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Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, "Purgatory" relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, to the Mount of Purgatory - a mountain of nine levels, formed from rock forced upwards when God threw Satan into depths of the earth. As he travels through the first seven levels, Dante observes the sinners who are waiting for their release into Paradise, and through these encounters he is himself transformed into a stronger and better man. For, it is only when he has learned from each of these levels that he can ascend to the gateway to Heaven: the Garden of Eden. The second part of one of the greatest epic poems, "Purgatory" is an enthralling Christian allegory of sin, redemption and ultimate enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Purgation of Dante
I'd completed the first book of The Divine Comedy and had to pick up the second and third. This volume takes place in Catholic Purgatory and opens up with Dante escaping from Hell and making his way across the waters to the mountain of Purgatory. It follows Dante as he makes his way up the mountain encountering more souls who are paying the price for their sins in their now-lost lives. Dante will in essence share in these tribulations to purify himself so that he can enter Paradise.

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation.The other great translation is by Mark Musa."The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

A stint in Purgatorio
"And I shall sing about that second realm/where man's soul goes to purify itself/and become worthy to ascend to heaven..."

Having finished his tour of hell and its residents, Dante Alighieri turns his attention to a more cheerful (if less juicy) supernatural realm. "Purgatorio" is less famous than its predecessor, but it's still a beautiful piece of work that explores the mindset not of the damned, but of sinners who are undergoing a divine cleansing -- beautiful, hopeful and a little sad.

Outside of Hell, Dante and Virgil encounter a small boat piloted by an angel and filled with human souls -- and unlike the damned, they're eager to find "the mountain." And as Hell had circles of damnation, Purgatory has terraces that the redeemable souls climb on their way towards Heaven, and none of the people there will leave their terrace until they are cleansed.

And the sins that are cleansed here are the seven deadly ones: the proud, the envious, the wrathful, the greedy, the lazy, the gluttonous, and the lustful. But as Dante moves slowly through the terraces, he finds himself gaining a new tour guide as he approaches Heaven...

I'll say this openly: the second part of the "Divine Comedy" is simply not as deliciously entertaining as "Inferno" -- it was kind of fun to see Dante skewering the corrupt people of his time, and describing the sort of grotesque punishments they merited. But while not as fun, "Purgatorio" is a more transcendent, hopeful kind of story since all the souls there will eventually be cleansed and make their way to Heaven.

As a result, "Purgatorio" is filled with a kind of eager anticipation -- there's flowers, stars, dancing, angelic ferrymen, mythic Grecian rivers and an army of souls who are all-too-eager to get to Purgatory so their purification can start. Alighieri's timeless poetry has a silken quality, from beginning to end ("Here let death's poetry arise to life!/O Muses sacrosanct whose liege I am/and let Calliope rise up and play") and it's crammed with classical references and Christian symbolism (the Sun's part in advancing the soiled souls).

And the trip through Purgatory seems to have a strong effect on Dante's self-insert, who appears less repulsed and more fascinated by what he sees there. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when the paternal Virgil exits the Comedy, but at least he has someone else appears to guide him.

The middle part of the Divine Comedy isn't as juicy as "Inferno," but the beauty of Dante Alighieri's writing makes up for it."Purgatorio" is a must read... and then on to Paradise.

The notes illuminate Dante's message.
This translation is a "must" for anyone who thought they couldn't comprehend the Divine Comedy.I recommend purchasing the 3 volume set.

Dante Musa Style
Mark Musa has produced an extremely readable translation of a text that at times can be next to inaccessible.As a non-Dante scholar, I have struggled with other translations.The notes accompanying each canto also are well done:thorough and very illuminating.Musa's deft pen has turned Purgatory into a pleasure. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!"
"Midway life's journey I was made aware/that I had strayed into a dark forest..." Those eerie words open the first cantica of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," the most famous part of the legendary Divina Comedia. But the stuff going on here is anything but divine, as Dante explores the metaphorical and supernatural horrors of the inferno.

The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, and Dante is lost in a creepy dark forest, being assaulted by a trio of beasts who symbolize his own sins. But suddenly he is rescued ("Not man; man I once was") by the legendary poet Virgil, who takes the despondent Dante under his wing -- and down into Hell.

But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames and dancing devils. Instead, it's a multi-tiered carnival of horrors, where different sins are punished with different means. Opportunists are forever stung by insects, the lustful are trapped in a storm, the greedy are forced to battle against each other, and the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, and are trapped on a volcanic desert.

If nothing else makes you feel like being good, then "The Inferno" might change your mind. The author loads up his "Inferno" with every kind of disgusting, grotesque punishment that you can imagine -- and it's all wrapped up in an allegorical journey of humankind's redemption, not to mention dissing the politics of Italy and Florence.

Along with Virgil -- author of the "Aeneid" -- Dante peppered his Inferno with Greek myth and symbolism. Like the Greek underworld, different punishments await different sins; what's more, there are also appearances by harpies, centaurs, Cerberus and the god Pluto. But the sinners are mostly Dante's contemporaries, from corrupt popes to soldiers.

And Dante's skill as a writer can't be denied -- the grotesque punishments are enough to make your skin crawl ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen and wroth...'"), and the grand finale is Satan himself, with legendary traitors Brutus, Cassius and Judas sitting in his mouths. (Yes, I said MOUTHS, not "mouth")

More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism and allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even pre-hell, we have a lion, a leopard and a wolf, which symbolize different sins, and a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. And the punishments themselves usually reflect the person's flaws, such as false prophets having their heads twisted around so they can only see what's behind them. Wicked sense of humor.

Dante's vivid writing and wildly imaginative "inferno" makes this the most fascinating, compelling volume of the Divine Comedy. Never fun, but always spellbinding and complicated. ... Read more

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La Vita Nuova (1292–94) has many aspects. Dante’s libello, or “little book,” is most obviously a book about love. In a sequence of thirty-one poems, the author recounts his love of Beatrice from his first sight of her (when he was nine and she eight), through unrequited love and chance encounters, to his profound grief sixteen years later at her sudden and unexpected death. Linked with Dante’s verse are commentaries on the individual poems—their form and meaning—as well as the events and feelings from which they originate. Through these commentaries the poet comes to see romantic love as the first step in a spiritual journey that leads to salvation and the capacity for divine love. He aims to reside with Beatrice among the stars.

David Slavitt gives us a readable and appealing translation of one of the early, defining masterpieces of European literature, animating its verse and prose with a fluid, lively, and engaging idiom and rhythm. His translation makes this first major book of Dante’s stand out as a powerful work of art in its own regard, independent of its “junior” status to La Commedia. In an Introduction, Seth Lerer considers Dante as a poet of civic life. “Beatrice,” he reminds us, “lives as much on city streets and open congregations as she does in bedroom fantasies and dreams.”

