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A book of poems (with commetary) for a girl Dante first saw when he was 9, follows the history of the love from that moment until the few months after her death. Both married someone else (neither marriage is mentioned in the story), but Beatrice's impact on him would spark first ideas for his best known book, "The Divine Comedy", which was begun a few years after this book.

This book is a mix of story, poems, and commentary on the poems. Many of the poems were written while she was still alive, the first ones begun when he was 17. Some of the poems were sent or given to other people, and Dante belonged to a group of poets, of which Guido Cavalcanti's support and friendship was the most important. I was a bit surprised at how small the age difference between Dante and Beatrice was - less than a year. Her own feelings towards Dante were of much milder type, but she never responded to him so harshly as to blow his passionate love towards her away.

The book is arranged in certain numerical pattern (Dante talks about the number 9, in the text), and the explanation of the poems talks about where each part of the poem starts, and what occurs in each part. Part of the way the explanation happens after the poem, then it changes to happening before the poem. My favorite chapters were XIX and XXIII.

Dante is not shy in expressing what moods he felt during the time: his tears especially occur regularly, especially after her death. Sometimes his moods show so clearly that others find it funny, or alarming, depending on the situation. The latter type occurs at least in the scene where he is really ill from pleurisy or pneumonia, and his emotions alarm the women caring for her, including his stepsister. By the way, the momet of her death, and reactions right after are skipped; they must've been too emotional to write about (not even with a poem).

It takes him a while to get back his emotional balance, but the lady in the window looking him sympathetically, which he mentions, and watching a group of pilgrims traveling through the city - Dante mentions three types of pilgrims, including the "romeo", which I found interesting - show him reaching it, and putting writing about Beatrice on pause soon after that, knowing he'd return to her and her memory eventually.

The poems seemed to grow in quality as I read them, and the commentaries etc. in between didn't bother me, but brought the story along quite nicely and steadily. It is a quick read, but I think one might also take it slowly, and enjoy each poem, tasting what it was like for him to love such a lovely lady with a life much shorter but with big impact not only on him and those who knew her in real life, but for so many reading about her after, here and in the Divine Comedy.