The Portable Dante

Rating:
Summary: Dante - My admittedly poor review
Review: Dante has always been a difficult writer for me. His long established greatness and unquestioned place in the pantheon of man's great literary creators is not something I question or doubt. I understand that he is the major writer of the Christian Middle Ages, and for many along with Shakespeare at the very pinnacle of the world's literary creators. My own difficulty with Dante may in part relate to the fact that he is presenting a Christian vision of life on earth, hell, purgatory and heaven. And that this vision is something I as a Jew have difficulty giving full emotional sympathy to. But there is another difficulty which I found in reading even the most colorful portrayals of those suffering in the Inferno. I found it all to be cruel. And I was repelled by the idea that God would so delight in the tremendous sufferings inflicted on sinners, who are after all too God's creatures. In other words the whole emotional landscape of Dante's lower world, and the great imaginative effort made to portray various strange and unusual sufferings repelled me. I found it in so many way petty and wrong and outside my sense of what God who made all creatures great and small , would condone. Could God who is Good really take delight in all these unending torments? I prefer to think of God as One who rather would seek a way to help save others even those who have sinned, rather than condemn them.
Thus the very premise of this great work seems to put it outside my own particular grasp or emotional comprehension.
Moreover as Dante moved to Purgatory and then later to Paradise I found myself somehow sleeping and not interested. These ' spiritual landscapes ' were too outside my own sense as a Jew of what the world is truly about . Of course God wants our penitence but there does not have to be some special realm in order for God to get it.We can repent and change everyday where we are in our own life.
I realize that what I am providing the review reader here is a very poor review indeed. It shows no knowledge or appreciation of the beauties of the language and other strengths of Dante's writing.
It is however one poor reader's honest impression however little it be worth.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Literary Works Ever
Review: Dante's "Divine Comedy" has been something I wanted to read for a very long time, but never quite got around to until recently. I haven't yet compiled anything like a Top Ten list of favorite books, but if I did, the Comedy would surely find a place on the list. Dante's vision of the ethereal, and his vivid descriptions of the travels he supposedly undertook were stunning and tremendously descriptive. I've read that many of Dante's contemporaries fully believed, after reading his accounts, that he did indeed travel to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise (indeed, some of Dante's contemporaries swear that he had singe marks on his face as a result of his travels in Hell). I'm not surprised--the story is told with such a painstaking attention to detail that it is hard to believe it could have been imagined.

The overarching message of the Comedy appealed to me--in order to overcome sin and evil, man must first encounter and understand it fully. This Dante does, traveling through Hell and Purgatory to intellectually comprehend the various and manifold degrees of sin and fault. Through the patience and teaching of his guides: Virgil, Beatrice and finally St. Bernard, Dante is exposed to sin and accounts of human frailty, without actually succumbing to that frailty himself. It is, in many ways, the best of both worlds. And with each lesson--and the corresponding conquest of sinful desire associated with the lesson--Dante further prepares himself for his ascent to Paradise, and for his glimpse into the Mind of God, whom Dante, in the last canto of "Il Paradiso," unforgettably portrays as an Unmoved Mover of the sun and the stars. Dante's exploration of the ethereal--and his corresponding self-exploration--is profoundly intellectual in nature, and yet, it captures very effectively the full range of emotions a pilgrim would feel if he undertook the extraordinary journey that Dante purports to have taken--emotions which include shock, horror, terror, pity, sadness, and ultimately ecstatic joy.

Of course, there are a large number of political motivations behind the writing of "The Divine Comedy." It seems that just about every canto has at least one character condemning--often in violent terms--the state of the Catholic Church in Dante's time. As an opponent of the Church at the time of the writing of the Comedy, Dante likely benefited from employing this argument in his work. Dante also has an interesting habit of placing the souls of friends, comrades and family members in Paradise, or at least Purgatory where they have a chance for redemption--while Dante's enemies find themselves in Hell. Additionally, Dante ensures that characters in the Comedy make very self-serving statements about the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines--a conflict which caused Dante, as a White Guelph, to be exiled from his beloved city of Florence. I was amused at the fact that many of the characters--indeed, a vast majority of them--were of Italian origin (at times, one cannot help but wonder whether Hell, Purgatory or Paradise are in any way multicultural melting pots). And while individual Jewish figures of great import--such as the prophets--are treated well in the Comedy, at times, Dante makes disturbing statements about how Jews were supposedly responsible for the death of Jesus (though to be fair, this was not an uncommon sentiment in the early 14th century).

However, the self-serving aspects of the Comedy aside, it is a wonderful and fascinating read--one that engenders a large number of emotions. At times, one cannot help but laugh out loud at some of the more hilarious descriptions in the story (whether those descriptions involve a sinner in Hell literally giving the finger to God in the Italian fashion by placing his thumb in between his forefinger and middle finger, or whether they involve the . . . um . . . gaseous emissions of a demon from an orifice that is not his mouth). Others are quite horrifying and disgusting in their gruesome nature--causing me either to turn away momentarily in slight disgust, or to worry about my own fate in some vague and uncertain way. And then, of course, there are images of surpassing beauty described in the Comedy; the radiant beauty of Beatrice, the awesome nature of Paradise, its many spheres, and the characters found there, the complex intellectual design of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and the carefully constructed explanations for various physical and spiritual phenomena. "The Divine Comedy" succeeds not only as an epic tale, it succeeds as well as a lucid and serious philosophical text. Indeed, it is one of the best works of literature I have come across in its ability to combine philosophical pedagogy with the clever and compelling relation of an epic tale.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and I imagine that I will return to the Comedy for re-readings many a time in the future. And I hope and expect to delight in the story just as much, if not more than I did the first time I read it.

