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Petrarch at the Peak of Fame

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Lyell Asher
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Abstract

In “The Ascent of Mont Ventoux,” a letter to a former confessor, Petrarch famously admits to having ascended a peak for no other reason than to admire the view. As a failed conversion narrative, the letter is ultimately as gratuitous as the climb it recounts. Noting a number of similarities between climbing the mountain and composing the letter, I argue that the literal ascent he describes is a figure for his literary ascent, through this letter and other texts, to fame and notoriety. In condemning the climb, Petrarch figuratively condemns the letter, censuring what he does even as he does it.

Type
Cluster on the Poetic: From Euripides to Rich
Information
PMLA , Volume 108 , Issue 5 , October 1993 , pp. 1050 - 1063
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1993

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