Customer Reviews (1)

What has never been written of any other woman
Anyone who has read Dante's legendary "Divine Comedy" will know of his passion for a woman named Beatrice, who was his tour guide through heaven.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg, as "La Vita Nuova (The New Life)" shows in detail. This exquisite little book describes Dante's passion for Beatrice, and the emotional rollercoaster he went through as a result. This is Dante's unsung, more intimate masterpiece.

"La Vita Nuova" is a series of poems and anecdotes centering around the life-changing love of Dante for a young woman named Beatrice. The two first met when they were young children, of about eight. Dante instantly fell in love with her, but didn't really interact with her for several years.

Over the years, Dante's almost supernatural love only increased in intensity, and he poured out his feelings (grief, adoration, fear) into several poems and sonnets. During an illness, he has a vision about mortality, himself, and his beloved Beatrice ("One day, inevitably, even your most gracious Beatrice must die"). Beatrice died at the age of twenty-four, and Dante committed himself to the memory of his muse.

It would be a hard task to find another book overflowing with such incredible love and passion as "La Vita Nuova"; it's probably the most romantic book I have ever seen. Dante's feelings might seem creepy or stalkerish by modern standards, because Dante and Beatrice were never romantically involved. In fact, both of them married other people. But at the time, courtly love was considered the best, purest kind there is, and Dante's emotions are a perfect example of this.

But Dante's love for Beatrice shows itself to be more than infatuation or crush, because it never wanes -- in fact, it grows even stronger, including Love manifested as a nobleman in one of Dante's dreams. There is no element of physicality to the passion in "La Vita Nuova"; Dante talks about how beautiful Beatrice is, but that's only a sidenote. (We don't hear of any real details about her)

And Dante's grief-stricken state when Beatrice dies (of what, we're never told) leads him to deep changes in his soul, and eventually peace. And though Beatrice died, because of Dante's love for her and her placement in the "Comedia," she has achieved a kind of immortality.

One of the noticeable things about this book is that whenever something significant happens to Dante (good, bad, or neither), he immediately writes a poem about it. Some readers may be tempted to skip over the carefully constructed poems, but they shouldn't. Even if these intrude on the story, they show what Dante was feeling more clearly than his prose.

It's impossible to read this book and come out of it jaded about love or passion. Not the sort of stuff in trashy romance novels, but love and passion that come straight from the heart and soul. A true-life romance of the purest kind. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, Purgatory relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, of the Mount of Purgatory a mountain of nine levels, formed from rock forced upwards when God threw Satan into depths of the earth. As he travels through the first seven levels, Dante observes the sinners who are waiting for their release into Paradise, and through these encounters he is himself transformed into a stronger and better man. For it is only when he has learned from each of these levels that he can ascend to the gateway to Heaven: the Garden of Eden. The second part of one of the greatest epic poems, Purgatory is an enthralling Christian allegory of sin, redemption and ultimate enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation.The other great translation is by Mark Musa."The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

Book is for the more theologically minded
The book is a classic, and for those who are willing to spend time going through the explanations that follow the poem's text, it's an interesting read.In his poem, Dante comments on church history, theological topics like free will and determinism, and makes what were then scandalous comments about how there was corruption within the papal system of the time.It's tough to read, but if you are patient and interested in allegory on purgatory, it's for you!

Terrific spiritual classic
After seeing Dante referred to by so many Christian authors over the years, I finally decided I'd better read this "timeless spiritual classic."I was expecting a dry, dull slog.
Fortunately, I consulted a friend who is a Classicist.I told him I wanted to read Dante for spiritual value, not just as great literature (I'm no poetry expert, nor do I speak a word of Italian).He recommended Dorothy Sayer's translation.
Wow.Reading Dante during Lent is one long, detailed examination of conscience!It is great, and Sayers' explanations and commentaries are terrific: erudite, informative, drily witty, and full of spiritual insight.

Poetry even for us monoglots
Let's begin with Dante. Called "the divine poet" (hence the adjective attached to his humbly titled Commedia), it is a difficult moniker to argue with, not because Dante is writing of heaven but because his imagery, his imagination, and his humility are true imitations of the creative activity of God. Dante is a sublime "sub-creator" to use the coinage of JRR Tolkien. If you can read theCommedia and not be moved to tears, one is tempted to doubt your humanity for Dante portrays the race in all its beauty and putridness and denies neither. He neither celebrates mankind's faculties and achievements beyond their due nor fears to recognize the vileness of which humans are capable.

And it is Canticle II, the poet's ascent through Purgatory, which stirs so deeply the soul and inspires the very penitence and hope of purgation which Dante describes there. One need not be a Roman Catholic or ascribe to Purgatory as doctrine in order to recognize and appreciate what Dante has done in describing the landscape of repentance and hope. (Being a Christian may help, but even on this point one suspects that the divine poet may well perform the function of evangelist, as well as exegete, and lead the searching soul to beatific vision of its own.) Clearly his purpose is not merely to describe what sinners of the past are doing in the afterlife to purify their souls for Paradise, but also to inspire his contemporary readers (who are, of course, yet living when the poem is published in 1321) to examine themselves just as the joyful penitents do on the cornices of Mount Purgatory. It is refreshing--a sort of glorious wound, the healing of which leaves one stronger and more whole than he had been before the hurt.

But what of the translation? We who do not (yet) enjoy the privilege of reading the Commedia in Italian must read the poem in translation--and there are plenty to choose from! Given its primacy among the works of Western Literature in the Middle Ages, the poem has been translated by everyone from Dryden and Pope to Allen Mandelbaum and John Ciardi. So first of all, without question one MUST insist on a verse translation! Prose translations can hardly suffice to communicate the rhythm and terseness of Dante's terza rima which is so integral to the poem. Nor can the majesty of the subject, the grandeur of the poet's climb toward Paradise with all its anticipation and awe be fully communicated in a prose rendering. How well various attempts at verse have succeeded in doing so is the big debate.

In this reviewer's humble opinion, Dorothy L Sayers has succeeded to a degree which surpasses any extant English translation. Are there occasional awkwardnesses? Yes. Is the literal meaning of some lines lost from time to time? Yes, but always for the sake of a gain in some other important respect and always with explanation. Sayers' is the only translation of note which manages to render in English the full terza rima rhyme scheme employed by Dante--and even that feat is worth a few awkward passages or archaisms, it seems to me. One feels much closer to the Divine Poet reading Sayers' translation aloud than, say, Ciardi's half-attempted rhymes, lucid as he can often be.

Whatever else you do, read the Commedia--all of it! It is rather unfortunate that it has become common practice to publish the poem in three volumes rather than presenting it as an integrated whole. Though the familiarity of many ends with Inferno, those who press on I suspect will love Purgatorio best (but fortunately one is not forced to choose), and I am confident readers will be well rewarded for reading Sayers' brilliant translation. One would be hard pressed to find a translator who was more passionate about her subject and who labored more lovingly and meticulously over her rendering of this beloved work than Dorothy L Sayers.

