“This essay is not an academic ‘introduction’; it is a personal account of the way in which the author, over many years, arrived at his understanding and appreciation of Dante. It is written for those who would like to know Dante, and who must begin as Mr. Eliot did, with ‘a traveller’s smattering of Italian, and a public-school knowledge of Latin’. It traces the process by which such a reader can proceed from enjoyment of single passages towards appreciation of the whole of Dante’s work”.—Dustjacket excerpt.
