Recollecting Dante's Divine Comedy in the Novels of Mark Helprin: The Love That Moves the Sun and the Other Stars

by Sara MacDonald, Barry Craig

This book studies several of Mark Helprin s novels in terms of their relation to Dante s Divine Comedy. The authors demonstrate that A Soldier of the Great War, In Sunlight and in Shadow, and Winter s Tale substantially correspond to, respectively, Dante s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The author himself has acknowledged his debt to Dante and references to the Comedy appear throughout his works. It is not that Helprin s novels track their Dantean antecedents slavishly, or even follow the structure of the Canticles explicitly. Rather, the central arguments of Dante s three works are taken up by Helprin in his novels. In adopting Dante s essentially Platonic doctrine of mediation, Helprin s characters are fully instantiated human beings who also mediate and reveal the divine. In his engagement with Dante, Helprin affirms the core philosophical, theological and psychological arguments of the Comedy, and then modifies those arguments in a distinctly modern way. Specifically, Helprin focuses on human freedom as the necessary precondition for justice to exist, both for individuals and for societies. In the final chapter of the book, the authors turn to Helprin s Freddy and Fredericka. In this novel, Helprin both assumes Dante s argument, and then radically alters it, by pointing to the possibility of a just regime on earth, rather than one that exists merely in heaven. While accepting much of Dante s metaphysical argument, Helprin shows the virtues of liberal democracy as that form of political regime that is most able to unite human eros with eternal principles. In the end, Helprin s novels are remarkable for the way in which they advocate for ancient virtues, while insisting upon the distinctly modern liberal account of human freedom as the necessary foundation for human flourishing."

166 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

Dr. Sara MacDonald has an MA and PhD in Political Science, with a focus in political philosophy. Her research interests are diverse and include published works on Sophocles, Augustine, Shakespeare, Hegel, Mark Helprin, David Adams Richards, and the AMC television series, Mad Men.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book pairs the three parts of the Divine Comedy with one of Helprin’s books – Soldier of the Great War with Inferno; In Sunlight and in Shadow with Purgatory; and Winter’s Tale with Paradiso. Freddy and Fredericka provides a coda for a discussion of democratic virtue. A clear lucid argument compellingly rendered. The lack of academic jargon is a distinct advantage as it gives their clear analysis of Helprin's novels a universal appeal. This book can be profitably read by readers with either a light or comprehensive understanding of the books under discussion.