DOROTHY L. SAYERS' GENIUS GLOWS IN HER TRANSLATION OF THE COMMEDIA
This project was her dying effort after a lifetime of great achievements in scholarship and literature. She again proves her genius here with Dante, as in her translation of the Inferno, making an intelligent translation into her contemporary and scholarly English. Incredible achievement for a woman, the first to graduate from Oxford, who wrote treatises in THeology as well as the wonderful Lord Whimsey detective series.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book, but don't be fooled by the price
First things first.I bought this book on campus during my days in college.This book is listed by the publisher as $10.00, not $50.00.Unless the pages and the cover are lined with gold, I would bargain for the actual price.

[...]

Anyway, I bought this earlier version because Pinsky is one of the literary greats, being a former U.S. Poet Laureate.I also never knew him to be an Italian translator (He really does the translation.It says so in the book.).Arnaldo Mondadori provides Pinsky with the original manuscript.They work so well and so hard to put this great book together.

If one is familiar with the work, then they understand the story that interlaces with it.It is one thing to read it in English, but it is much more special and enticing when one reads it in comparison to its original language. The Italian manuscript is much more beautiful, especially when it is written aloud.You get a very good grasp of the sound behind the poetry.

Inferno is written in a poetic style that barely compares to modern poetry, where end rhymes tend to be frowned upon.The whole work is an epic poem designed in terza rima form, as 3-line stanzas.The first and third line in the stanza rhyme together.The middle line carries into the next stanza and continues on, and the cycle repeats itself.

For example, A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, ... etc.The canto (poetic chapter) in this literary opus ends with a one line stanza, rhyming with the second line from the last stanza.

If you are a student of poetry (or a casual reader of it), and one wants to know what old-school formalist poetry is like, then one must have this edition on your book rack.Compare this style of poetry to other poetic forms, like sonnets from Petrarch and Shakespeare.Contrast these styles to free-verse, like Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass or works by Maya Angelou, and you will get a better understanding and appreciation for such diversities in poetry.

... Read more

Product Description

This new critical edition, including Mark Musa's classic translation, provides students with a clear, readable verse translation accompanied by ten innovative interpretations of Dante's masterpiece.

Customer Reviews (5)

It only makes sense
Look, you can buy Mark Musa's translation of Inferno and notes from Penguin The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics)and that's all you get. Or you can buy this book, get the same translation and notes with a festschrift (a collection of scholarly essays written to honor Musa (Musa even offers one himself)). I think that's worth the extra three bucks plus its a handsomer book. Plus, Musa blank verse is very good. While you're at it, you could also look at my bookDante's Journey: A Field Guide to the Infernal Regions

Mark Musa knows his stuff ! ! !
Oh my Wow! Musa's translation is like sooo the best I've ever read.Inferno is like wine em dine em 69em! lol

Do not take this journey through hell without Musa.
The Inferno is a record of Dante the Pilgrim's first trip through hell.It was Virgil's second.This was my fifth trip through the Inferno, and having Musa along for the ride made it wonderful.Whether this is your first time through or not, you ought to have this critical edition as your guide.As another reviewer noted, Musa isn't nearly as fettered by the rhyme scheme as translators like John Ciardi and Robert Pinsky.Even Ciardi apologizes often for his liberties in the name of rhyme.Musa has gorgeous footnotes on lines that Pinsky and Ciardi neglect for the rhyme.If you have the great fortune to teach the Inferno, it makes great sense, of course to have multiple translations before you, but Musa's critical edition will be the most weathered edition in the end.Your students will gain a great understanding of the importance at looking at multiple sources as well.

for a translation, High Fidelity is the Sound of Poetry
Musa is a scholar, not a poet, at least not professionally.But the authenticities of his translation's thunder, juices, epiphanies, and whiffs would indicate that scholarship makes a successful move to a new languagemore probable than do poetic gifts.Dante, now, was a poet.The infiniteriches of his simple simple lines glow from each line of Musa's.While theessential deep love for the poem glows from each line of his commentary. Pinsky, a very good poet, spent his powers on reproducing the virtuallyunreproducible--the never-ending aba bcb cdc terza rima rhyme scheme.Andhe did an expert job.But the poetry is the loser.It's in the back seat,trying to stay awake.The real surprise is how careless Pinsky's rhythmsare.Musa's pound right along-a fairly consistent, and unobtrusive, iambicpentameter.Dante, of course, rhymes and rhymes and rhymes, but always toprofoundest purpose.(It is said he wrote three lines a day.The deeperone goes into the Commedia the easier it is to believe this.)What rhymeswith what was clearly something Dante cared a lot about.Take Inferno 34,34-39.Dante's final six words (and I should point out that my Italian isvery limited) for these six lines are: UGLY, EYEBROW, SORROW/ WONDER, HEAD,RED.Pinsky's are: beautiful, brows, well/ was, head, this.Musa's: foul,Maker, him/ up, faces, red.The parallels the rhymes convey, as I see it,are these. Lucifer, now UGLY, is the source of the world's SORROW.(Musafaithfully pairs "foul" and "all grief should spring fromhim." Pinsky pairs "beautiful" (reversing Dante's carefulsequence of beautiful to ugly) with "then all sorrow may well"which depends on the next line to mean anything, which sort of weakens theparallel:Like saying 1 plus 1 = 1.2 and uh oh another eight tenths.)Andthe second parallel: Lucifer, whose fall to hell began with the raising ofan insolent EYEBROW, has become hideous, a three-headed WONDER.Frombeautiful to UGLY, from the happiness of Eden to a world of SORROW.Musa's"Maker"/"looked up" is admittedly not terrific. Pinsky's "brows"/"How great a marvel it was" is moresuccessful.But compare the two translations' net impact.If you saw whatDante saw, and he was very much writing so that you would, which set oflines below would better convey your reaction?

"If he was truly onceas beautiful / As he is ugly now, and raised his brows / Againsthis Maker--than all sorrow may well /

Come out of him.How great amarvel it was / For me to see three faces on his head: / In frontthere was a red one; joined to this, /

. . . "

"If he wasonce as fair as now he's foul / and dared to raise his brows againsthis Maker, / it is fitting that all grief should spring from him. /

Oh, how amazed I was when I looked up / and saw a head--one headwearing three faces! / One was in front (and that was a brightred)."

A Masterpiece
The Inferno is a book that everybody should read (if they can even read). Mark Musa translates Dante's original pros. into a cloak wheel which is very easy for almost anybody understand. Thepoetry is lost(as with anytranslation), but the story Dante will tell shall live forever. ... Read more

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In this new edition Musa views Dante's intention as one of cruel and comic commentary on the shallowness and self-pity of his protagonist, who only occasionally glimpses the true nature of love.

"... the explication de texte which accompanies [Musa's] translation is instructively novel, always admirable.... This present work offers English readers a lengthy appraisal which should figure in future scholarly discussions." -- Choice

Customer Reviews (3)

What has never been written of any other woman
Genuine romance and passion is missing from most books, either in fiction or nonfiction. So it's a rare experience to come across both in such quantity as there is in "La Vita Nuova" ("The New Life"), the unsung masterpiece of poet Dante Alighieri, author of the classic Divina Comedia. This is, simply put, an ode to his muse and love.

"La Vita Nuova" is a series of poems and anecdotes centering around the life-changing love of Dante for a young woman named Beatrice. The two first met when they were young children, of about eight. Dante instantly fell in love with her, but didn't really interact with her for several years. The two married others, but those spouses are paid no attention.

Over the years, Dante's almost supernatural love only increased in intensity, and he poured out his feelings -- grief, adoration, fear -- into several poems and sonnets. During an illness, he has a vision about mortality, himself, and his beloved Beatrice ("One day, inevitably, even your most gracious Beatrice must die"). Beatrice died at the age of twenty-four, and Dante committed himself to the memory of his muse.

It would be a hard task to find another book overflowing with such incredible love and passion as "La Vita Nuova". It's probably the most romantic book I have ever seen. It's brief and only includes one part of Dante's life overall, but it's a truly unique love story -- especially as Dante and Beatrice were never romantically involved. In fact, both of them married other people.

But Dante's love for Beatrice shows itself to be more than infatuation or crush, because it never wanes -- in fact, it grows even stronger, including Love manifested as a nobleman in one of Dante's dreams. There is no element of physicality to the passion in "La Vita Nuova" -- Dante talks about how beautiful Beatrice is, but that's only a sidenote. And Dante's grief-stricken state when Beatrice dies (of what, we're never told) leads him to deep changes in his soul, and eventually peace. And though Beatrice died, because of Dante's love for her and her placement in the "Comedia," she has achieved a kind of immortality.

One of the noticeable things about this book is that whenever something significant happens to Dante (good, bad, or neither), he immediately writes a poem about it. Apparently that was his way of dealing with his emotions. Some readers may be tempted to skip over the carefully constructed poems, but they shouldn't. Even if these intrude on the story, they show what Dante was feeling more clearly than his prose.

It's virtually impossible to read this book and come out of it jaded about love or true passion. Not the sort of stuff in pulp romance novels, but love and passion that come straight from the heart and soul, in a unique and unusual love story. Every true romantic should read this book.

La Vita Nouva is the Prelude to La Divina Commedia
Dante Alighieri's La Vita Nouva is a set of poems that is a mathematical wonder that foreshadows the coming of La Divina Commedia and is itself a work that is pattern after the FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS.

Scholars havepreviously looked at La Vita Nouva as a set of poems written in honor of awoman named Beatrice.Such scholarship dishonors Dante Alighieri memorybecause he himself was married and never a poem written in honor of his ownwife.Yet, we are to believe he is said to have written of a woman hebearly ever spoke to.The New Testament warning is that if you covet withyour eyes you have already sin.Scholars say Dante while submitting to theembrace of marriage he loved yet another woman.This is gross and thevilest kind of love.It not only debases him but is a continuous lie tohis wife.Are we to declare that Dante is in constant sin during this timethat he is writing La Vita Nouva and La Divina Commedia?Nay, I say thatBeatrice represented the high ideal of the Church or even to declare thatBeatrice was symbolically a representation of Dante's own soul.The lovehe speaks of is not carnal it is divine.Love of this kind never has to bepassionate to be the deepest kind of love.

The mathematics in La VitaNouva is rightly called The Vital Life because knowing is infinitelygreater than believing.

There are 31 poems with 23 of them with only 14lines and 8 of them have more than 14 lines.The #23 is reduced to 5giving off a play on the numbers 8 & 5.In La Divina Commedia Dantehas 13 base numbers ranging from 115-160.The central 5 numbers 136-148have 13 or 16 cantos collectively totaling to 71 cantos leaving the other 8base numbers to divide up the other 29 cantos.So we see that Dante usesthis device in both La Vita Nouva & La Divina Commedia.

The FirstChapter of Genesis has 31 verses as does La Vita Nouva have 31 poems.TheFirst Four Days of Creation have 17 (8) verses and the rest of the FirstChapter of Genesis has 14 (5) verses.The First Four Days of Creation areseparated from the remainder of the First Chapter of Genesis because the1st Day of Creation has 31 Hebrew words and the 2nd Day of Creation has 38. Both Days combined has 69 Hebrew words.The 3rd & 4th Days ofCreation both have 69 Hebrew Words.This pattern of 3 x 69 breaks off atthe 4th Day of Creation.The 207 words in the First Four Days of Creationhas the same value as the word LIGHT does in gemetria in the 1st Day ofCreation: "Let there be light."

The point being made here isthat those that study La Vita Nouva will grasp that there is a greater lovehere than carnal love and that that love has to do with spirituality andthe salvation of the soul.

There is of course a great deal moremathematics in Genesis, La Vita Nouva, and La Divina Commediathatcorrespond but this review was merely to point out that there is more tothe 31 poems and their commentaries in La Vita Nouva than the agony ofunrequited love.This is so perfectly clear to those that study the bookrather than reading it at the speed of summer lightning.

The power of Love can make a new life.
This is the deeply personal story of how Love changed one man's life. Scholars have tended to over-analyze the simple passion of the small book, which tells how from the age of nine (when he first saw her) Danteworshipped the beatific Beatrice. The force that the power of Love heldover him caused him to adore her even after her death, and her name hasbeen immortalized by his devotion. ... Read more

Product Description
Rediscovered in a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose in 1881, the Fiore comprises a cycle of 232 sonnets tracing the adventures, misfortunes, and triumph of the lover in his pursuit of the rose, all this representing a version of the archetypal text of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and preserving in full the brilliance of the original in its ample recourse to irony and parody. The 'internal signature' of the poem straightaway gave rise to speculation as to the possibility of the poem's belonging to Dante. The present edition, which reproduces the now received text of Gianfranco Contini, offers in parallel to this a diplomatic transcription of the sole MS in which the poem survives (Montpellier, Bibliotheque universitaire H438), as well as a lively English translation and three sets of critical and historical apparatus (ecdotic, literary and historical, and interpretative). The detailed introduction provides an account of the historical and linguistic aspects of the text as well as a discussion of its meaning and significance responsive to developments in the sphere of Rose criticism proper. There is a full, up-to-date bibliography, glossary, table of references from the Fio ... Read more

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For over seven centuries, Dante and his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, have held a special place in Western culture. The poem is at once a vivid journey through hell to heaven, a poignant love story, and a picture of humanity’s relationship to God. It is so richly imaginative that a first reading can be bewildering. In response, Peter Hawkins has written an inspiring introduction to the poet, his greatest work, and its abiding influence. His knowledge of Dante and enthusiasm for his vision make him an expert guide for the willing reader. ... Read more

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fantastic and grotesque scenes depict the passion and grandeur of one of Dante’s most highly regarded works—from the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise. Includes plates produced for The Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. Illustrations accompanied by appropriate lines from the Longfellow translation.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Vultures and spiders and Hell - o my!
Although just a man, the prolific career of Gustove Dore really has some divine inspiration. Perhaps that's one reason the church needed him so much - perhaps something really did reach out and whisper his name and someone listened. (Personally I hope that thing was Cthulhu and the dreams were bad, but that's just me)

As far as this book goes, it is one of the easiest to gain entry into a very exciting world. I like the way the rendering are set to tell the story, too, allowing the reader to walk through some frightening gates and look into some of the terrible things that are described in a language that sometimes does seem heavy (Personal opinion and I don't mean offense by it).

When I look at this, it reminds me of the journey that I took as a young adult while learning about all those names and faces that I didn't know. It also reminds me of everything from people with their bodies buried in the ground to one poor soul writhing as a half spider/half woman appeared on the ground. Dore is that kind of influence and I'm glad that someone granted me entry into this world because, if they hadn't, I would have missed out on so much. So, brielf, I have to say that this is well worth the price of admission and it is well worth obtaining so you can look at the detail and marvel at the tools being utilized.

also, look into the other books. The bible, the mad; Dore was inspired by everything. And that is inspiring, to say the least.

Excellent
Excellent book. This is a must-have for fans of Dore's work. I'm almost tempted to buy a second copy to frame a few pages.

Classic and Classical
The work by Dore is what you think of when you imagine Dante's Divine Comedy.The comments of some should be completely disregarded and the work seen for what it is; Classic work, on Classical themes, done very well.

Dore Illustrations
Book arrived in promised condition, and in a timely fashion.I would buy from this seller again.

An Excellent book for the Doré or Dante lover
The quality of this book - along with an amazingly affordable price tag - quickly persuaded me to pick up a copy. Its really everything you could ask for in an art book;

The pictures are all very big, but not overwhelming; Its easy to see minute detail, and the overall scope of the image. I actually blew up some of the prints in photoshop and printed them on huge poster paper for my room, while not sacrificing a drop of detail.

Also, I had to put quite a good deal of pressure onto the spine of the book in order to get a good scan from them, and im happy to say that doing so didn't even leave an annoying "bookmark" crease in the book, and the spine didn't even crease. Dover books really did produce a fine quality book, and the note on the back really is true: This book IS permanent.

If you have read or are reading the divine comedy this book is a great reference to glance at every now and again to truly suck you into Dante's epic poem, and bring you to the Heights of Heaven, The Depths of Hell, or the pain of purgatory in a way you could never have imagened.

The woodcuts done here by dore are so elaborate and vivid you could spend a good portion of a day just gazing into the faces of cursed souls writhing in hell, or the beauty of millions of angels soaring in the highest heaven. Dore illustrates every picture so full of movement and depth its the next best thing to a movie. ... Read more

Product Description
Dante (1265-1321) is the greatest of Italian poets and his DIVINE COMEDY is the finest of all Christian allegories. To the consternation of his more academic admirers, who believed Latin to be the only proper language for dignified verse, Dante wrote his COMEDY in colloquial Italian, wanting it to be a poem for the common reader. This edition is translated by, and includes an Introduction by, Dorothy L. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Dante the Medievalist
A window into the medieval world. Read it: the minds of the Middle Ages were not nearly so befuddled as those that claim it to be.

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

DANTE THROUGH DOROTHY: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
please read the life and works of Dorothy L. SAyers to appreciate fully the effort she made here, her final writing, posthumously completed (no, not with any seance, which she adequately lambasted in her detective stories).

Her total translation of the Commedia is worth the price of admission (Do not abandon all hope, as she will bring you home to the beatific vision).

There are several translations of varying usefulness and grace, but Dorothy is the rock upon which to stand when comparing the rest.

Hame one cannot give 6 stars...
This is not the most up - to - date translation: however, it is one of the more worthy bits of the history that has grown up around the Comedy, and its perspective is still of practical use. (She actually tries to avoid Freud, for example). Her misunderstandings are ones we can overlook, and she could evenhelp to correct any new ones (not that I do not have full faith in our, er, "currentness", of course!) that might arise.
As for the work of the Master himself, what can one say? Its the best book in world history (have not read any better: and I am, in all humillity, considered something of a reader).
Simply put, its Heaven.

Quella che m'paradisa la mia mente
The elevated sound of poetry are here heard. Not fisical reality, but the ideal; In the Paradiso, ideas and feelings are visible. Dante sees God's unexpressible force: love. ... Read more

Product Description
This splendid verse translation by AllenMandelbaum provides an entirely fresh experience ofDante's great poem of penance and hope. As Danteascends the Mount of Purgatory toward the EarthlyParadise and his beloved Beatrice, through "thatsecond kingdom in which the human soul is cleansedof sin," all the passion and suffering, poetryand philosophy are rendered with the immediacy ofa poet of our own age. With extensive notes andcommentary prepared especially for thisedition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A stint in Purgatorio
"To course across more kindly waters now/my talent's little vessel lifts her sails/leaving behind herself a sea so cruel..."

Having finished his tour of hell and its residents, Dante Alighieri turns his attention to a more cheerful (if less juicy) supernatural realm. "Purgatorio" is less famous than its predecessor, but it's still a beautiful piece of work that explores the mindset not of the damned, but of sinners who are undergoing a divine cleansing -- beautiful, hopeful and a little sad.

Outside of Hell, Dante and Virgil encounter a small boat piloted by an angel and filled with human souls -- and unlike the damned, they're eager to find "the mountain." And as Hell had circles of damnation, Purgatory has terraces that the redeemable souls climb on their way towards Heaven, and none of the people there will leave their terrace until they are cleansed.

And the sins that are cleansed here are the seven deadly ones: the proud, the envious, the wrathful, the greedy, the lazy, the gluttonous, and the lustful. But as Dante moves slowly through the terraces, he finds himself gaining a new tour guide as he approaches Heaven...

I'll say this openly: the second part of the "Divine Comedy" is simply not as deliciously entertaining as "Inferno" -- it was kind of fun to see Dante skewering the corrupt people of his time, and describing the sort of grotesque punishments they merited. But while not as fun, "Purgatorio" is a more transcendent, hopeful kind of story since all the souls there will eventually be cleansed and make their way to Heaven.

As a result, "Purgatorio" is filled with a kind of eager anticipation -- there's flowers, stars, dancing, angelic ferrymen, mythic Grecian rivers and an army of souls who are all-too-eager to get to Purgatory so their purification can start. Alighieri's timeless poetry has a silken quality, from beginning to end ("But here, since I am yours, o holy Muses/may this poem rise again from Hell's dead realm/and may Calliope rise somewhat here/accompanying my singing...") and it's crammed with classical references and Christian symbolism (the Sun's part in advancing the soiled souls).

And the trip through Purgatory seems to have a strong effect on Dante's self-insert, who appears less repulsed and more fascinated by what he sees there. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when the paternal Virgil exits the Comedy, but at least he has someone else appears to guide him.

The middle part of the Divine Comedy isn't as juicy as "Inferno," but the beauty of Dante Alighieri's writing makes up for it."Purgatorio" is a must read... and then on to Paradise.

