Writers Reading Writers

Princeton professor Robert Hollander made his reputation as a scholar of Dante and Boccaccio. However, in this collection of 11 literary studies essays, put together by Smarr (theatre and Italian studies, U. of California at San Diego) in his honor, former students of Hollander's do not limit themselves solely to examination of Dante and Boccaccio, but they do adopt Hollander's signature focus on intertextual studies, or the exploration of writers' adoption and cooptation of other writers. The essays are organized into two sections, the first of which explores the uses of the Greek romances, Virgil, Ovid, and the Bible by Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and the second of which explores more modern writers, such as Carlo Maria Maggi and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and their uses of Dante, Boccaccio, and others. Distributed in the US by Associated University Presses. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)