The Figure of Beatrice; A Study in Dante
London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1943. Octavo, original blue cloth, gilt spine, original dust jacket. Book about fine, closed tear to front panel, mild toning to spine of unclipped jacket. A near-fine copy. Item #1802
"IT WILL—GENERALLY SPEAKING—BE AN UNFORTUNATE DAY FOR ROMANTIC THEOLOGY IF IT EVER GETS IN THE HANDS OF OFFICIAL MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH"
Second impression of The Figure of Beatrice—published in the same year as the first impression—a profound expression of the redemptive power of Romantic Love in Dante. The Figure of Beatrice would not be published in the United States until 1961 (long after Williams's death), making the early English printings especially desirable. An excellent copy, complete in the increasingly uncommon original dust jacket.
Charles Williams saw something quite familiar in Dante and his devotion to Beatrice Portinari. "What becomes apparent as one reads The Figure of Beatrice is that, in tracing Dante's career, Williams is describing his own. He, like Dante, is a Christian poet, a devotee of the spiritual potential of courtly love" (Zaleski and Zaleski). Williams viewed Beatrice both as a person and as a symbol, a figurative representation of what Williams liked to call the "Way of Affirmation," based on the positive force of love. Published in the middle of the Second World War, the Figure of Beatrice was arguably Charles Williams's finest and most influential book. It was Williams who guided Dorothy Sayers, through The Figure of Beatrice, to Dante; Sayers acknowledged her debt by dedicating her definitive translation of The Divine Comedy, "To the Dead Master / of the Affirmations / Charles Williams." Zaleski and Zaleski. The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings.
Price: $350.00