How to read Dante (or any other book)

Don Draper (Mad Men) trying to figure it all out

In my first year of undergrad, I had a compulsory module called “How to read texts”. I remember sitting on a bench in Gordon Square looking over the syllabus and wondering if the degree I’d chosen was the best use of £28,000 since I clearly already knew how to read. In fact, I was doing it at that exact moment.

Fast-forward almost five years and over one thousand Dante newsletter readers later, the question I get the most from people online and off is the same: how do you read Dante? In the most literal way possible - where do you even start?