Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence to a family of minor nobility. He entered into Florentine politics in 1295, but he and his party were forced into exile in a hostile political climate in 1301. Taking asylum in Ravenna late in life, Dante completed his Divine Commedia, considered one of the most important works of Western literature, before his death in 1321. Clive James (1939—2019), author of the best-selling Cultural Amnesia and Poetry Notebook, was an Officer of the Order of Australia and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His writing appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
"The freedoms James takes allow him to get off some beautiful
phrases…James is a poet, doing a poet's work…[He] is also a premier
practitioner of the high-low style that became so popular in the
nineteen-twenties, notably via Eliot and Pound, which is to say, in
part, via Dante."
*Joan Acocella - The New Yorker*
"Seeking to preserve Dante's 'infinitely variable rhythmic pulse,'
James makes an inspired metrical choice…The greatest virtue of
James's translation is his gift for infusing poetry in the least
likely places…James's austere volume achieves something remarkable:
It lets Dante's poetry shine in all its brilliance."
*Joseph Luzzi - New York Times Book Review*
"An extraordinary verse-rendering—the fruit of many years' work—of
Dante's The Divine Comedy…[James] has not only tackled this Everest
of translation, but has scrambled to the summit in triumph."
*Robert McCrum - Guardian*
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