The Cambridge Companion to Dante

by Dante Alighieri

Book Overview

This 2007 second edition of The Cambridge Companion to Dante is designed to provide an accessible introduction to Dante for students, teachers and general readers. The volume was fully updated and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521427428
• ISBN13: 9780521427425
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Essential

No literary work, other than the Bible, has been the subject of (or needed) so many commentaries and notes as Dante's Commedia. If you are looking to really appreciate the poem, I'd recommend reading it first, then reading this "companion" then returning to reread the poem. Let this book be your Virgil.

Slightly dated scholarship for the penny-wise

This is an able commentary to Dante, but make sure you are clear on which edition you are purchasing: the most recent (as of this review) is a March 2007 version. Sufficient edits, insights and scholarly arguments (let's not quite call them developments) exist in the 14 years between publications to make it worth being certain what you're buying before you buy. Then again - the 1993 edition is available used for under three bucks, while the 2007 edition ranges from $25 to $50. So... choose your priority.

The Cambridge Companion to Dante - Inferno

Dante criticism has a life of its own: call it vegetable. Then again, this has been the case almost since Dante first wrote his Commedia. Though not the best text for one intending to leap into the Inferno for the first time, this canto by canto commentary, an able addition to the mountain of Dante scholarship, provides clear, interesting, scholarly help to anyone who has spent time with Dante as scholar or teacher or interested reader.

Helpful for scholars and just plain readers

This companion is an excellent guide to Dante's life, work, and thought. It is especially useful for those readers of the Comedy who want more information on specific allusions than most footnoted editions can supply. It is also helpful for an understanding of the complex political and religious turmoils in which Dante was embroiled, and which showed up continuously throughout his work.