Masterwork Studies Series: The Divine Comedy (Twayne's Masterworks Studies) [Hardcover]

Marguerite M. Chiarenza (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Twayne Publishers; 1 edition (March 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080577985X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805779851
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,070,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Often insightful, but has structural and stylistic problems, November 11, 2004

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Masterwork Studies Series: The Divine Comedy (Twayne's Masterworks Studies) (Hardcover)

This fairly slender volume is intended as a student's guide to Dante's COMEDY. When I reread INFERNO and read for the first time both PURGATORY and PARADISE, I read Chiarenza's and Joseph Gallagher's guides. I learned a good deal from both books, but I have serious doubts about the appropriateness for students or beginners. While Gallagher is immensely insightful, well-written, and superb at making Dante clear and accessible at every point, Chiarenza writes in a style and organizes the commentary in way that makes Dante somewhat opaque. I ended up reading Gallagher interchangeably with Dante, reading his commentary on each canto and then Dante himself. After I would finish the entire section of the COMEDY (e.g., PURGATORY), I would then read Chiarenza. While this method worked well for me, it is hard to imagine that many students would get much help from Chiarenza alone, or at least would not benefit much without knowing something about Dante ahead of time. This is not to say that this book is without merit; it is merely to say that it fails somewhat as an introductory work.

Some of the problem of the book is style. Although the difficulties of reading Dante are sometimes exaggerated (indeed, of the "classic" writers, he is remarkably immediate to the reader, especially in INFERNO), there are impediments to reading Dante-historical distance, changes in the shared cultural heritage, alterations in religious orientation-that a good introduction will need to address. Chiarenza does this, but in a style that frequently creates barriers of its own. She is not a especially accessible writer. One has to work at working through her sentences, her paragraphs, and sections. There are frequent insights into Dante, but she doesn't lead the reader into the heart of Dante as Gallagher does in his remarkable work. I want, however, to emphasis that the problem in this book is not created merely by comparison to Gallagher's: it is there at the heart of the work regardless of what other writers have done with Dante. So the first problem is that the book is not stylistically clear and the second is that it doesn't take one immediately into Dante's text. The third problem is that the content seems less introductory in nature but more general reflections on some key concepts in Dante. In the end, I think most of the book's problems are structural and stylistic.

Nonetheless, this book does contain a great deal that someone who has more than a cursory knowledge of Dante can benefit from. I think it would be a fine book to read when rereading Dante, and I'm certainly learned much from reading it. She clearly knows Dante's work quite well, and if she does not always write well about her encounter with Dante, the quality of the insights shows that she has struggled to understand his work.

So, I can recommend this book to readers of Dante, but I do not recommend it as a first work on the COMEDY. For that Joseph Gallagher's A MODERN READER'S GUIDE TO DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY will remain the work of first choice. Bu for those familiar with Gallagher, they might want to consider looking at this work as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dante's great spirit made grippingly compelling -, June 4, 2003

By 

richardpinneau.com (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Divine Comedy: Tracing God's Art (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) (Paperback)

Being long lost in Shakespeare's genius, I've yet sensed that I needed sometime soon to delve even another 300 years back into literary history and bless myself with some appreciation of Dante. And yet, despite reading observations from numerous wise perspectives that Dante's insight, vision and creative genius were rivals to Shakespeare... getting myself up to sufficient speed on the historical, literary, and religious context of The Divine Comedy was too daunting.

Professor Chiarenza's finely written little volume has proved just what I needed to help inspiration overcome inertia. Brief background chapters offer an interesting survey of 1) Historical context, 2) The Importance of the Work, and 3) Its critical reception. Then she devotes a chapter each to Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. A pleasingly written explication of the complex dynamics of each afterlife realm offers refreshing clarity without overwhelming the newcomer. The author's ability to present the grandness of the poet's accomplishment conveys her love for the material without reducing herself to mere emotional gushing - offering the reader a sense of real reverence for this artist and his art that reminds me of Helen Vendler's ability simultaneously to inspect and respect creative greatness.

The spiritual height to which Dante reached in order to wet his quill with inky grace comes strongly through in this sensitive survey.

Although out of print at the moment, if found in a used copy, this volume will bless the reader who is open to develop or expand an appreciation of Dante. Highly recommended.