who can identify this quote?

[Et_h]

In E.M Forster's A Room with a View George says
"My father says that there is only one perfect view--the view of the sky straight over our head"
and cecil replied "I expect your father has been reading Dante"

I've been leafing through some of Dante's work but I haven't been able to find any reference of it. Does anyone know where this is from?

[billl]

You might want to go to the Dante subforum and start another thread with Dante's name in the title of the thread. There's people at this site that read Dante and discuss Dante a lot, but I don't know if they always bother to check this "Who said that?" thread. If you put Dante's name in the title, it'll probably get their attention when they check the latest posts/threads.

[togre]

Maybe take a look at Paradiso: Canto XIII (hosted on this site). It seems to contain the sentiment that is referenced, if not the verbiage.

[Brad Panic]

Dante's Inferno was shaped like a funnel narrowing as it went down. So the view straight up would be heaven.

[maud's_mead]

Dante's Inferno was shaped like a funnel narrowing as it went down. So the view straight up would be heaven.

Good point, however, I'm wondering is there any actual reference at all to being able to see heaven? I've just recently read and do not remember any thing. I agree it may be a reference to the structure of Hell.

[Sionn Harrow]

Each of Dante's works in The Divine Comedy end by speaking of the stars.

At the end of The Inferno, it says "We mounted up, he first and I the second, Till I beheld through a round aperture Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear; Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

At the end of Purgatorio: "From the most holy water I returned Regenerate, in the manner of new trees, That are renewed with a new foliage, Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.

And at the end of Paradisio: "the love which moves the the sun and other stars." Because Paradisio takes place in the heavens, it might also be a reference to that.
God is depicted as dwelling in the heavens, along with the angels and saints. That's all I got :P

[Brad Panic]

sounds like Sionn Harrow's got it.

[english_rose]

Sounds like more of a reference to the concept than a quote.