Volume II. Paradise, Minor Poems. Studies:
The Genesis and Growth of the Commedia. Estimates of Dante. Dante as an Observer and Traveller. Portraits of Dante, &c.
The Spectator says:—“No man aiming at literary reputation can think his education complete unless he studies Dante, in translations or in the original. No book about Dante has been published in England that will stand comparison with Dean Plumptre’s. He deserves the gratitude of all true lovers of good literature for writing it. We have nothing further to say of it except that, take it for all in all, the only fitting epithet we can find for it is ‘noble’; and that we do most heartily wish it all the success which it richly deserves.”
The Saturday Review says:—“The Dean of Wells may be congratulated upon the completion of his labour of love.... In the English rendering of the Paradiso, as well as in the notes to that portion of the poem, the Dean’s profound and intimate acquaintance with the theology of the Middle Ages has given him a great advantage over other translators and commentators.... For students of Dante, the ‘Studies’ will be found most valuable and interesting. A large quantity of material has been collected and arranged as it only could have been by one thoroughly conversant with his subject, and giving his best abilities and affections to the accomplishment of his work.”
The Record says:—“Conceived in the lofty and generous spirit of a true scholar. Nowhere will the cultivated English Christian find so much help as this work will give him in understanding and enjoying the message of Dante to men. The second volume deepens the impression made by the first. The parts interlace as well as complete each other; the volumes are two, the book is one. The Dean ‘stands on his achievement.’ It is no unworthy pedestal.”
The Academy says:—“The whole work is a monument of many years’ devoted study; it is illustrated throughout by an unusual range of reading and culture in other fields of literature; and it is accompanied by a most copious and valuable index of subjects and names.”
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