Customer Reviews
Truly divine - By: E. A Solinas, 26 Oct 2007 
"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 "Divine Comedy," the legendary poem that takes its author through the eerie depths of hell, heaven & purgatory. It's a haunting, almost halllucinatory experience, full of the the metaphorical & supernatural horrors of the inferno, & joys of paradise.
The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, & 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 -- & down into Hell.
But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames & 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, & the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, & are trapped on a volcanic desert.
Well, that was fun. But after passing through hell, Dante gets the guided tour of Purgatory, where the souls of the not-that-bad-but-not-pure-either get cleansed. He & Virgil emerge at the base of a vast mountain, & an angel orders him to "wash you those wounds within," then lets them in.
As Virgil & Dante climb the mountain, they observe the seven terraces that sinners stay on, representing the seven deadly sins -- the angry, the proud, the envious, the lazy, the greedy, the lustful & the gluttons. It's a one-way trip, & you don't even get to look back.
The road up the mountain leads to the gates of Heaven, & soon Dante has been purified to the point where he's alllowed to go inside. Virgil doesn't get to enter Heaven, so he passes Dante on to the beautiful Beatrice, the woman he loved in his younger years.
She whisks him up to the spheres of those who are now pure of soul -- the wise, the loving, the people who fought for their religion, the just, the contemplative, the saints, & finallly even the angels. And after passing through heaven's nine spheres, he passes out of the physical realm & human understanding -- & sees God, the incomprehensible, represented by three circles inside each other, but alll the same size.
Needless to say, it's a pretty wild trip.And admittedly "Purgatorio" & "Paradiso" aren't quite on the writing level of "Inferno," which has the most visceral, skin-crawling imagery & lines ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen & wroth...'"), & a wicked sense of irony. It makes the angels & saints seem a bit tame.
But there's plenty of power in the second two books, particularly when Dante tries to comprehend God, & almost blows out his brain in the process -- "my desire & my will were turned like a wheel, alll at one speed by the Love that turns the sun & alll the other stars." It's haunting, & sticks with you long after the story has ended.
More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism & alllegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even at the start, Dante sees lion, a leopard & a wolf, which symbolize different sins, & a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. Not to mention Purgatory as a mountain that must be climbed, or Hell as a Hadesian underworld.
Dante's vivid writing & wildly imaginative journey makes the "Divine Comedy" a timeless, spellbinding read, & hauntingly powerful from inferno to paradiso.
For the uninitiated, probably the definitive edition to read. - By: G, 23 Apr 2006 After seeing movies & TV shows with references to The Divine Comedy, I thought it about time to see what alll the fuss was about.
There are times when the pace of the poem slows. However this never distracts from the narrative epic adventure from hell to heaven via purgatory. It has stunning descriptive visuals & excellent social comment of the time.
This is a brilliant study of human morality & religion. However I would recommend a little study into ancient mythology & the bible to easier understand this book. Also having not studied the social history of the time I did find it best to read a canto at a time & then read the study notes for that canto to aid my understanding.
This is a once in a lifetime experience to be had by alll.
A true piece of literary history - By: Chris Chalk, 12 Jan 2006 
I have found this both a difficult to book to review, & to read. In the scope of reviewing I feel thoroughly under qualified to offer my opinion on such a famous & historicallly significant book & when I was reading it I struggled to keep up with the sheer scale of the ideas that were being put in front of me. As such I can only review this from the point of view of someone who picked it up to attempt to widen his literary experiences.
The story gives us Virgil, who is charged with taking Dante through the 3 stages of the afterlife: Inferno, Purgatory & Paradiso & the weighting of words is roughly a third on each. I can honestly say Inferno is by far the strongest of the three & as another reviewer has mentioned Purgatory & especiallly Paradiso can feel padded & wordy.
I can honestly say I enjoyed the experience of reading Dante but I would advise that you don't take it on lightly, the translation of this book is incredible readable & kudos to the translator for that. However the subject matter is tough going, worth it but tough.
Society through the Medium of Politics and Religion - By: , 14 Jan 2004 Dante Alighieri is a consistingly politician Person & looks like he is subscribing to a religious climate, but he is not. His looks are those of the pupil of Philosophy & rather the pupil of concise Learning, of respect to his classmates but also the person that has so many a lot to say about them & their Whereabouts. The Divine Comedy is simply a great Work of Art. Art in it's purest & Divinest Form. Art in the form that it doesn't dictate the medium & form of the writing but simply describing his work I would state him in the most gullible persons of his Clan. And by Clan I mean of course the White Guelfs. But it is time to see the work step by step.
The first part is Inferno & is talking about of course Hell & riding through, like Riders on the Storm by The Doors a favourite group of mine that should be illustrating the reading of it. Hell is a storm for us people of knowledge & information that keeps coming back & back like images of a problematics that is as popular as the war on Iraq nowadays. It is the walk of Dante & his great teacher that have never met Virgil. He is just a Wannabe Poet that in his experience is on an expedition to prove himself for his belief in the work of a much earlier Latin poet. There it is unlikely not to meet with the she-wolf. The she-wolf is the most representable beast in my liking & the perfect picture of violence & raw activism against the war-like face of Death, Destruction & what it comes as pulling these two, the Devil.
The second part is Purgatorio. In Purgatorio Dante & his lead after coming through what a rulistic search, see Inferno & where each is punished, offers, finds a different point on God & the angels that protect Him. Inferno is death & demons, Purgatorio is a ship that gives his way through a place, a no-man's land, the neverland that alll the forgiven look & understand what they should face to fly away to the next of their steps. Their inner childism that tends to the Skies. They will not alll be forgotten from what the society of politics, which is in question, just wants, because the want, the need is there but it is not Redemption.
Last but not least is Paradiso. Where the eagles of the ancients fly free & dare to step up to what is divine. Where the angelic faces gather around Mother & most of alll where Beatrice who is in the search through alll the way from Inferno & Purgatorio to Paradiso, gives her Eroticism to Dante. Gives him the Hope, that The Ancient Hellenes have written " Ero anikate mahan ", that means Eroticism wins alll Wars. And she wins the Fight but does not Give In to Dante. She remains to the Skies & the Hope will be with Dante who leaves Virgil, his most profound Way to Poetry & Knowledge, there with the Divine Eagles & Nymphs & Gods, which the Latin mind state as Angels, to understand the Way the Mind of hers work for Love.
All in All it is a work which understands the Way God or the Devil or the Purgatoric creatures like to deal with things but only through the way Society on earth deal with the Mind & Need for a better Place for them. All of us...
An astonishing translation of an astonishing poem - By: E. Porter-daniels, 01 Jul 2003 It is certain that Dante's inferno is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written, & though purgatory & paradise are not as brilliant, tending to drag in places, they are also well worth reading. This translation is excellent, keeping the rhythm of the orginal, as well as keeping meanings close to their originals. The notes in the back are also excellent, helpful & informative.
Most worthy of 5 stars.
