I was interested in this book as I am a fan of the Divine Comedy and enjoyed an exhibition at the Courtauld which included Botticelli's illustrations. I wanted more knowledge of Dante as I know little about him and never studied him or his work at school.

This book seems aimed at those who already know quite a bit about him, perhaps even a recommended text for a literature or arts degree. I found it quite dense and a bit of a chore to follow in places. It is written in a lot of detail, with a verbose writing style. I think it's a bit of a shame as the author is clearly very knowledgeable and if the writing were a little more succinct or engaging this would be an excellent read. I'm obviously not the 'intelligent person' I thought I was as much of this was lost on me. I came away knowing a little more about Dante, nebulously convinced of his value but unable to construct an argument as to why.

The tone of this book was just too dense and scholarly for me, a reader with little prior knowledge of Dante the man, or his work.

I felt somewhat misled by this book - as this was classified under biography, I was expecting an introduction to Dante’s works, and as someone who had read the Divine Comedy, I felt in a right place to begin learning more. However, what I found was more a specialist text for students who had specialised in Dante. I could not imagine commending this text to the average reader.

Usefully, the text sets Dante’s writing in his historical context, and in particular, the context of his exile. It also introduced me to the other texts in the Dante corpus - the Vita Nova and the Convivio and explored how these relate to the Divine Comedy.

There were nuggets of gold amidst the text - that the writings of Dante make us still ask what it is to be a human being, and to live well; that Dante’s theology was formed by Dominican, Franciscan and Augustinian theology; the place of despair in Dante’s thought; what it means to be a pilgrim; and the nature of the wrath of God, and repentance. Yet, even with these points, I did not enjoy the read.

It pains me to say that this text was written in a rather peculiar form of academic English, and as such was a great disappointment.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really don't know much about Dante beyond being familiar(ish) with his Inferno so I was looking forward to reading an "accessible" account of his importance.

I consider myself to be an intelligent person but this book but just so, so impregnable to me that I think it is one perhaps best aimed at Dante scholars. It's a shame because I wanted to engage with it but it was one of those books I come across every so often that makes me feel like a complete numpty so I eventually had to give up.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Why Dante Matters: An Intelligent Person’s Guide’ by John Took in exchange for an honest review.

The publisher describes this as “an accessible and entirely original view of one of the most important poets and thinkers in all of Western literature, Dante Alighieri.”

I agree that Dante Alighieri is an important poet and thinker, however I realised that I don’t have enough knowledge of his work to judge how original John Took’s treatise is. More importantly I didn’t find this at all accessible and I just felt lost.

I struggled and ended up skimming. Overall, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t the intended audience.

Due to this, I won’t post this feedback to commercial sites.

The 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death will certainly provide an opportunity for many readers to approach the great poet’s works and learn more about this major literary figure. This is what led me to John Took’s Why Dante Matters. Took is Professor Emeritus of Dante Studies at UCL and the author of a hefty biography of Dante published earlier this year. Why Dante Matters is a slimmer work although in a way, possibly more ambitious in scope, since it seeks to show how Dante’s works can serve as a guide to man’s wellbeing, even seven centuries after his demise. So, after a brief biographical introduction, Took propounds his thesis, making specific reference to (and extensively quoting from) the three main works which marked the stages of Dante’s life: the Vita Nova, the Convivio and masterpiece of his maturity, La Divina Commedia.

It is certainly an interesting approach, but one which I found heavy going. This is, I felt, a book for readers who already know their Dante well and who can therefore more easily follow Took’s arguments. I certainly don’t count myself as well-versed in the works of Dante and, unfortunately, I consistently felt out of my depth.

Growing up in Italy I studied Dante since I was a child so I was curious about this book.
There are plenty of reasons I can think why Dante matters if you can read his works in Italian but somehow this book failed to help to understand other reasons.
It's well researched but it's not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine