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Title: Divine Comedy : Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume) by Dante ISBN: 0-679-43313-9 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 28 April, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.37 (30 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A book that cannot be surpassed.
Comment: This particular version of "Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy" Is not only a fine hardcover book with a handy bookmark ribbon, but the literature itself cannot be matched. The english translation has been carefully written so the stanza's would still be in rhyme with Dante's own aba bcb cdc... pattern. The poems and descriptions by Dante show a clear message of hell, purgatory, and heaven; which cannot be matched. I believe everyone should read this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A very intricate and sublime work
Comment: Dante's Divine Comedy is considered as one of the supreme works of Western Literature and it certainly deserves that title. It is about the author being taken and shown around the late-Medieval, Catholic worldview. There are 3 sections: in the first he visits hell to see the torments of the wicked, in the second he goes to purgatory where the souls are purified and await heaven and the third section of the work is his visit to heaven itself. It begins with the author being lost and threatened in a dark wood (metaphorical no doubt) and the eminent Beatrice (read the book to find out about her) sends the poet Virgil from the Limbo (in hell) to take Dante so safety and show him around the Inferno and Purgatorio. Then Beatrice herself accompanies Dante through the Paradiso. As such, according to the poem, this is all part of God's plan to have an eyewitness see the afterlife and take a didactic message back to a troubled earth.
The book is probably classed as a late Medieval, early Renaissance work. It is written in superb Italian vernacular verse (or so I would imagine) and has many things in common with the epic poem and the romance genre, both of which were important in Dante's time.
Dante has several objectives. The most pragmatic one is to establish himself as a poet and a quality one despite his use of the vernacular. As such, he can be seen as a foreshadower of an increased availability of learning to the masses. Dante wants to dispel the notion that only works in Latin can be erudite and he is considered to have been very inventive in his use of the Italian dialect, often inventing words like Shakespeare did.
The most interesting one I found was to expound his worldview, theology and philosophy. Dante is an orthodox Catholic and the Divine Comedy is a great window the Medieval thought as it combined religion with Greek philosophy and a certain outlook on history. As such, we find that the Aristotelian cosmos with the earth in the centre and ten spheres (one for each planet) surround it, except that the spheres are populated by an increasingly holy presence of angels and souls of those holy to Catholicism. Hell is inside the earth, also being a series of concentric circles, leading to Satan in the centre. Purgatory is a mountain located on the other side of the earth (that is, from the point of view of Europe) and the physical connects with the symbollic as the souls make circuits round the mountain leading higher and higher until, purged from their sins they can go to heaven.
Through the travels, Dante meets hundreds of characters, demons and historical figures who have died. From this perspective, a large part of the book is a tad inaccessible as it requires a fairly good knowledge of his world to get the subtleties of his political contemporaries and the such. He distributes historical figures based on how good he thinks they were. Overall, it is impossible to convey the feeling but the book is essentially a collection of hundreds of stories of people who've lived in Dante's world, the things they did, how they were rewarded and punished and what they think of the contemporary world. There are popes, kings, Dante's ancestors, mythological figures etc etc. And all through one gets the central ideal of Dante - that he is a scourge (both as the fictional visitor to the afterlife and as the real writer of the work) of the corrupt offices of the Church and other human institutions that have gone astray and that a view into the afterlife is necessary to bring the world to the right path.
Sounds like heavy stuff and it often is but the great thing is that a lot of profound ideas from a late-Medieval writer and thinker are presented in very colourful and strong images that you'll remember for years.
This translation seems pretty good though I haven't seen any other. The edition is great as it has plenty of white space making reading easy as well as extensive notes and references. Finally, an often-neglected component of classics is illustrations. Here, there are about 50-60 pencil sketches from a single Renaissance artist which bring the episodes to life.
Finally, the emotional and symbollic levels of this work in terms of a personal spiritual journey from a troubled world to the depths of depravity, through purification and to the divine, are magnificent even if like me you aren't a Christian.
Overall, a timeless work, very intricate, thoughtful and sublime.
Rating: 3
Summary: Great translation, but poorly put together!
Comment: The reason this edition of the DC only received 3 stars from me is not because of the translation; for lack of better words, it's gold. I have to say, though, I don't enjoy reading this copy very much, because the black epoxy-like material on the front and on the side that display the name crack off and stick to my hands while I'm reading, so I always have to wash my hands after I read this. If you wouldn't mind this, then definitely buy this! This is a great translation for a great value.
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Title: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (The Signet Classic Poetry Series) by John Milton, Christopher B. Ricks, Susanne Woods ISBN: 0451527925 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 07 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy by Gustave Dore ISBN: 048623231X Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1976 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Iliad by ROBERT FITZGERALD, Homer ISBN: 0385059418 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 28 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald, D. S. Carne-Ross ISBN: 0374525749 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 05 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Aeneid by Robert Fitzgerald, Virgil ISBN: 0679413359 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 30 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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