Published posthumously, the last of three Dante translations reveals Grayâs powers of insight and invention
A detail from Hell, the first volume in Grayâs trilogy. Photograph: Alasdair Gray/Hell
A detail from Hell, the first volume in Grayâs trilogy. Photograph: Alasdair Gray/Hell
Thu 24 Dec 2020 02.30 EST
Alasdair Gray, the great Scottish novelist and artist, died a year ago, in December 2019. In his biography of Gray,
Biography (2008) â the closest thing we have to a contemporary Boswellâs life of Johnson â Rodge Glass concluded: âAlasdair will only be appreciated when heâs dead, and even then it wonât be what he deserves.â None of us gets what we deserve, but Gray made a final bid for serious appreciation with his late translations of Dante: