Dante

Penguin Lives

by R.W.B. Lewis

Dante traces the life and complex development - emotional, artistic, philosophical - of this supreme poet-historian, from his wanderings through Tuscan hills and splendid churches to his days as a young soldier fighting for democracy, and to his civic leadership and years of embittered exile from the city that would fiercely reclaim him a century later.
Lewis reveals the boy who first encounters the mythic Beatrice, the lyric poet obsessed with love and death, and the grand master of dramatic narrative and allegory, as well as his monumental search for ultimate truth in The Divine Comedy. It is in this masterpiece of self-discovery and redemption that Lewis finds Dante's autobiography - and the sum of all his shifting passions and epiphanies.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Italy, Literature, Poetry, Medieval

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis was an American literary scholar and critic who won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1976.

Reviews

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Litsy: "A pretty edition and a nice writer, but there‘s not much here. Bibliography is thin, and it devolves into a chapter by chapter Schmoopy book report of the Comedia. Maybe I would have liked it better if it was the first book I had read on Dante. (side note - never thought of reading the bibliography first. Maybe I should do that more often. Here it‘s four not-really-filled pages.)"

That maybe says enough. I'll add that on a good note he filled in/clarified some biographical details, left some sense of Dante's neighborhood, his experience as military man in the cavalry in a couple battles, his role in Florence, as a leader given weight from opposing forces, his personal relationships with poets, his life traveling and settling post-exile, and a little about his sons and descendants. Lewis tried to give a sense of Dante's influence on 19th and early 20th-century poets, but it felt recycled. A lot of the book's information felt recycled, as in he is reporting other's research without really being intimate with the "raw data" behind it. The slim bibliography hints at that being more than a feeling.

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54. Dante : A Life by R. W. B. Lewis
published: 2001
format: 205 page paperback
acquired: Library
read: Nov 3-9
time reading: 5 hr 45 min, 1.7 min/page
rating: 3

[Alex Kartelias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this just to get a more broad summary of his life for the context of his Divine Comedy. The details can get trivial, but still an excellent book: may Dante's legacy live on.

[Margaret Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a gentle literary biography of Dante. I've been trying to get up to speed on medieval European literature (oddly enough that's part of my job), and this helped me understand Dante's context and writing. There were parts that were repetitive-- reminders that didn't need to be there, but in general a pleasant way to find out more about Dante. Also same narrator as the BOT Name of the Rose, so made total auditory sense.

[Michael Bagnoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice little introduction to Dante’s life and work. Lewis incorporates quotes from his writing throughout the biography which reflect some aspect of his life. I don’t think I can yet fully understand the context of his life but I am certainly more interested now.

[Tim Nason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️ Very readable short biography with clear historical context. Nice emphasis on Dante’s Vita Nuova as a first testament of Dante’s enduring love for Beatrice, the quintessential girl next door who is betrothed to someone else. Much of the book usefully summarizes the Commedia. Somewhat less useful are scattered references to Dante’s influence on Browning, Longfellow, Eliot and Robert Penn Warren. A better critical analysis would explore the nature of infatuation becoming an all embracing creative enterprise (the artistic muse phenomenon). Also, I would love to read a feminist take on this topic and on Dante’s writing. While Dante revered Beatrice, who died young, he was also married, had children, and adored other women.

[Ronald]

I decided to read this in preparation for reading Dante's Divine Comedy. While much of it would have been better appreciated if I was able to read Italian even if I didn't understand the language. it still was beautiful sounding when I read parts aloud to what I hoped was close to correct.

The book told Dante's story both as a biography and also as a story of the Comedy with Dante being led by Virgil through the Inferno and Purgatory and then Beatrice through Paradise. It gave me enough background that I think I am ready to tackle the Comedy itself.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good short biography of Dante, including a modicum of historical context, and a large measure of interpretive work of his literary works--most especially the Comedia. Especially interesting to me is the summary of Dante's influences, up into the present day. I hadn't realized the debt of Eliot to Dante was so profound.

