The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

Book Overview

When Michael Palma's translation of the Inferno appeared in 2002, it defied the conventional wisdom of literary commentators who had long argued that Dante's intricate terza rima form simply could not be rendered in "rhyme-poor" English. But Palma's achievement in rhyming tercets was quickly received as a spectacular feat of poetic artistry that was "accurate . . . admirably clear, and readable" (Richard Wilbur) and that, "in capturing the sense,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1324095547
• ISBN13: 9781324095545
• Release Date: December 2024
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 576 Pages

Customer Reviews

Very old translation

The translation I received is from 1946. The language is very stilted and archaic. I have a translation from the '70s of Inferno and needed Purgatorio and Paradiso. Sadly, I still do.

Astonishing!!!!!

I love book. Book good.

Stunning - a must have

I must confess that the large format makes reading the formal translations a bit easier on the eyes. The volume also includes a preface and section introductions/interpretations in contemporary english which make the text much more approachable. And the woodcut illustrations are simply gorgeous - it's worth getting the book just for these. They really bring to life the imaginations from when they were created in the 19th century all the way back several hundred years more to when Dante wrote the text. They also help to explain the perceptions that our predecessors had of religion, sin, and piety. This is a terrific volume - highly recommended. One tangential note - if you like the illustrations in this you should also check out "Barlow's Inferno", published a few years ago. Wayne Douglas Barlow synthesizes interpretations of hell from many cultures and periods into illustrations of terror and frightful beauty. Barlow is the spiritual inheritor of Dore's vision.

The "Divine Comedy" read in the original Italian

This a great CD, with all of Dante's Divine Comedy, read very expressively by the actor Claudio Carini. All files are in mp3 format. Its a great way to become familiar with this work in the original italian. A free copy of the text can be downloaded from various sites on the internet. I bought the CD in Italy. Greatly recommended.

A Foundational Text, but Fun

There are three types of books: worthless ones; worthwhile but difficult or dense; and worthwhile and straightforward. The first category we needn't concern ourselves with. The second includes works by writers like Faulkner or Joyce. The Divine Comedy seems to me to be in the last category. Although it is true that having a solid grasp of European history and culture would allow the work to resonate more with the reader, anyone who has not had the time or inclination to read Virgil, Homer, or the Bible might find themselves inspired to do so after reading Dante. Mandelbaum's translation is as smooth as silk. He handles Dante's 'weighty' lines well: And so I saw that splendid school assembled, led by the lord of song incomparable, who like an eagle soars above the rest. but, even more impressively, does spendidly with the little transitional scenes: So did we move along and toward the light, talking of things about which silence here is just as seemly as our speech was there. Doesn't that flow nicely? There are notes in the back of the book adequate for a layman's purposes, and a cool chronology that puts Dante's life into a cultural and historical context. I found the introduction by Eugenio Montale to be a bit precious, but one can't have everything. What more is there to say; one either decides to read the great works of the world or one doesn't. If you are among the minority of those who choose to take the high road, this is a good place to start or continue your journey.

A Musical Translation!

I was introduced to Ciardi's translation of "The Divine Comedy" in an anthology of continental literature I read in college. At that time, after experiencing fragments of Fagles' horrible "verse" translation of Homer's works, I had low expectations for the translations in that anthology.However, the instant I started reading John Ciardi's verse translation of "The Inferno", my hardened heart once again began to beat with the vibrancy it had when I read poems of Wordsworth or Browning.John Ciardi, with a poetic talent that seems to be unmatched -- except for what I?ve read of W.S. Merwin's "Paradiso XXXIII," -- creates a poetic flow that feels, tastes, and even smells Italian. A poetic flow that delightfully contrasts Fagles', whose poetic flow is limited by popular styles and even phrases of the 20th century.Instead of trying to lift Dante to the 20th century, Ciardi gracefully carries us to the early 14th century.Instead of assuming that Dante is arcane, old fashioned, and in need of John's own poetic help, he believes that the original Italian is fresh, exciting, and poetically graceful.The translation of Dante would have been diluted if Ciardi were to try and bring the 14th century to us through the modernization of the language, symbolism, and even the geography of Dante's world. (Fagles even geographically modified his "Odyssey" at one point to rename a Greek river the Nile because readers may get 'confused'.)I?m glad that Ciardi tries to bring us back in time when the universe was cosmically full of life, where even the stars were more than the mere byproducts of abstract forces, chance, that can only be systematically analyzed and dissected. The medieval worldview is far richer than the purely logical and scientific mindset that?s now common. By bringing Dante to us unfiltered by that mindset, Ciardi helps move us towards the bright and vibrant medieval world. I strongly recommend John Ciardi's poetic translation of "The Divine Comedy," a lot is missed when reading only "The Inferno." The whole work is amazingly balanced.

More Than Gorgeous

Seven centuries after Dante Alighieri wrote La Divina Commedia, it remains one of the most spectacularly amazing literary masterpieces in any language of any time.The story of a spiritual journey, The Divine Comedy is essentially an allegory which began on Good Friday 1300 (when Dante was thirty-five) and lasted for just seven days. It is also a bitter political polemic, directed against all in authority in Italy at the time, but particularly those in Dante's native Florence, and also serves as a denouncement of the wealth and corruption of the papacy.The Divine Comedy embraces the celestial and the terrestrial, the mythological and the historical, the practical and the ethical. It is a discourse on the role of reason in faith and the individual in society.The Divine Comedy is a poem in which Dante views himself as a pilgrim, representative of all mankind, who is led on a journey through the various circles of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. It is written in three volumes (Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso), each composed of thirty-three cantos (there is one introductory canto serving as an overview).Originally written in Italian, The Divine Comedy uses a rhyming scheme known as terza rima, which was invented by Dante, himself. Many translations attempt to adhere to this rhyming scheme, however this only confines and constrains the translator in his ability to capture the meaning and nuance of the original text. Anyone not able to read The Divine Comedy in its original Italian would be far better off in choosing a blank verse translation.Dante's first guide is the poet, Virgil, who leads him through Hell and Purgatory. As Dante and Virgil descend through the ever-deepening circles, they speak with the damned, who are being punished according to their sins on earth.Some of these denizens of Hell are mythological, some are historical and some are Florentines who were Dante's contemporaries.Within Inferno, the condemned sinners are referred to as "shades." Virgil, himself, is first introduced as a shade. Although this can be confusing to some readers, the confusion can be easily cleared up once we realize Dante is employing the image of shades because, in his eyes, dead souls have grown faint through the absence of God's light.Once Dante begins to work his way upwards, towards Paradise, Virgil, who is, himself, a resident in limbo, must take his leave and Dante finds his guide to be Beatrice (Bice Portinari, a woman Dante met and fell in love with in 1274 and who died in 1290). It is Beatrice who leads Dante on to Paradiso and his final vision of God.The name, The Divine Comedy, is derived from two words, comus and oda, which, in their literal translation mean, "rustic song." Dante, in a letter to a Ghibellinline Captain in Verona, said he was attempting to separate his work from a pure tragedy (that which begins in tranquility and ends in sadness, e.g., Romeo and Juliet), from a comedy, which can begin in sadness but, by its very nature, ends