The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement Volume 3: On Dante and Other Writers [Paperback]

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159752493X
• ISBN-13: 978-1597524933
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the Sayers or Dante reader, July 26, 2008

By 

Peter L. Edman (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement Volume 3: On Dante and Other Writers (Paperback)

This is a welcome re-issue of a collection of posthumous talks and essays of Dorothy L. Sayers. Several chapters justify a purchase on their own merits. If you are at all interested in Dante (or think you ought to be), Sayers' insights into his work will give you tools and desire to read deeper. Her treatment of themes Dante addresses -- notably the move from love of Beatrice to love of God and the pitfalls along the way -- will be of interest to those looking for a grown-up vision of the Christian faith. Sayers' clear and jargon-free writing will also remind you of what a literary critic can accomplish who focuses on what the author actually has to say and takes it seriously.

While the book is not intended for a mass audience, a lay reader with a good general education and the time and willingness to read carefully will find it readily accessible, morally bracing, and highly profitable.

Apart from a new (short) preface and a page of errata, the book is otherwise a facsimile of an earlier edition (Victor Gollancz 1963). Readability suffers a bit as a result -- scanning artifacts make for sub-par typography, but it's not too distracting (the other two volumes in this reprint series made the transition to the new printing better). It would also have benefited from an index, which was not included in the original edition, but I suppose I shouldn't complain since at least it's back in print.

As to contents, most of them are not in print otherwise, though a few items have appeared in other Sayers collections. Here is what is inside:

(1) The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement
(2) Dante the Maker
(3) The Beatrician Vision in Dante and Other Poets
(4) Charles Williams: A Poet's Critic
(5) On Translating the Divina Commedia
(6) The Translation of Verse
(7) The Lost Tools of Learning
(8) The Teaching of Latin: A New Approach
(9) The Writing and Reading of Allegory
(10) The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil
(11) Oedipus Simplex: Freedom and Fate in Folklore and Fiction
(12) Poetry, Language, and Ambiguity

Of these, I want to note in particular chapter 3 for its excellent treatment of Dante's vision of Beatrice (as a pointer to something deeper) with parallel experiences of Traherne, Blake, and Wordsworth. Her explanation of the disappointing shift in Wordsworth's poetry--his "loss of inspiration"--is compelling.

The essay that is chapter (12) is also well worth the price of the book for its treatment of how specialized groups use the same words in ways that thwart communications between groups, and how this affects relations between, not least, theologians and scientists.