Rating:
Summary: The best you can do without Italian...
Review: Dante's Divine Comedy is one of the greatest works of an individual author in the history of literature. I did my undergraduate thesis on a topic in it, so I guess I could be a little biased. I'm not reviewing the Commedia, but the Musa edition.

My director, an expert in Medieval Studies (Toronto Ph.D., Notre Dame professor), preferred this edition because it attempts to capture Dante's meaning, and is best equipped of the English translations to do that. It doesn't attempt to replicate his meter or rhyme, which we wouldn't be able to do without significant damage to the text. It's also not a translation based on other translations for the most fluid reading (Pinsky). Musa is specifically a scholar of medieval Italian. While I consulted Mandelbaum, he is foremost a poet/translator. His work is impressive as such, but a lot of the philosophical or theological finesse is lost when reading his translation. Not being contrived, I find Musa still compelling to read. He lets Dante speak for himself, mostly, and that's a tremendous attribute in a translator. If you want the full impact of the beauty, you had better start learning Italian. But if you seek to grasp the plot and basic meaning of Dante, this book is what you're looking for.

The book design is very good. I got tons of used out of this paperback, but it never fell apart and didn't show much wear and tear. The pages are soft on the eyes and are of good enough quality to write on (which I did a lot!). As others have mentioned, having footnotes at the bottom is much better than having to flip to the back (Mandelbaum) or use another book (Singleton). Don't be afraid to consult these notes or read the canto introductions, you will find that these will help your reading, not serve as crutches. One reviewer insinuated that Musa pared down the version to make it so comparably short. That is an unbelievably stupid assertion; unlike other translations, he uses prose (less spacing, more words per line) and doesn't have the facing Italian text. Nothing cut here.

In one portable volume you get works of near-peerless literature at a great value price.

Rating:
Summary: A master's works
Review: Okay, everyone has heard of the "Divine Comedy," the medieval masterwork of legendary poet Dante Alighieri. Heaven, hell, purgatory and so on. In "The Portable Dante," that sprawling supernatural epic is paired with his exquisite love ode, "La Vita Nuova."

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of Dante's guided tour through the three parts of the afterlife: Hell, where he is shown (by the poet Virgil) how the sinners are tormented in all sorts of inventive ways, depending on their sins. Purgatory, "the second kingdom," where Dante sees the suffering that people undergo to be purified of their wrongs. And finally paradise, where his beloved muse Beatrice shows him heaven, encountering his ancestors, angels, saints, and finally God himself.

"La Vita Nuova" (The New Life) is only loosely connected with the "Comedy." It tells of how Dante met Beatrice when they were both children, and he fell in love with her. Many years passed, and Dante's quiet adoration of Beatrice grew stronger, even though they married other people. The story follows his emotional ups and downs, and the writings that resulted... even when Beatrice died.

The main similarity between these two books is that they both feature (and adore) Beatrice. "La Vita Nuova" is an intimate little book, but the "Divine Comedy" sprawls all over Earth, the solar system (within the bounds of "paradiso"), and the three parts of the supernatural realm. You can't get much more epic than that.

Dante's writing remains rich and detailed, even translated into English. The descriptions of heaven and hell are mind-blowing, and sometimes the "Inferno" sections are even funny. Yes, hell is funny. But he also excels in describing his inner highs and lows in "La Vita Nuova," as he struggles with doubts, sorrow, anguish and joy.

But don't think that Dante's journeys are merely supernatural. While "La Vita Nuova" doesn't describe much beyond art and love, "Divine Comedy" also tackles religion and politics. It's a bit uncomfortable when Dante describes various people he disliked in hell. And he also takes the opportunity to criticize the Catholic chuch of his time, which had quite a few problems. However, his fervour for his religion, Beatrice and his art shine through.

"The Portable Dante" is an excellent way to check out Dante's most prominent works. Whether checking out an unrequited love, or journeying through the circles of hell, this is a spellbinding collection.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Enthralling Works Ever Written
Review: Once in a while you run across a book that really makes a lasting impression on you. Dante's Divine Comedy is such a book. I was absolutely engrossed in Dante's prose. I would stay up till four in the morning reading it. While reading this book I would often say to myself, "I'll just read a few more pages and then I'll go to sleep". When those few pages were finished, I found that I could not resist the temptation to continue reading. It's Great!

Rating:
Summary: Sublime and exquisite in every way.
Review: Take it from somebody who has three translations of the Divine Comedy. This translation is the best.

With every translation, something is lost (as Dante himself states in his Convivio, book 1), but very little seems to be lost in this one. Mark Musa has preserved the form, the vivid imagery, and the beautiful truths of the Divine Comedy in this translation to English. However, I can't say for certain, because I can't read Italian, much less medieval Tuscan-Italian.

I choose to focus on the translation instead of the work itself since the Divine Comedy is one of the unquesitoned great works of world literature.

In addition to that great work, Dante's other well-known work is his La Vita Nuova (The New Life). Want to have some chills? Finish "Paradise," then dive straight in to La Vita Nuova, and read it as fast as possible. You'll see what I mean.

Also included is a nice biography on Dante and a nice treatment and explanation of Dante's writing. This book is a must own for anybody.

Rating:
Summary: YOU WANT EDIT OR NOT?
Review: The doctrine of papal infallibility has absolutely --not even a scintilla -- to do with personal culpability for sin. Please Mr Zimmerman, Dante knew that. You dentist or doctor can be excellent in his job and still be an SOB...