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Title: The Divine Comedy Trilogy: The Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise Plus a Life of Dante by Dante Alighieri, Dante Alighieri, Benedict Flynn ISBN: 9-6263422-4-2 Publisher: Naxos Audio Books Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 10 List Price(USD): $58.98 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (47 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb and accessable translation of Dante's masterpiece
Comment: Those of us not fortunate enough to be able to read Italian and thus savor Dante's masterpiece in its original language have the next best thing--the comprehensively noted translation by another great poet, the late John Ciardi. This superb and handsome hardbound edition of Ciardi's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy is not simply the collected, earlier translations of The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso, which in past years appeared in separate paperback editions: This edition is the final Ciardi translation from earlier forms which were "a work in progress." In this magnificent final translation, the non-Italian-speaking reader can savor Dante's extrodinary fusion of morality with the metaphorical architecture of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, explored with pathos and sympathy for the human condition which, in the mind of Dante, constantly yearns for The All in All. A volume that should be required reading for anyone who aspires to understand man's place in the universe.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the main sources of Western culture
Comment: The all-encompassing mind of Dante has produced indeed one of the main sources of Western culture. It is a rich poem, full of interesting stories and commentary and which, like all true classics, can be read from different standpoints and has different dimensions. It tells Dante's travel to Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Daniel Boorstin has called it "Adventures in Death". It is also one of the main bridges between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Like other works from this period, it mixes classical mythology and tradition with Christian history. The first evidence of this is the fact that although Dante travels to the Christian underworld, his guide is the Roman poet Virgil, no less.
Dante's work is thus multi-layered: it is an exploration of virtue and sin and their consequences; a profound criticism of the state of the Catholic Church at the time, attacking fiercely the institution of the Papacy and Boniface VIII in particular, for their corruption; a reelaboration of old Medieval themes; a bitter analysis of Italian and especially Florentine politics of his day, whose effects he so cruelly suffered.
During his trip, Dante meets and speaks with Biblical characters, Greco-Roman ones, and contemporaries of him. These people tell their stories and explain why they are where they are. Dante touches practically on all relevant and controversial subjects of his time, as well as many of our own. Although in any translation we miss the lyricism of his verse, we can still appreciate the quality and dignity of his writing.
It is not, of course, an easy reading. It is not "light" literature and it demands intelligent, cultivated and also demanding readers. But the reward is infinite. Dante's work has had any number of repercussions in subsequent culture. I think, for example, of Tchaikovsky's "Francesca di Rimini", based on one of the fascinating stories told to Dante in Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Dante's images are powerful, terrorific in Hell and purely Divine in Heaven. His imagination is truly remarkable, in the way he describes the punsihments and rewards, as well as the characters and their situations.
Lose the fear and plunge into this greatest tour de force. It is really Dantesque.
Rating: 2
Summary: Leave all hope, ye that enter
Comment: I was interested in Dante's thoughts on hell, religion, and the afterlife as taught by the Catholic church at the time of its writing. What I got was a detailed political history of Medieval Italy. This book is great for the first few chapters, but then it becomes a repetitive saga. Synopsis of the each chapter of the Inferno: Go to next layer of hell; describe in 20 words or less the torture found there; make fun of some political opponents, Catholic church officials, and so forth; prepare for further descent. In my opinion, this book resides somewhere between the 21st and 22nd layers of hell. Canto three pretty much has it right.... 'Leave all hope, ye that enter'
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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: Paradise Lost by John Milton, Anton Lesser ISBN: 9626340029 Publisher: Naxos Audio Books Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.98 |
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Title: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer ISBN: 0553210823 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1982 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: A Modern Reader's Guide to Dante's the Divine Comedy by Joseph Gallagher, John Freccero ISBN: 0764804944 Publisher: Liguori Publications Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Divine Comedy: The Inferno/the Purgatorio/the Paradiso by Dante Alighieri, John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri ISBN: 0451208633 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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