I’m very excited by the recent publication of Dante in the Nineteenth Century edited by Nick Havely, to which I contributed a chapter.

Book synopsis

The nineteenth century saw the reinvention of Dante as a Romantic and national poet, his recognition as the canonical ‘central man of all the world’ and the Commedia‘s diffusion as a widely accessible text. Addressing these aspects of Dante’s presence during a key period of his modern reception, this collection of essays draws upon a number of papers given at the international conference ‘Dante in the Nineteenth Century’, held at the University of York in July 2008, and combines the work of established experts in the field with that of younger scholars who are breaking important new ground on the subject. It is distinctive in concentrating on the reception of Dante from Romanticism through the cult of Beatrice and mid-century criticism, translation and visual art, to the development of scholarship and popularization. The volume explores diverse nineteenth-century historical, intellectual, artistic and literary contexts in the cultures of Italy, France, the British Isles and the United States.

Contents

Nick Havely: Introduction

Michael O’Neill: ‘Admirable for Conciseness and Vigour’: Dante and English Romantic Poetry’s Dealings

with Epic

Timothy Webb: Stories of Rimini: Leigh Hunt, Byron and the Fate of Francesca

Nick Havely: Francesca Franciosa: Exile, Language and History in Foscolo’s Articles on Dante

Serena Trowbridge: ‘A Silent Heart’: Christina Rossetti’s ‘Monna Innominata’ as a Reconstruction of Dante’s Beatrice

Cristina Figueredo: Christina Rossetti’s ‘Monna Innominata’: Reflections in/on Dante

Fabio Camilletti: Ninfa fiorentina: The Falling of Beatrice from Florence to Modern Metropolis

 Alison Milbank: Dante, Ruskin and Rossetti: Grotesque Realism

Christoph Irmscher: Reading for our Delight: Longfellow and Francesca

Aida Audeh: Rodin’s Gates of Hell and Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Literal and Allegorical in the Paolo and Francesca Episode of Inferno 5

Guyda Armstrong: Nineteenth-Century Translations and the Invention of Boccaccio-dantista

Spencer Pearce: Dante and Psychology in the Late Nineteenth Century

Elena Borelli: Dante between Darwin and Freud: Giovanni Pascoli’s Dantean Writings

James Robinson: Purgatorio in the Portrait: Dante, Heterodoxy and the Education of James Joyce

Anne Laurence: Exploiting Dante: Dante and his Women Popularizers, 1850-1910.

You can find out more about the book here.