[Susan Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

supremely useful

This book was recommended by Professor Henry of the 100 Days of Dante project as a readable biography.

It is a valuable resource for disentangling some of the historical and political events the Comedy makes use of. Strongly recommended.

[Benjamin Armus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely little biography that allows Dante’s oeuvre to shine, and doesn’t try to pack too much contextual information around the poetry.

[Matthew Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat of a challenging book to read. There were many names and places that were introduced, but many of them lacked a concrete attachment to the story of Dante. The author would then reference these people and places many chapters ahead and it would be difficult to remember what role they played in Dante’s story. However, it was a very insightful glance into a man’s life that we probably do not give enough credit to today. The influence of his works to renowned must not be understated. Examining The Divine Comedy and the role it played on renowned authors such as T.S Eliot and others was incredibly fascinating. Reading the author’s account of Dante’s life in the late 13th and early 14th century almost felt like a fantasy. It was incredible how his writing grew and changed throughout his life and experiences, and how he soon began to focus on divinity, love, and Florence as his central themes.

[Menno Beek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vrij zakelijke, korte biografie van de grote Itailaan. Ondanks de aanpak met de grote en historische lijnen, opvallend en plezierig genoeg wel hier en daar fijnzinnige verwijzingen naar hoe T.S, Eliot in zijn gedichten op de Comedia reageerde, een onderwerp dat me toevallig bezighoudt.

Om Dante in zijn tijd te plaatsen, handig, en om weer zin te krijgen na al die jaren de Comedia weer eens opnieuw te lezen - zeker als men ent een mooie versie in terzia Rima in de kringloop vond - is het ideaal.

En geweldige omslag overigens. Vertelt ook een heel verhaal.

[Bardfilm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid but uninspired. And a bit uninspiring, come to think of it. The first part nicely takes us through history, illustrating it with the people mentioned in The Divine Comedy. I appreciated that because it shows us the chronology of actual history instead of encountering these people in the chronology of The Divine Comedy. The second part mainly walks us through The Divine Comedy, which is necessary—but not at such length.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other people have commented on the dense detail of the book but if, like me, you get some enjoyment from that kind of writing then it won't be a problem.

it really shines in the side by side comparison of contemporary figures and how they are portrayed in dante's writings. i was very moved by the analysis of the glance shared between Dante and Beatrice towards the end of paradiso.

[Mary Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and concise biography of the great Italian Poet, Dante. It makes clear the strong values and ideas that moved Dante, without getting bogged down in the many facts of historical names and places. Having read The Divine Comedy and some background about Dante, I enjoyed and learned so much from this compact biography of such a brilliant man.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to love Dante as I read and re-read his works of literature. The man is a genius! I loved being exposed to truth so artfully presented. This is a fantastic biography. It illustrates the man's life and the world around him that he used and also used him.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was helpful for my fresh reading of The Divine Comedy. It gave me an insight into what made Dante tick, and write. It also gave me a decent summary of the Comedy. But the author himself was not very inspiring.

Liked it.

[Karl Hallbjörnsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read recently — an interesting account of the life of a great poet.

[Czar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good overview of this dude considering that not much is known about his life in the first place.

[Nicholas Trandahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informative and pleasantly simple account of the finest and most important poet in human history.

[Kryptonian Fletch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started strong but then turned into a canto-by-canto synopsis of the Divine Comedy

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine.

[Rob Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, not a great read. Feels sometimes more like a personal narrative of the author then a bio.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book on audible and I found the narrator flat. I thought this book would give me an easier entry into Dante and his time but it didn’t work for me.

