The Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers' Encounter with Dante

by Barbara Reynolds

Dorothy L. Sayers, detective novelist, poet, scholar, playwright and Christian apologist, spent the last fourteen years of her life reading and translating Dante's "Divine Comedy". The first two volumes of her translation, "Hell" and "Purgatory", were published during her lifetime, but when she died in 1957 the third volume, "Paradise", was unfinished. It was completed by her friend Barbara Reynolds. And now Barbara Reynolds has written the first full-length study of this illuminating stage in the creative life of Dorothy Sayers. Drawing on personal reminiscences and unpublished letters, she explores the dynamic impact of Dante upon a mature mind. New light is shed on Dorothy Sayers's personality, her relationship with her friends, her methods of work, and her intellectual and spiritual development. Readers of Dante, no less than readers of Sayers, will find this of interest.

Genres: Poetry, Biography, Medieval, Biography Memoir

286 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Barbara Reynolds (13 June 1914 – 29 April 2015) was an English scholar of Italian Studies, lexicographer and translator, wife of the philologist and translator Lewis Thorpe. She has written and edited several books concerning Dorothy Sayers and is president of the Dorothy L Sayers Society. She turned 100 in June 2014.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

100 stars. REALLY amazingly excellent. I read the book through once, immediately began it again to read a 2nd time. I am now on my 3rd pass through the book, and have picked up Sayers' translation of Dante now that I'm on fire to read her translation.

I'm not finished reading it yet though. Still enjoying it!

[Bardfilm · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing (and usually convivial) mix of pure scholarship and personal recollection. Fascinating—up until the point that covers Sayers' death. After that, it rather goes off the rails a bit.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just what the title claims, by the woman who was Sayers's protegee, and who completed her Penguin translation of Dante's Paradiso after Sayers's death in 1957. Barbara Reynolds is still alive at age 100. Fascinating for some of the inside baseball in academic politics and publishing just after WWII in England. Sayers was always regarded with some skepticism by the academic establishment because she was a woman and because she was a popular detective novelist. Those two things just would not do. I had not realized that Sayers only read Dante for the first time at the age of 51, during the war. Previous to that she had only quoted from him occasionally and had put off reading him, saying: "After all, fourteen thousand lines are fourteen thousand lines, especially if they are full of Guelfs and Ghibellines and Thomas Aquinas." But fearing that otherwise she'd wind up with all the other hypocrites in the eighth circle, she finally picked up the Comedy. She was blown away, read it rapidly twice over, and spent the last 12 years of her life pretty much exclusively studying it. Her enthusiasm is what hooked me years ago. I have never liked her translation, but her notes, introductions, and essays are worth reading and re-reading for their common sense and dry wit. She was a force to be reckoned with. C.S. Lewis said that discussing anything with her was like standing on the edge of a cliff in a high wind. She was surprised to find that Dante was not like Milton--his language let him discuss anything from farts to the mystical celestial rose. Milton's choice of extremely formal language limited him. When he wanted to describe an elephant curling its trunk, he had to say it "wreathed its lithe proboscis." Her writing is full of nuggets like that, and this book is a pleasant reminder.

[Tleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason, I though this book would be very scholarly and a bit dry. It was as far from dry and dusty as Sayers' Dante translation is itself. Barbara Reynolds gives an intimate look at Dorothy Sayers' process of translation as a dear friend who was intensely interested in Dorothy not just as a scholar but as a companion who was closely involved in her work. In addition, she tells of her own work in finishing the translation of Paradiso amid the challenges of having a young family, which of course, was not Dorothy Sayers' experience, and her story resonated with me as a mom trying to prioritize my family while pursuing my own intellectual goals. I highly recommend it to anyone who is using the Sayers translation this time through!

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tale of how Sayers came to translate Dante.