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Summary: Superb and accessable translation of Dante's masterpiece
Review: Those of us not fortunate enough to be able to read Italian and thus savor Dante's masterpiece in its original language have the next best thing--the comprehensively noted translation by another great poet, the late John Ciardi. This superb and handsome hardbound edition of Ciardi's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy is not simply the collected, earlier translations of The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso, which in past years appeared in separate paperback editions: This edition is the final Ciardi translation from earlier forms which were "a work in progress." In this magnificent final translation, the non-Italian-speaking reader can savor Dante's extrodinary fusion of morality with the metaphorical architecture of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, explored with pathos and sympathy for the human condition which, in the mind of Dante, constantly yearns for The All in All. A volume that should be required reading for anyone who aspires to understand man's place in the universe.
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Summary: One of the Finest Translations of the Divine Comedy
Review: This is one of the best and most approachable translations of the Divine Comedy available. It is easily read by those of most any educational background and can be understood in many different levels. If you are looking for a reliable,and accurate translation of "The Divine Comedy" , this volume would serve you well. The notes and explanations are a great plus as well.
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Summary: Bad recording of a Great Book
Review: While the actor, Heathecote Williams, clearly can read, either he was a poor choice for this task, or the producers of this audio version had no experience with audio books. The production quality of this recording is terrible. I purchase a lot of audio books, but seldom have I had such a horrible listening experience.
The actor speaks in a droning monitone and then starts to yell in a high-pitched and squeaky voice.
I would suggest that you read this book rather than listen to this badly produced set of discs.
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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.
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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'
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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."
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Summary: The Ultimate Journey of the Soul
Review: Whether you care to join the scholarly debate over whether Dante's soaring masterpiece is medieval or renaissance literature, this trilogy is well worth the time and effort anyone cares to invest. Make no mistake - this account of the journey of a soul through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven is very demanding reading, no matter how well translated and how many helpful notes are provided (I first "discovered" Dante in high school and remain faithful to the Ciardi translation). Dante can be read on so many levels that it constantly challenges the reader, yet the rewards are great. Dante the poet and the protagonist is a medieval Christian who is also embracing the masters of classical antiquity, such as his first guide, Virgil. He is a Florentine who bitterly resents the people who contributed to his exile from his beloved city-state. He is a political theorist who embraces a sort of world order far beyond the nations and petty principalities of his day. He is a devout believer who abhors the corruption of the late medieval Church. He is a writer who constructs a masterpeice of structure. He is a romantic who pines for his ultimate guide Beatrice. But ultimately, Dante is a passionate believer who chronicles the allegory of his soul's journey from sin (The Inferno) to repentance (Purgatory) to salvation (Paradise). Don't make the all-too-frequent mistake of reading only the most entertaining Inferno. A third of Dante is fascinating but the entire Divine Comedy is an inspiration.
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Summary: The Greatest Literature I've Ever Read
Review: I am not a literary expert, nor am I well read in all of the great literature of the past, but I have read enough to say this is the best piece of literature I've read. First, the Divine Comedy Itself. I first read the Inferno as an Undergrad in general ed. I just loved this story as challenging as it was to read. Curiosity got to me, and I bought this edition (the same as I had read for the Inferno). The book got much more challenging to read as it progresses, perhaps because the imagery is much more abstract, but it also gets more fantastic all the way through. The Paradiso definitely fits its purpose as a climax. The whole of The Divine Comedy is a good story of the spiritual journey of one man through "the afterlife" so to speak. I love the interaction the book takes of Dante's interaction with history and religion, biblical and mythical. It is an interesting perspective that shows the genious of Dante the author. As for this particular edition. I could not tell you it is the best as I have never read others. I've heard this is one of the few that has tried to make the translation stay true to the original Latin poetic form Dante used. I also think it is wonderful, and from my point essential, that this edition comes with extensive notes that help explain in layman's terms what is going on in the story Canto by Canto as well as line by line explanations of the different references made to historical people, places, and events as well as literary references. In sum, all I can say is that "The Divine Comedy" is worth a read especially if you are up to the challenge. I am not a literary expert; I work in engineering, but I find this the most fascinating literature I've ever read. Most of all, it is inpirational, the quest of one man to find his true love, facing Hell and more...
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Summary: Very nice translation
Review: The book is a bit bulky as a paperback, with a third of the bulk being footnotes and extraneous writings. Why not go ahead and include etchings, too? I don't need that. I already have the books in separate with all the historical info I need, and if I hadn't, I have the library within a few minutes drive. I was looking for a compact version of the trilogy to carry around (I don't know why) or keep beside my bed. Anyway, the translation compared to others I've leafed through is superb. No nonsense and very straight-forward, but at the same time betraying a certain depth. You can choose to read between the lines or not. The translation warrants a 5-star rating, but the book's fuction as a paperback brings that rating down.
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Summary: Hell's greatest architect
Review: Dante's "The Divine Comedy" is an allegory of the range of human potential from the depths of sin to the heights of grace, and the journey a man must take -- that is, the way he should live his life -- to make himself worthy of the ultimate rewards of Heaven. In a way, it contains the prototypical visions of the afterlife, images of heavenly and hellish realms that would remain definitive and powerful to centuries of readers. Structurally, it is a poem divided into three parts: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven). The protagonist, Dante himself, must travel through these three realms in order to reach God, the ultimate beatitude. The poem begins with Dante lost in the woods, like a man who lacks spiritual guidance or is uncertain how to live his life. He is approached by the Roman poet Virgil, who offers to lead him out of the wilderness. They have to travel down through the depths of Hell and face Satan himself (Inferno) before they can escape to the outside world and scale the mountain of Purgatory (Purgatorio), at the top of which is situated the Garden of Eden, where Beatrice, Dante's earthly love, will guide him up through the celestial spheres towards Heaven (Paradiso). Dante's great inspiration is his concept of the physical and spiritual aspects of these realms. Hell is composed of nine circles arranged in an inverted cone, each circle representing a mortal sin such as violence, theft, treason, witchcraft, blasphemy, suicide, heresy, etc., in which souls who committed these sins in their lifetimes are punished. Even the topmost circle is a sort of Limbo reserved for pre-Christians like Virgil himself, pagans and the unbaptized. Having envisioned this infernal masterpiece, Dante could be considered Hell's greatest architect. The mountain of Purgatory consists of seven terraces, each representing some corrigible sin like envy, pride, anger, etc., on which souls who committed these sins in their lifetimes do penance. The Garden of Eden represents living man's ideal state of existence, that of perfect wisdom and nearness to God. Admission to the Garden of Eden must be earned by doing penance for earthly sins, hence Purgatory. In the Paradiso, the celestial spheres, each representing a virtue (ambition, love, prudence, fortitude, etc.), consist of the moon, the inner and outer planets, the sun (based on the Ptolemaic model of the solar system), and finally Heaven, wherein dwell God and all angels. The poem could be considered a morality tale or a series of object lessons, but it's a little more purely narrative than that, given its creative illustration of the hierarchy of souls and its effortless synergy of classical Greco-Roman mythology and Christian theology. It is an essential Medieval literary landmark, and it is difficult to imagine how European literature would have evolved without it.
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