[Daniel Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rigorous, thorough and beautiful study of the life of the man and his works.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise primer on the life of the renaissance poet; recommended.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The late American-born Writer R.W.B. Lewis published a short biography of Dante in 2001. The book is a biography of Dante and a summary of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante’s Divine Comedy was very unique and very influential. Dante's biography also covers Dante's influences on both Italian culture and English literature. Lewis believes the American literary heir of Dante is Robert Penn Warren. Warren was heavily influenced by Dante (Lewis 196-197). I read the book on my Kindle The Museo Dante in the Italian city of Ravenna has hosted conferences in the languages of Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, English, and Italian (Lewis 192). Dante died in Ravenna of malaria (Lewis 190). The book includes a section of “biographical notes” (Lewis 199-202). The book contains a map of Dante’s Italy. The first chapter introduces Dante and the city of Florence at the time of Dante. The remaining chapters are about Dante's life. Chapters six and eight are about analyzing Dante’s Divine Comedy. I like the organization of the book. Lewis’s biography and Ric Burns’ documentary about Dante were fascinating to read. R.W.B. Lewis’ short biography of Dante is a well-done biography of Dante and a well-done analysis of the Divine Comedy.
Works Cited:
Basin Public Broadcasting System. 2024, March 12. “Dante: Inferno to Paradise | Preview.” Basin PBS. Dante: Inferno to Paradise | Preview (youtube.com)

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dante: A Life is an informative little biography whose focus is on the historic events surrounding Dante's life and their impact on his literary work (with an emphasis on the Divine Comedy). As a result, this works much better as a companion work to understanding references made in the Divine Comedy then a proper biography. Not much is blatantly shown about Dante the person, and the only sense we have of him as such is mostly through his reactions to events, past and contemporary.

This is important, though, since it reveals Dante as a very flawed person. In fact, one would be considered a creepy stalker if they emulated Dante's actions in today's age. The same goes with Beatrice, it seems as if in life she would have been a very normal girl that reacted to things fairly normally. She was a normal obsession for a regular guy.

Of course, something did happen: an apotheosis in the form of the Divine Comedy turned a competent poet into the Supreme Poet and Beatrice into the form of Divine Wisdom. By reading this book with the Divine Comedy, one gets a clear idea of the transformative nature of literature, and it is no longer a wonder why, without good literature, humanity is only base at its best.

[Evan Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jay Jacoby, a man whose literary tastes I greatly value and a medievalist no less, told me to read this before I tried reading the Divine Comedy. I am very glad that I started here. The author has a knack for being concise yet also packing in a lot of good information. What became clear through reading this book is that Dante was an incredibly well read man, who poured years of study and thought into the comedy. So beyond the poetic beauty of the work, there are references upon references to understand in order to truly value the work. Lewis' work makes doing that a little bit more manageable in this work.

I suppose you can say that he did his job well if he makes you want to read Dante himself, and he certainly did that. But overall, I respect this writer's work because he fuses history, literary criticism, history, and other genres into one well-coordinated piece of writing. I would certainly read some of his other works as well.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #21 in the shelf experiment

Re-started Feb 12th, 2024

A short but intensely packed bio, teeming with names, anecdotes, historical facts, events and figures. All serve the purpose of shedding a little light on the Florentine poet, his life and his work. It's exhausting at times and difficult to track as his life story isn't told chronologically by his biographer.

Overall, what I can take away is that many facets of Dante's life are represented in his seminal work The Divine Comedy and to truly understand the man one must be deeply knowledgable about it. I'm going to tackle it soon and if it has an impact I may come back and read this again. Until then, I'm simply walking away from this deeply academic work with the understanding that tribalism and corruption ruled in Dante's day, which, he seems to have ultimately eschewed.

[Shainna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked this book better if I hadn't expected it to just be a biography.

This is part biography, part history, and part commentary on the Divine Comedy.

There were repetitive aspects to the commentary that I didn't think added to the biography. The history was a bit convoluted as people were mentioned and then immediately explained for a ways before going back to the original point of the section. This would have been fine, except that the people didn't really matter that much when first explained and when they were important, there was no reminder of who they were except "as mentioned above".

The biography itself was fine, enjoyable and if the author had stayed with a simple biography, I would have given the book a higher rating.

I would suggest this to people who have a vested interest in Dante.