In the latest Times 中国A片 books podcast, Prue Shaw talks to THE’s Karen Shook about Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity, a work aimed at those who haven’t (yet) read one of the world’s greatest works of literature.
Australian-born Shaw, who undertook postgraduate study at Florence and Oxford, recalls determined note-taking at the feet of grand but mumbly Italian professors and the grey weather and snobbery of the UK’s ancient universities. She discusses a groundbreaking Divine Comedy digitisation project, issues an amused reproof to Dante-phobics, and concurs with Bernardo Bertolucci and Primo Levi about the sublime beauty of Ulysses’ famous lines in the Inferno.