A riveder le stelle

Aldo Cazzullo re-writes The Divine Comedy as a novel and reconstructs Dante’s journey into the Inferno word for word, revisiting his most famous encounters, from Ulysses to Count Ugolino and the many forsaken yet great characters we have forgotten about: Farinata degli Uberti’s imposing figure, Vanni Fucci’s bestial form, Brunetto Latini’s wisdom, Filippo Argenti’s wickedness.

At the same time, Cazzullo also describes Dante’s other journey, the one through Italy, with frequent incursions into history and current events. The Divine Comedy describes Lake Garda, Scylla and Charybdis, the lost lands of Istria and Dalmatia, the Arsenal of Venice, the beauty and scandals of Rome, Genoa, Florence and other Tuscan cities. Dante is tough on his compatriots, he denounces corrupt politicians, simoniac popes, thieving bankers, loan sharks, and anyone who puts their own self-interest before public interest. However, he also praises Italians’ humanity, their ability to resist and be reborn after adversities, wars, and epidemics: until they “see the stars again.”

This book doesn’t just present Dante as the poet who gave us a language: he also gave us the idea of Italy as a country and its people as Italians. Dante is the poet who invented Italy.