但丁在《新生》中抒發瞭自己對貝特麗絲的一片純真的愛戀之心後，繼而將他的戀人描繪成追求天國真理的化身，她的靈魂飛嚮天空，得到瞭新生。即便到瞭晚年，但丁對貝特麗絲的那份執著依然難以釋懷，他在《神麯》中，又把貝特麗絲描繪成集真善美於一身、引導他進入天堂的女神，以此來寄托他對貝特麗絲的美好情感。愛情催生瞭《新生》，《新生》又為他晚年創作《神麯》作瞭情感和素材的準備。

"La Vita Nuova" (1292-94) has many aspects. Dante's libello, or 'little book', is most obviously a book about love. In a sequence of thirty-one poems, the author recounts his love of Beatrice from his first sight of her (when he was nine and she eight), through unrequited love and chance encounters, to his profound grief sixteen years later at her sudden and unexpected death. Linked with Dante's verse are commentaries on the individual poems - their form and meaning - as well as the events and feelings from which they originate. Through these commentaries the poet comes to see romantic love as the first step in a spiritual journey that leads to salvation and the capacity for divine love. He aims to reside with Beatrice among the stars. David Slavitt gives us a readable and appealing translation of one of the early, defining masterpieces of European literature, animating its verse and prose with a fluid, lively, and engaging idiom and rhythm. His translation makes this first major book of Dante's stand out as a powerful work of art in its own regard, independent of its 'junior' status to La Commedia. In an Introduction, Seth Lerer considers Dante as a poet of civic life. 'Beatrice', he reminds us, 'lives as much on city streets and open congregations as she does in bedroom fantasies and dreams'.