Earlier this year, the New York Times Book Review published a review of DANTE A Life by Alessandro Barbero, translated by Allan Cameron. Considering the impact on the popularly held concepts of the Judeo-Christian afterlife that proceed from Dante’s Divine Comedy, well, this biography should hold some interest for those in the Western Esoteric current. The review begins:
“You have to pity Dante’s biographers. On the one hand, they face an archival abyss when it comes to the poet’s actual life, as even basic facts like the day he was born or the number of his children — let alone the chaotic itinerary of his two decades of exile — remain shrouded in mystery. On the other hand, the autobiographical details and dramas offered by Dante himself in numerous works, especially his epic “The Divine Comedy,” have mesmerized biographers beginning with Boccaccio for centuries, leading them down literary rabbit holes devoid of real-world certainty and inviting endless speculation that tends to burnish the legend of this ever-elusive subject. So the biographer must ultimately choose: Either hew to the evidence and ferret out whatever rare nugget about Dante’s life remains uncovered, or surrender to the genius of the work he called his “Comedìa” and try to broker a fragile peace between literary interpretation and life writing.”
Read the whole magilla:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/books/review/dante-a-life-alessandro-barbero.html.
