Dante's Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108489416)

This book is a major re-appraisal of the Commedia as originally envisaged by Dante: as a work of ethics. Privileging the ethical, Corbett increases our appreciation of Dante's eschatological innovations and literary genius. Drawing upon a wider range of moral contexts than in previous studies, this book presents an overarching account of the complex ordering and political programme of Dante's afterlife. Balancing close readings with a lucid overview of Dante's Commedia as an ethical and political manifesto, Corbett cogently approaches the poem through its moral structure. The book provides detailed interpretations of three particularly significant vices - pride, sloth, and avarice - and the three terraces of Purgatory devoted to them. While scholars register Dante's explicit confession of pride, the volume uncovers Dante's implicit confession of sloth and prodigality (the opposing subvice of avarice) through Statius, his moral cypher.

Author: George Corbett
ISBN-10: 1108489419
ISBN-13: 9781108489416
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/12/2020
Pages: 246
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2020