Goodreads: Dantein Love
Series: None
Published: 2011
Source: Purchased
Summary: Wilson provides an account of the
social and cultural forces that shaped Dante’s world while also exploring Dante’s
concept of love and how it inspired his Divine
Comedy.
Review: By summarizing the cultural, political,
and religious forces at work in Renaissance Italy, Wilson works to expel some of
the fear that approaching Dante’s Divine
Comedy may inspire in his readers.
The work is so rife with allusions to the events and people of Dante’s
day that readers can find themselves feeling as lost as Dante in that dark
wood. Do they need to understand all the
allusions? Are they missing out on some
of complex layers of the work if they merely follow the main plot? Wilson takes these concerns and, in answer,
writes the book that just about every Dante novice wishes they had.
Wilson’s explanation of the confusion he felt when
reading the Divine Comedy should make
readers feel immediately at ease with him as their guide through Dante’s
world. He knows personally the
difficulties readers will encounter and does not suggest these difficulties are
the fault of the readers. Rather, he
notes that the Divine Comedy is a
complex work—but an approachable one, if readers have the right tools. He thus jumps right in to explaining the
pertinent background information, and does not bog down his readers with more
facts than he thinks necessary.
Despite Wilson’s desire to make an extremely complex
subject simpler, however, he sometimes seems to impede his own efforts. The book does not progress in a strictly
chronological manner, but jumps around so the author can explain the effect
events will have in the future or note the differences between works written by
Dante at different times. Wilson also
interjects his historical account with a small amount of literary criticism, occasionally
diverging from the subject at hand to expound upon some facet of the nature of
love. I would not have minded these digressions
if I felt that Wilson ever truly clarified where he wanted to go with
them.
Wilson also intersperses his book with some personal
references. Some of these are fruitful,
such as the ones where he explains his own journey through Dante and thus
encourages his readers to take the plunge and experience their own transformative
reading. Others are mere asides about
his personal opinions on the current state of society and the Catholic Church. These are really the weakest points of the
book. It is easy for Wilson to criticize
the Church for such things as the opposition to artificial birth control, but
he provides no arguments for his beliefs, and they are unlikely to resonate
with anyone familiar with the lengthy, nuanced answer of the Church as
explained in Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body. Since this is a book about Dante and not a
forum to discuss the merits of birth control, such commentary seems out of
place.
Despite its flaws, Wilson’s book is an invaluable guide
to the world of Dante and his Divine
Comedy. If it does nothing more than
let readers know that they are not alone in feeling intimidated by Dante, it
will have done good. I firmly recommend
this book to anyone about to read the Divine
Comedy.
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