Noted poet/scholar Allen Mandelbaum's moving, faithful (inexpensive!) translation
I've read THE DIVINE COMEDY in the original Italian and I highly recommend poet and scholar Allen Mandelbaum's acclaimed (facing page) translation (in 3 inexpensive mass-market paperbacks from Bantam: Inferno (Bantam Classics): 0553213393 / Purgatorio (Bantam Classics): 055321344X / Paradiso (Bantam Classics): 0553212044). Originally published in hardcover by the University of California Press, these free-verse English works carry the melancholic tone and the humanity of the original more faithfully than several other translations I've read. The maps/charts/notes for these mass market paperbacks are excellent (if relatively brief) and will likely satisfy the reader with a general interest in World Literature.

There is no end of commentary out there, extending back to Dante's own time (700 years worth!). Many Italian Studies professors lament that Dante's most famous work gets duller with each volume. I disagree, in part. Though the INFERNO is undoubtedly the most dramatic, I believe that the PURGATORY is the most satisfying, because it is so recognizably human. The PARADISE is not my favorite as I've never been enthusiastic about theology, though the PARADISE (and THE DIVINE COMEDY in toto) may be best appreciated as a microcosm of medieval European thought. One must also appreciate the difficult conditions under which this masterpiece was composed -- in exile -- no doubt a much more trying experience in early 14th century "Italy" than in our time. You don't have to agree with Dante to admire him and his art. The man suffered, and you can feel it. I believe the intensity of feeling in the poem is, in part, what distinguishes it from many other well-known epic poems which demonstrate more artifice than humanity.

N.B.: Mandelbaum's complete translation of THE DIVINE COMEDY is also available in a single-volume, portable cloth-hardcover edition, though the single-volume is in English with no facing-page original Italian (and with notes by Peter Armour): Everyman's Library, ISBN 0679433139. The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library)
If you find you love Mandelbaum's translation and Barry Moser's haunting ink-wash illustrations, you can search for the original (bilingual) editions from the Univ. of CA Press.

If you're looking for a different translation of The Divine Comedy, many scholars agree that the following free-verse English-language versions are currently the pick of the crop (and also more expensive than the Mandelbaum/Bantam Classics):

Robert Durling's INFERNO and PURGATORIO translations with excellent, brief notes (and beautiful maps and cover illustrations) -- Oxford Univ. Press. Durling is currently working on his translation of the PARADISO;

Charles S. Singleton's scholarly translation/notes for the Inferno/Purgatory/Paradise are expensive (though you might find inexpensive used copies), and probably best appreciated by Dante aficionados -- Princeton Univ. Press;

At this time I have not yet read the recent translations by the Hollanders, which are said to be fantastic. I believe much of the praise is for the accompanying notes which condense Hollander's voluminous knowledge. I've read some of the notes and they are very impressive. Robert Hollander is another esteemed Dante scholar.

Dedicated students of Dante will want to check out Princeton's online Dante database (the Princeton Dante Project [PDP] and Dartmouth College's online Dante database, the Dartmouth Dante Project [DDP], both directed by Robert Hollander.

If you're looking for an attempt at capturing the rhyme of the original Italian (terza rima), a Norton Critical Edition of Michael Palma's rhyming translation of the Inferno (Norton Critical Editions) (edited by Giuseppe Mazzotta) is available (ISBN-10: 039397796X ; ISBN-13: 9780393977967). The NCE is loaded with great supplementary material (annotation, backgrounds, criticism, etc.).

Other attempts at capturing the Dante's rhyme scheme: Longfellow (edited by the Bondanellas of Indiana Univ.), Dorothy Sayers or Laurence Binyon (L.B.'s is out-of-print but available through used booksellers).

John A. Scott's UNDERSTANDING DANTE (The William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante Studies) may be the best and most comprehensive one-volume guide in English to Dante Alighieri and his work. I've read much on Dante and found it fascinating and highly informative--but more significantly, it's been highly praised by a number of notables in the field. ISBN-10: 0268044511.

The Best Translation for the Student of Italian
There are two things that set this edition of Dante's
Purgatorio apart. The first is the evocative 1982 translation
by Allen Mandelbaum. The Italian government itself has
showered prizes on Mandelbaum and indeed, from an Italian
perspective this is also the best translation available. It
has a fidelity to the Italian that is all the more jealously
guarded because, for modern Italian speakers, Dante's
14th contury language is not so remote.

The second is that the original Italian text is supplied
side by side with the translation. For the student of Italian
or any non-native speaker, this is an arrangement that
facilitates the appreciation of the lyricism of the original
because you are not distracted by the only slightly archaic
language.

Mandelbaum's notes are illuminating and the illustrations by
Barry Moser are inventive and evocative masterpieces.

When the Italian comedian Robert Benigni visited the U.S.
to accept his Oscars for La Vita e Bella, the story was that
the only person he wanted to meet was the famed Dantista,
Allen Mandelbaum.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINEand
the novel bang BANG. ISBN 9781601640005

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters.Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Purgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem).The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere.At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are attracted by a musical performance by Casella, but are reprimanded by Cato, a pagan who has been placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain.The text gives no indication whether or not Cato's soul is destined for heaven: his symbolic significance has been much debated.(Cantos I and II).

Dante starts the ascent on Mount Purgatory.On the lower slopes (designated as "ante-Purgatory" by commentators) Dante meets first a group of excommunicates, detained for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy.Ascending higher, he encounters those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths (often due to leading extremely sinful lives).These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth (Cantos III through VI).Finally, Dante is shown a beautiful valley where he sees the lately-deceased monarchs of the great nations of Europe, and a number of other persons whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).

The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter "P" (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante's forehead, abjuring him to "wash you those wounds within".The angel uses two keys, gold and silver, to open the gate and warns Dante not to look back, lest he should find himself outside the gate again, symbolizing Dante having to overcome and rise above the hell that he has just left and thusly leaving his sinning ways behind him.From there, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory.These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace purging a particular sin in an appropriate manner.Those in purgatory can leave their circle whenever they like, but essentially there is an honors system where no one leaves until they have corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend towards God in Heaven, and can ascend only during daylight hours, since the light of God is the only true guidance.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

Another Classic Masterfully Translated
The second of three books that compose the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri's "Purgatorio" is a continuation of his epic Cantos.Having seen Satan with their own eyes, Dante and Virgil once again breathe fresh air as they surface through an opening in a cliff.Their adventure then carries them to the mountain island of Purgatory where Dante hears tales of woe and sees some familiar faces, all the while drawing nearer to his beloved Beatrice.

Often overlooked as the middle story, Purgatorio is, in its own rights, a classic.It would be my recommendation, however, to read it in order so as not to confuse yourself and to miss out on any of the important events that occur.

