A comprehensive guide to Dante's life and literature, with an emphasis on his Commedia. This text looks at the influences that shaped Dante's writing, and the reception of his work by later readers, from the 14th century to the present.

 

An expansive two volume set that covers 450 worldwide cultural icons, World Cultural Leaders of the Twenty First Century includes each person's works, achievements, and professional careers in a thorough essay.
Who was the originator of the term "documentary"? Which poet married the daughter of the famed novelist Thomas Mann in order to help her escape Nazi Germany? Which British writer served as an agent in Russia against the Bolsheviks before the 1917 revolution? These and many more questions are answered in this illuminating text.
A handy two-volume set that makes it easy to look up 450 worldwide cultural icons: novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, architects, dancers, choreographers, actors, directors, filmmakers, singers, composers, and musicians. World Cultural Leaders of the Twenty First Century provides entries (many of them illustrated) covering the person's works, achievements, and professional career in a thorough essay and offers interesting facts and statistics.
Entries are fully cross-referenced so that readers can learn how various individuals influenced others. A thorough general index completes the coverage.

The book is meant to be distinctly a book of reference for students rather than a literary or critical survey of a few salient aspects of the subject, or a specialist's report of original research. Aiming at a certain degree of encyclopedic fullness, it brings together facts and conclusions from a great variety of sources. Much labor has been expended in grouping the material in such a way as to give a systematic impression of the enormous field in view. The Contents are divided into the following nine parts: Uncivilized and Ancient Music; Mediaeval Music; The Sixteenth Century; The Seventeenth Century; The Early Eighteenth Century; The Later Eighteenth Century; The Early Nineteenth Century; The Middle Nineteenth Century; and The Later Nineteenth Century.