"The Divine Comedy, completed around 1320, is a supreme work of the imagination. None of Dante's other works, not even all his other works taken together, can rival the Commedia. How did the Florentine exile come to create this masterpiece? What steps in his development can possibly explain the making of this extraordinary poem? Here a preeminent Dante scholar turns to the poet's body of work - the only real biography of Dante that we have - to illuminate these questions. Through an exposition of Dante's other writings, Robert Hollander provides a concise intellectual biography of the writer whom many consider the greatest narrative poet of the modern era.". "Beginning with the Vita nuova and proceeding chronologically through Dante's writings, Hollander delineates the major strands of the poet's thought. He presents the works themselves, discusses their critical reception through the centuries, and addresses issues raised by each text. Hollander, writing for those who have already encountered the Commedia, suggests to these readers how Dante's other works relate to the great poem and invites them to reread the Commedia with new interest and understanding."--BOOK JACKET.