How did Dante come to create his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, a work unrivaled by any of his other writings? In this book, a preeminent Dante scholar analyzes the only real biography of the poet that we have-his body of works-to illuminate this question. Robert Hollander considers Dante's political writings, commentary, and other poems as well as the Comedy to construct an intellectual biography of the great poet. "Hollander's lucid and brilliant discussion ...is a joy to read."-Bernard Knox, New York Review of Books