Dante's persistent and pervasive presence has been a remarkable feature of modern writing since the late eighteenth century. This collection of essays by an international group of scholars emphasizes that presence in the work of major British and Irish writers (such as Blake, Shelley, Joyce and Heaney). It also focuses on responses in America, the Caribbean and Italy and deals with appropriations of Dante's work by poets (from Gray to Walcott) and novelists (such as Mary Shelley and Giorgio Bassani, and Gloria Naylor).

MARK BALFOUR Lecturer on Dante for the National Extension College STUART CURRAN Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania STEVE ELLIS Lecturer, Department of English, University of Birmingham HUGH HAUGHTON Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York WILLIAM KEACH Lecturer in English Department, Brown University ALISON MILBANK Member of the Cambridge University English Faculty BERNARD O'DONOGHUE Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford RALPH PITE Lecturer, Department of English, University of Liverpool MATTHEW REYNOLDS Lecturer, Department of English, University of Oxford PETER ROBINSON Visiting Professor, Tohoku University JOHN ROE Lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York JEREMY TAMBLING Teaches Comparative Literature in the University of Hong Kong JUDITH WOOLF Lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York