James Burge
The Skill of the Showman
Dante: The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man
By Barbara Reynolds
I B Tauris 466pp £20 order from our bookshop
Underlying Barbara Reynolds’s book is a big idea: that Dante’s Divina commedia was written with the intention of entertaining an audience. To some readers this may seem blindingly obvious – why else would someone write the fictional story of one man’s journey across the universe? But in the context of a book about Dante it is a refreshing observation. Entertainment is frequently the first casualty of scholarship and, to read many books about him, you would think that his great work was either a textbook on philosophy in the late Middle Ages or well-intentioned political observation wrapped up in arcane code (it does, of course, contain elements of both these things, but then that is genius for you).
Barbara Reynolds has studied and taught Dante for most of her life – she completed the Penguin translation of the Comedy after the death of Dorothy L Sayers. This volume, which comprises both a biography and a summary of the major works, is really a vehicle for the observations and
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Empathy is our moral portal gun, and it jams from underuse.'
Don Paterson on Portal 2, catching Covid on the Eurostar, and rereading Ian Hamilton’s 'Against Oblivion'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/portal-agony
'Few people ... have ever taken Bunting, in his deep strangeness, as representing anything or anyone beyond himself.'
@nemoloris on Basil Bunting, the 'demon of delinquency'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/long-road-to-briggflatts
'Most national anthems start at the top and find their place with the people ... few come from the people and find their place at the top, though I still live in hope for "Sunshine on Leith".'
Robert Colls on how 'Jerusalem' became our unofficial anthem.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/o-clouds-unfold