What makes this edition so special is the wonderful translation done by Allen Mandelbaum.The notes that are provided make understanding not only the language but the plot and its nuances much easier and consequently much more enjoyable.This is easily the best version on the market today for the casual reader. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.Amazon.com Review
The one quality that all classic works of literature share is their timelessness. Shakespeare still plays in Peoria 400 years after his death because the stories he dramatized resonate in modern readers' hearts and minds; methods of warfare have changed quite a bit since the Trojan War described by Homer in his Iliad, but the passions and conflicts that shaped such warriors as Achilles, Agamemnon, Patroclus, and Odysseus still find their counterparts today on battlefields from Bosnia to Afghanistan. Likewise, a little travel guide to hell written by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri in the 13th century remains in print at the end of the 20th century, and it continues to speak to new generations of readers. There have been countless translations of the Inferno, but this one by poet Robert Pinsky is both eloquent and tailored to our times.

Yes, this is an epic poem, but don't let that put you off. An excellent introduction provides context for the work, while detailed notes on each canto are a virtual who's who of 13th-century Italian politics, culture, and literature. Best of all, Pinsky's brilliant translation communicates the horror, despair, and terror of hell with such immediacy, you can almost smell the sulfur and feel the heat from the rain of fire as Dante--led by his faithful guide Virgil--descends lower and lower into the pit. Dante's journey through Satan's kingdom must rate as one of the great fictional travel tales of all time, and Pinsky does it great justice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

The darkest thing I have ever read
A guided tour through hell written in the form of a poem? An idea that good only comes once in a thousand years.

Brilliant work but I didn't enjoy it
As a literature minor, I know that I'm supposed to take great joy in dissecting and analyzing a great work of literature such as The Inferno, but I didn't really enjoy this book all that much.

I found way too much of the storyline to be repetitive and drawn out for two long. The first half or so of the story is basically traveling from one circle of Hell to another, finding out what the sin and the punishment for the sin in that area is, meeting and talking with one or two of the sinners and relating what they did in their lives to the reason that they are here. Dante reacts to their trials either sympathetically or feeling that they deserve what they got mainly based on who they are (if they happen to be somebody from his actual life who treated him badly or had a hand in his expulsion from his home, he feels pretty justified in thinking that they are getting what they deserve.)

I don't want to take away from the greatness of this piece of literature. The rhyming scheme and the contrapasso (matching up the punishments so that they fit the crime) that Dante has developed are pure genius and the poem itself is a great accomplishment. My rating is based entirely upon my personal enjoyment (or lack there of) of the work.

As Good as it Gets...
When I came across Mr. Pinsky's translation over a decade ago, I was thrilled and impressed.I loved sitting with the beautiful prose in Italian and English.When I heard my daughter was taking a course in Italian on Dante's Inferno at Syracuse (ahhh to be in college again), I sent her the book.Both my daughter and her professor love this translation.The professor has used the text in her class before.A great buy in hardcover...even better in paperback.A great enhancement would be a version for my new kindle2!

Excellent for the Rookie
Perhaps you are reading these reviews because, let us be honest, you are a bit intimidated to read a book of this nature.Written over seven centuries ago, many, perhaps even most, of the references are today obscure.Yes, the scholars can read Dante, but what of you, who just wants something deeper, who recognizes that you should fill your head with something a bit more permanent than the latest best seller?You still want something accessible and understandable.To you I say...you should plunge ahead and read THE INFERNO OF DANTE.It is fantastic.

I am no expert on the time period reflected in THE INFERNO.And I remember nothing about any poetry class I ever took.I cannot even say whether Pinsky did a good job of translating Dante into English.I can only comment on the pages that are in front of me, and they are extremely enjoyable.Dante himself sought to make THE INFERNO accessible to the masses.He wrote it in Italian rather than Latin for exactly that reason and this translation remains true to that end.

As most are aware, THE INFERNO takes us through the circles of Hell, deeper and deeper into the abyss.THE INFERNO's descriptions are excellent, grabbing the reader's attention as the sins become more and more serious the deeper we go, with the eternal punishments meted out becoming more and more severe.Although many references are now obscure, the notes for the book provide an excellent context that allows one to follow along.I personally was concerned that I would be spending too much time with the endnotes to really enjoy the text.But the two really complement each other very well, making the book that much more enjoyable.

We learn a great deal along the way.In limbo, for instance, Dante encounters many souls worthy of salvation, but which are doomed to limbo, as they were born before Christ provided that salvation to man.Interestingly, although most Muslims are later found deeper in hell with the heretics, several notable Muslims are here, evidencing at least a grudging appreciation on the part of the deeply Chritian Dante for the damned of a non-Christian religion.

Following that same theme, the founder of Islam himself, Mohammed, is further down still than the heretics.Following the belief that Mohammed was a fallen Catholic cardinal, he is with the schismatics, who broke from the one true church to lead others onto a false path.Eternally split open from head to tailbone only to heal up for another round of the same, his torture perfectly symbolizes his sin.

Of course, I use the above merely as examples.THE INFERNO is rife with others, each as readable as they are gruesome.Contrary to my own initial concerns, I found THE INFERNO OF DANTE very much worth the time and I recommend it without hesitation.

not bad...not bad.. I wonder if Dante is with Beatrice now...
Even though the Inferno is not intended to be an analysis of the philosophy of sins, but rather an implementation of Christian doctrines, Dante did not miss the opportunity to enhance his glory at the expense of his sinner rivals. A sinner's punishment was proportional to their sin, but the degree of evil associated with each sin was defined by Dante's own moral system.It was interesting to note that he considered murder less evil than fraud. Another interesting point was that it was necessary for Dante and Virgil to stop at the river of forgetfulness before getting out of Hell.

The intention of the journey was in one way or another to find Beatrice, the love that Dante lost early on earth and was hoping to meet in heaven. Most likely, the Divine Comedy wouldn't have seen the light of day if Dante had married Beatrice.

Nice poem, Dante's ego gets out of control at some points, but that can be forgiven, given the artistic work he created.

... Read more

Product Description
"Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third." UNDERSTANDING DANTE attempts to explain and justify T. S. Eliot’s bold claim. John Scott offers readers at all levels a critical overview of Dante’s writings: five chapters deal with his New Life of love and poetry ("Vita Nova"), the "Banquet" of knowledge ("Convivio"), his Latin treatise on language and poetics ("De Vulgari Eloquentia"), Italian lyrics ("Rime"), and his blueprint for world government ("Monarchia"). The next five chapters concentrate on Dante’s masterpiece, the "Comedy": its structure, Dante’s worldview (still relevant today), and the "Comedy" examined as a poem. Much has been written on Dante’s moral, political, and religious ideas; important as these are, however, such discussions are perforce limited. It is above all as a work of poetry that the "Divine Comedy" maintains its appeal and fascination to readers of all backgrounds and beliefs.

