PERSPECTIVES ON THE DIVINE COMEDY

by Thomas G. Bergin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1967

These three lectures, delivered at Yale University's bicentennial celebration, comprise an admirably concise and readable survey of Dante's great work. In a short space, Professor Bergin discourses with erudition and wit on the plan of the Comedy, on its ingredients and proportions, and, in a final and highly original chapter of synthesis (appropriately entitled ""Whose Dante? Which Comedy?""), on its various meanings--both those intended by Dante and those attributed to it by its critics. It should be emphasized that this is not an ""introduction"" to the Divine Comedy of the kind usually intended for the undergraduate who may be expected to approach medieval literature more or less tabula rasa; it is instead an analytic and synthetic work of retrospective thought, intended for the reader already familiar with the broad lines of the Comedy. On the whole an interesting--even a delightful--addition to the literature of the subject, and one which may, by reason of its eminent readability, be recommended to the general reader as well as to the student of Dante.

Pub Date: March 1, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rutgers Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION