tremendously.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (October 25, 2011); 400 pages.
Spectatio 