Firmly grounded in the latest advances of Dante scholarship, UNDERSTANDING DANTE offers an original and uniquely detailed, global analysis of Dante as poet of the "Comedy" that will be welcomed by those who read the poem in translation as well as by those who study the original Italian text. At the same time, Scott’s book will be welcome for its rich and insightful analysis of the whole corpus of Dante’s writings, as well as Scott’s mastery of the vast sea of critical literature in various languages. Scott bridges the gap that often exists between Dante studies in English-speaking countries and the great tradition of Dante scholarship in the poet’s homeland. No work in English about the great Italian poet can rival UNDERSTANDING DANTE’s scope in both depth and breadth of close reading and critical vision. ... Read more

Product Description
This Book Is In German. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London ; New York : MacmillanPublication date: 1892Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Standard Edition of Dante
I want to explore what makes for a good edition of a classic work such as this. First, of course, is the value of the translation itself. Dr. Esolen's is a superior translation to the others readily available, including that by John Ciardi. I have tried numerous times to read Ciardi's rendering, wanting very much to like it, but in the end I found his rhythm forced and his efforts even at approximate rhyme unsatisfying. Simply put, his lines do not flow. By contrast, Esolen's lines not only flow, but propel the reader onward through the narrative, which is no small feat given the many places throughout the rings of Hell and along the ascent of Mount Purgatory where that attention could stall.

This would be enough to commend the translation, but there is more that makes this Modern Library a superlative edition. His introduction does an extraordinary job of explaining what Purgatory is and is not. In so doing, he has provided an invaluable aid not only to the non-Catholic reader, but likely to the Catholic reader as well, who may not have the best understanding of this wonderful aspect of life after death. Yes, I say it is wonderful based on Esolen's introduction, but I shall leave the reasons for that until another post. For the moment I will conclude by saying that based on his introduction alone, one could not help but marvel at the love of God, desire that love ever more ardently, and see in the gift of Purgatory one more expression of that love.

For such a reasonably priced and slender book, Dr. Esolen manages to include the most helpful appendices and notes. Two appendices contain selections from Aquinas that give insight into Dante's theology. One includes samples of Medieval poetry by poets whom Dante encounters. A fourth appendix includes relevant selections from the Church Fathers on Purgatory, and a fifth presents the full text of various Latin songs and prayers in translation that are sung and prayed by the souls that Dante meets.

Finally, the notes for each canto are all, but only, what a reader needs. To annotate sufficiently the vast number of contemporary references that Dante makes, to say nothing of his ancient allusions, would be a daunting task. Dr. Esolen, however, has provided the reader with just what he needs to make sense of the poem without burdening him with superfluous facts.

As with his Inferno, Dr. Esolen has produced an outstanding edition of Purgatory. In many ways it is like having a university course in Dante in the pages of a book.

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters.Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Purgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem).The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere.At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are attracted by a musical performance by Casella, but are reprimanded by Cato, a pagan who has been placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain.The text gives no indication whether or not Cato's soul is destined for heaven: his symbolic significance has been much debated.(Cantos I and II).

Dante starts the ascent on Mount Purgatory.On the lower slopes (designated as "ante-Purgatory" by commentators) Dante meets first a group of excommunicates, detained for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy.Ascending higher, he encounters those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths (often due to leading extremely sinful lives).These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth (Cantos III through VI).Finally, Dante is shown a beautiful valley where he sees the lately-deceased monarchs of the great nations of Europe, and a number of other persons whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).

The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter "P" (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante's forehead, abjuring him to "wash you those wounds within".The angel uses two keys, gold and silver, to open the gate and warns Dante not to look back, lest he should find himself outside the gate again, symbolizing Dante having to overcome and rise above the hell that he has just left and thusly leaving his sinning ways behind him.From there, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory.These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace purging a particular sin in an appropriate manner.Those in purgatory can leave their circle whenever they like, but essentially there is an honors system where no one leaves until they have corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend towards God in Heaven, and can ascend only during daylight hours, since the light of God is the only true guidance.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.
... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

Difficult text, rendered well
I am not a professional Dante scholar, and in fact, speak no Italian at all, so my judgement as to the accuracy of the translation is suspect. That said, Musa does an admirable job of helping the reader understand this very difficult final third of the Divine Comedy. Of the three sections of the Comedy, my feeling is that Paradise is the least interesting, though it would be a shame to read the first two parts and neglect the third, since they all are integral to understanding what Dante was trying to accomplish. But the characters in Paradise are all literally perfect and sinless, and there is not nearly as much of interest as in the other books. There is a lot of symbolism involving what shapes the saints stand in and the like, but its all rather trying and sometimes monotonous, to me anyway. Musa is a good guide though. The translation smartly abandons any hope of recreating Rima Terza, and goes with a straight blank verse rendering. The translation is subtle and effective, even when the poem itself is slow and tedious. Despite my beliefs about Paradise, both history and personal experience tell me that Divine Comedy is an important and fulfilling part of the Western Canon that should not go neglected. I have no problem recommending Musa's version of Paradise.

Wonderful, Informative, Scary Story
My interest in classic literature did not arise until recently. I read many reviews which indicated that people with this such interest absolutely MUST read Dante's Inferno. With that hefty weight upon my "newbie" shoulders I decided to undergo the journey that so many others have made over the last 700 years.

As it turns out, Mark Musa's translation of Inferno is fantastic. Each chapter begins with a very brief but informative synopsis, followed by the prose, then finally capped off my Musa's notes on the text. Musa's notes give backgroud on all of the characters and situations that take place throughout the story. These notes are a MUST for any newcomer to Dante and classical literature in general. So, not only is there the original text in English for us non-Italian speakers, but there are notes to increase the readers comprehension.

Dante is guided by the author of the Aeneid, Virgil.Virgil takes Dante through the Nine Levels of Hell to show him the pain and suffering of all those who do not love and follow God.Dante learns a great deal on this journey as does the reader.

Mark Musa's translation of Dante is smooth, entertaining, and very informative. Anyone interested in Christianity, Hell, famous Greeks, and classical literature should definitely indulge themselves as this translation is not overwhelming in the slightest. Five stars across the board.

I understood the grace and beauty
The pilgrim's journey continues to heaven.

If you, like me, are intimidated by Dante but are interested in these great works of Western Literature, you now have an accessible translation of the Divine Comedy.Musa's translation communicates the divinity of the events in the story onan understandable level. The Divine Comedy colored my perception ofreligion and helped me to a new understanding of the harmony ofresponsibility and grace. The work also educates the reader in an enrichingway about the belief system of the middle ages.

Don't miss this book anddon't read any other translation.

Divine Comedy : Paradise
In this translation of paradise, Mark Musa exhibits the same sensitivity to language and knowledge of translation that enabled his versions of the Inferno and Purgatory to caputure the vibrant powers of Dantes poetry.Thats what it says on the back of the book and boy you couldnt have said itbetter than that.This book is by far better than the first and a perfectsequel to the secound translation.Mark Musa puts Dante's complex poetryinto plain english so that even a common student like myself canunderstand.I think anyone who likes Dantes interpretations about lifewill love this addition to his work. ... Read more