Rating: 
Summary: Horrible and Captivating
Review: I found an old copy of this book at an antique store that contained very disturbing illustrations, showing Hell and Purgatory in all its bloody glory. Those visions have haunted me ever since. One day when I become a director I'm going to direct a film version of the Divine Comedy and hope to capture all of the harrowing tableau associated with Hell and Purgatory, and all the divine glory associated with Heaven.
Rating: 
Summary: Leave all hope, ye that enter
Review: I was interested in Dante's thoughts on hell, religion, and the afterlife as taught by the Catholic church at the time of its writing. What I got was a detailed political history of Medieval Italy. This book is great for the first few chapters, but then it becomes a repetitive saga. Synopsis of the each chapter of the Inferno: Go to next layer of hell; describe in 20 words or less the torture found there; make fun of some political opponents, Catholic church officials, and so forth; prepare for further descent. In my opinion, this book resides somewhere between the 21st and 22nd layers of hell. Canto three pretty much has it right.... 'Leave all hope, ye that enter'
Rating:
Summary: Leave all hope, ye that enter
Review: I was interested in Dante's thoughts on hell, religion, and the afterlife as taught by the Catholic church at the time of its writing. What I got was a detailed political history of Medieval Italy. This book is great for the first few chapters, but then it becomes a repetitive saga. Synopsis of the each chapter of the Inferno: Go to next layer of hell; describe in 20 words or less the torture found there; make fun of some political opponents, Catholic church officials, and so forth; prepare for further descent. In my opinion, this book resides somewhere between the 21st and 22nd layers of hell. Canto three pretty much has it right.... 'Leave all hope, ye that enter'
Rating: 
Summary: A Musical Translation
Review: I was introduced to Ciardi's translation of "The Divine Comedy" in an anthology of continental literature I read in college. At that time, after experiencing fragments of Fagles' horrible "verse" translation of Homer's works, I had low expectations for the translations in that anthology.However, the instant I started reading John Ciardi's verse translation of "The Inferno", my hardened heart once again began to beat with the vibrancy it had when I read poems of Wordsworth or Browning. John Ciardi, with a poetic talent that seems to be unmatched -- except for what I've read of W.S. Merwin's "Paradiso XXXIII," -- creates a poetic flow that feels, tastes, and even smells Italian. A poetic flow that delightfully contrasts Fagles', whose poetic flow is limited by popular styles and even phrases of the 20th century. Instead of trying to lift Dante to the 20th century, Ciardi gracefully carries us to the early 14th century. Instead of assuming that Dante is arcane, old fashioned, and in need of John's own poetic help, he believes that the original Italian is fresh, exciting, and poetically graceful. The translation of Dante would have been diluted if Ciardi were to try and bring the 14th century to us through the modernization of the language, symbolism, and even the geography of Dante's world. (Fagles even geographically modified his "Odyssey" at one point to rename a Greek river the Nile because readers may get `confused'.) I'm glad that Ciardi tries to bring us back in time when the universe was cosmically full of life, where even the stars were more than the mere byproducts of abstract forces, chance, that can only be systematically analyzed and dissected. The medieval worldview is far richer than the purely logical and scientific mindset that's now common. By bringing Dante to us unfiltered by that mindset, Ciardi helps move us towards the bright and vibrant medieval world. I strongly recommend John Ciardi's poetic translation of "The Divine Comedy."
Rating:
Summary: A Musical Translation
Review: I was introduced to Ciardi's translation of "The Divine Comedy" in an anthology of continental literature I read in college. At that time, after experiencing fragments of Fagles' horrible "verse" translation of Homer's works, I had low expectations for the translations in that anthology. However, the instant I started reading John Ciardi's verse translation of "The Inferno", my hardened heart once again began to beat with the vibrancy it had when I read poems of Wordsworth or Browning. John Ciardi, with a poetic talent that seems to be unmatched -- except for what I've read of W.S. Merwin's "Paradiso XXXIII," -- creates a poetic flow that feels, tastes, and even smells Italian. A poetic flow that delightfully contrasts Fagles', whose poetic flow is limited by popular styles and even phrases of the 20th century. Instead of trying to lift Dante to the 20th century, Ciardi gracefully carries us to the early 14th century. Instead of assuming that Dante is arcane, old fashioned, and in need of John's own poetic help, he believes that the original Italian is fresh, exciting, and poetically graceful. The translation of Dante would have been diluted if Ciardi were to try and bring the 14th century to us through the modernization of the language, symbolism, and even the geography of Dante's world. (Fagles even geographically modified his "Odyssey" at one point to rename a Greek river the Nile because readers may get 'confused'.) I'm glad that Ciardi tries to bring us back in time when the universe was cosmically full of life, where even the stars were more than the mere byproducts of abstract forces, chance, that can only be systematically analyzed and dissected. The medieval worldview is far richer than the purely logical and scientific mindset that's now common. By bringing Dante to us unfiltered by that mindset, Ciardi helps move us towards the bright and vibrant medieval world. I strongly recommend John Ciardi's poetic translation of "The Divine Comedy."
Rating: 
Summary: A review of this edition, not the masterpiece
Review: I won't bother to review Dante's "Divine Comedy". The fact that it has withstood the test of time, and its depicitions of heaven and hell have become ingrained into our mythology, reveal far more than anything I could say. This translation, however, was simply too difficult to read. It was too full of "thees" and "thous", and quite frankly did not flow at all. Reading it was a real struggle for me. The annotation and Canto introductions, however, were very helpful, and gave me a better picture of what Dante was saying than the actual text itself. The book also has the advantage of being compact (all three parts in one average-sized book), and reasonably priced. However, I would recommend searching for a translation written in a more modern style, so that Dante's message isn't obscured in a linguistic haze. What he said was too important to be lost in a struggle with the langauge.
Rating:
Summary: L`amor che move il sole il`atre stelle.
Review: In his COMMOEDIA, Dante summarized the medieval thinking, much of the human history and his own general knowledge , beyound throwing his principal criticized people (for their behaviours and decissions) on the supplicies of the Hell. Infantile opinnion will it be to judge the FLORENTINII NASCENTI NOR MORIBUS just for his heavenly poetry. In the COMMOEDIA, as in any literary work, the need is to feel the pleasure as trying to understand what we`re reading, for occult, science and moralism are among the songs of immortality. For us, readers, is the work to delight the glory of Dante`s travel and discern his immense intolerence. May Virgilii, the human reason, lead us. So that we labour our fate, beyound the power of the BELLE STELLE. DIXIT.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, and truly one of the greatest book ever.
Review: In the Divine Comedy, Dante gives a chilling and perhaps even frightenly accurate of human nature. Throughout the Inferno, Dante is contiunally meeting figures of the past, contemporaries, even popes. His insight into the reason for their torture contains very deep meanings into human nature. In Purgatory, Dante again explains the human condition by his meetings with people of the past. In Paradise, Dante shows that although he has met people who are being punished for their Earthly sins, that there is a place for the just to come, and even the seeminly hopeless also. An excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Galleotto fu il libro, e chi lo scrisse
Review: Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful..absolutly breath-taking
Review: Never has there been a tale quite so epic, so emotional, and thought provoking. Dante, has done what no one else has dared to do, take us on a guided tour of hell, purgatory, and paradise. He makes you believe and fear the real thing. This story will stand for another 700 years as one of the single most important literary works of all time.
| 
