Beckett's Dante Marginalia: To Heaven and Back.

This article examines Samuel Beckett’s extensive annotations in his personal copy of Dante Alighieri’s *Divina Commedia*, a 1924 Salani edition he studied with his Italian teacher Bianca Esposito at Trinity College Dublin. Contrary to previous claims that Beckett’s marginalia were sporadic, the article reveals that nearly three-quarters of the 720-page text contain detailed notes reflecting Beckett’s intensive and extensive reading practices, including lexical translations, literary and political interpretations, and intertextual references to authors like Petrarch and Milton. Beckett’s engagement with Dante’s text influenced his own poetics, notably his use of vagueness and concision, and shaped key themes in his work such as the tension between the urge to perceive or express and the inherent limitations of language and understanding. The article also highlights Beckett’s evolving readerly voice and his eventual aporia in the *Paradiso*, which parallels his literary exploration of uncertainty and the elusive nature of revelation.