Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume); Introduction by Eugenio Montale
Hardcover, 960 pages
English language
Published Aug. 1, 1995 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
The Divine Comedy begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity.
Allen Mandelbaum’s astonishingly Dantean translation, which captures so much of the life of the original, renders whole for us the masterpiece of that genius whom our greatest poets have recognized as a central model for all poets.
Epos är inte helt min grej. Men detta är en mäktig text och en viktig sådan, jag kanske inte hängde med i allt men blir ändå berörd av det fantastiska språket och de andliga insikterna.
I'm finding it difficult to separate my theological leanings from my literary judgment with this. Inferno is fascinating and horrifying; Purgatorio is frustrating and infuriating; Paradiso is dull and academic. I really don't want to spend any time at all in any of these three places, thank you very much.
This was my second reading of Inferno. The first, I can't remember the edition, attempted an English translation of the original structure (terza rima) and was impressive but awkward. This edition scraps that rhyming scheme and shifts the whole into quatrains that just reads so much more naturally to me. It's probably some sort of (literary) sacrilege, but I enjoyed reading it. It's accessible and I'd recommend it to first time Dante readers.
I'd also recommend using some companion material (I used wikipedia and an old lit text a lot) to help with some context for some of the old …
I'm finding it difficult to separate my theological leanings from my literary judgment with this. Inferno is fascinating and horrifying; Purgatorio is frustrating and infuriating; Paradiso is dull and academic. I really don't want to spend any time at all in any of these three places, thank you very much.
This was my second reading of Inferno. The first, I can't remember the edition, attempted an English translation of the original structure (terza rima) and was impressive but awkward. This edition scraps that rhyming scheme and shifts the whole into quatrains that just reads so much more naturally to me. It's probably some sort of (literary) sacrilege, but I enjoyed reading it. It's accessible and I'd recommend it to first time Dante readers.
I'd also recommend using some companion material (I used wikipedia and an old lit text a lot) to help with some context for some of the old Florentines and miscellaneous popes. It takes some extra time, but will help make it more than just a book you check off of a list.
Worth reading, but it's mostly just political commentary on figures who've been long dead.
