Dante

Original publication: New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1923AUTHOR’S NOTE
I would ask the reader to take the present volume, not as a new
book on Dante, but merely as a revision of the Primer which was first
published in 1900. It has been as far as possible brought up to date,
the chief modifications being naturally in the sections devoted to the
poet’s life and Opere minori, and in the bibliographical appendix; but
the work remains substantially the same. Were I now to write a new
Dante Primer, after the interval of nearly a quarter of a century, I
should be disposed to attach considerably less importance to the
allegorical meaning of the Divina Commedia, and to emphasise,
more than I have here done, the aspect of Dante as the symbol and
national hero of Italy.
E. G. G.
LONDON, July, 1923.