Marco Santagata’s Dante: The Story of His Life deconstructs the great poet with humor, aplomb, and deep learning. I have never read any book which makes such complete sense of the vital continuum between Dante the man, and the projected self of the Convivio , Vita Nuova , and Commedia … There is much humor in Santagata’s exposure of the violent contradictions in Dante’s character, all set against the background of his times. If you have a tendency to muddle Guelfs and Ghibellines, look no further than this lucid book.The Divine Comedy ], a poem considered sublime and universal, is the product of vicious factionalism and packed with local scandal…It’s the biography’s evocation of the factional world of the time and the values sustaining it that throws light on the great poem and helps us to read it with fresh awareness…Elegantly translated by Richard Dixon, Santagata’s biography avoids the quarrels among critics that sometimes dominate Dante studies.Comedy and want a more nuanced view of its place in Italian history…Santagata’s book is a catalogue of contingencies, which will both introduce the reader to the political situation of the Italian peninsula in Dante’s time and show how that context assists us in reading the poem.Comedy …The result is a remarkably innovative probing of his life and work.Dante … [Santagata] tells it with a fiercely learned calm and energy throughout… As with all first-rate author biographies, the book will propel readers straight back to Dante’s own works, which is right where they should end up in any case.vs Emperor) and the deep religious questions which underpin his work…This is a wonderful book. Even if you have not read Dante you will be gripped by its account of one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of literature, and one of the most dramatic periods of European history. If you are a Dantean, it will be your invaluable companion forever.
This biography will be most useful and enjoyable to those who already have a familiarity with the Comedy and want a more nuanced view of its place in Italian history…Santagata’s book is a catalogue of contingencies, which will both introduce the reader to the political situation of the Italian peninsula in Dante’s time and show how that context assists us in reading the poem.
New Criterion - Kyle Skinner
A superb intellectual biography of Dante.
This substantial work incorporates all the most recent Dantean scholarship. There is much to chew upon, since Dante lived at the very center of his city’s political life…Santagata, thoroughly steeped in the politics and genealogies of the period, gives the best account I have ever read of Dante in his historical context…You will never read an account clearer than Santagata’s. Nor will you read a more convincing description of how Dante changed his mind, quite fundamentally, about the political issues which confronted him (Pope vs Emperor) and the deep religious questions which underpin his work…This is a wonderful book. Even if you have not read Dante you will be gripped by its account of one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of literature, and one of the most dramatic periods of European history. If you are a Dantean, it will be your invaluable companion forever.
The Spectator - A. N. Wilson
Both specialized readers and the general public will benefit from this account of Dante Alighieri’s life as a man of letters and of political action. A welcome addition to the catalogue of intellectual biographies of Dante available in English.
It is lively and a pleasure to read.
The Australian - Simon West
Santagata has written a book that any reader interested in Dante will find absorbing, richly informative and very thought-provoking…With their well-known fondness for literary biography, [English readers] will surely be grateful for this bold, vigorous and invigorating account of Dante’s life and times.
Times Higher Education - Prue Shaw
Definitely recommended, it will make my best non-fiction of the year list for sure.
Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen
Santagata not only constructs an impressively detailed account of Dante’s actual life but uses that account to interpret and make sense of the Comedy …The result is a remarkably innovative probing of his life and work.
Times Literary Supplement - Peter Hainsworth
Full of useful information and explanations of a very complicated time, well worth reading for its bold claims and wealth of historical evidence, this book constructs a novel, strong reading of Dante as political actor.
Santagata…has written an impressive new biography that takes into consideration every bit of reliable and semireliable information available to us about Dante’s life, from his birth in Florence in 1265 to his death in Ravenna in 1321…If you are looking for the most thorough, factually based account of Dante’s life and times to date, Santagata is your man.
New York Review of Books - Robert Pogue Harrison
To the ranks of the best popular biographies of the great Florentine poet Dante Alighieri…is added Marco Santagata’s Dante … [Santagata] tells it with a fiercely learned calm and energy throughout… As with all first-rate author biographies, the book will propel readers straight back to Dante’s own works, which is right where they should end up in any case.
Open Letters Monthly - Steve Donoghue
This sumptuous volume by Marco Santagata…offers the reader a richly documented and often gripping account of the development, peregrinations, and shifting fortunes of the celebrated poet Durante (Dante) Alighieri.
Australian Book Review - Diana Glenn
Reading Marco Santagata’s fascinating new biography, the reader is soon forced to acknowledge that one of the cornerstones of Western literature [The Divine Comedy ], a poem considered sublime and universal, is the product of vicious factionalism and packed with local scandal…It’s the biography’s evocation of the factional world of the time and the values sustaining it that throws light on the great poem and helps us to read it with fresh awareness…Elegantly translated by Richard Dixon, Santagata’s biography avoids the quarrels among critics that sometimes dominate Dante studies.
London Review of Books - Tim Parks
★ 04/15/2016
