Robert Pogue Harrison is a professor of literature at Stanford University, where he is Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature in the Department of French & Italian.

The quality and intensity of Harrison's attention, and the subtlety with which his argument gradually unfolds, makes The Body of Beatrice as compelling and pleasurable to read as a fine work of fiction... The best book on the Vita Nuova I have ever read. Speculum

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsEditions and TranslationsIntroduction: Critical DifferencesPart I. Beatrice AliveChapter One. Dante's DreamChapter Two. The Ideal LyricChapter Three. Figures of LoveChapter Four. The Ghost of Guido CalvalcantiPart Two. Beatrice DeadChapter Five. The Death of Beatrice and the Petrarchan AlternativeChapter Six. Beyond the LyricChapter Seven. The Narrative BreakthroughChapter Eight. Vision and Revision: The Provisional Essence of the Vita NuovaEpilogueNotesIndex of Passages CitedGeneral Index