Paradiso
by Dante Alighieri
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Read in October, 2004
recommends it for:
everyone!
Exalted to the fifth heaven, Dante wrote:
And here my memory defeats my wit:
Christ’s flaming from that cross was such that I
can find no fit similitude for it…
my seeing Christ flash forth undid my force.
(Paradiso XIV: 103-105, 108)
This is the central contradiction of Paradiso and other visionary works: the supra-sensory vision of Christ is beyond language, yet the mystic poet inscribes ineffability.
Ecstatic experience is beyond comprehension. The utterly inexp...more
And here my memory defeats my wit:
Christ’s flaming from that cross was such that I
can find no fit similitude for it…
my seeing Christ flash forth undid my force.
(Paradiso XIV: 103-105, 108)
This is the central contradiction of Paradiso and other visionary works: the supra-sensory vision of Christ is beyond language, yet the mystic poet inscribes ineffability.
Ecstatic experience is beyond comprehension. The utterly inexp...more
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Something about this passage gets me. I always come back to it. Sad and beautiful. Dante asks a woman in the lowest rung of Paradise - the moon - if she doesn't hanker to go higher:
"A smile at this
Lightened her eyes, and those who crowded near
Smiled with her. Then she spoke, and all the bliss
Of Love's first flame, it seemed, was hers to sing,
She was so joyous in her answering.
"Brother, the quality of our Love doth still
The impulse of rebellion; all our ...more
"A smile at this
Lightened her eyes, and those who crowded near
Smiled with her. Then she spoke, and all the bliss
Of Love's first flame, it seemed, was hers to sing,
She was so joyous in her answering.
"Brother, the quality of our Love doth still
The impulse of rebellion; all our ...more
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The problem with the Paradiso is that by this time, Dante's sins have all been washed away. Now he's just describing the choirs of angels and how lovely it all is and how happy blah blah blah. This is why I don't want to be in heaven unless I'm assured I can still be the same person I am now, or that there's some issues with heaven so it's not perfect. BOOOORING. I actually have never finished this book as its perfection was off-putting. Which, I guess makes it not perfect.
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I tried to review all three volumes of this translation of the Divine Comedy separately, but for some reason Goodreads wants them to be all one book rather than three, which I suppose Dante would probably agree with. I'm OK with that, because my attempt to give relative rankings to the three was unecessary and probably a bit pretentious.
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To the cry of "Gloria in excelsis," the purged soul ascends from Mt. Purgatory to paradise. Dante's masterpiece of extra-canonical theology completes with his distinctly transcendent view of heaven.
Dorothy L. Sayers's verse translation and notes bring the poet's cantos into an unrelentingly worthy English rendition.
Dorothy L. Sayers's verse translation and notes bring the poet's cantos into an unrelentingly worthy English rendition.
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Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
people interested in religious facts, history & legends
i really liked this serie, though it was a little hard to read. the descriptions are so great, its almost like watching a movie. remember to notice the symbols he's using. very well written & amusing, & also try reading the hostory of felorance in Dante's times. it helps you to understand better.
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This edition is great. The translation is clear, and there is a short synopsis before every canto. Even better are the endless notes that follow every canto. This is the edition to get if you really want to understand The Divine Comedy.
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Read in August, 2006
Skip it. That is unless you are OCD and can't leave a series uncompleted or if you want to get a cheep laugh at the expense of pre-Copernican astronomy. Mostly full of dark age theology and science at the expense of the narrative.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
thinkers, poets, armchair philosophers
this book is incredibly intimidating. but after reading the vita nuova and the other two books in the divine comedy, paradiso is literally the coup de grace, in the most beautiful and beatific way possible.
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One of the most awe-inspiring, mind-blowing works I have ever read. The Inferno has more immediate appeal in some ways, but I lose my mind when I think about this work.
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Read in December, 2007
Eh, this book was the least interesting of The Divine Comedy to me. Like Purgatorio, it had some beautiful imagery, but just got pretty boring.
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okay, in all honesty, i didn't finish this. i only read the parts i had to to bluff my way through class and a few presentations...
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Very good. Happier than the Inferno, but not as compelling. Such is the case of happiness vs. suffering, no?
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Heaven is boring. I don't know why, but they won't let me put up a blurb for Purgatorio, which I liked best.
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I loved this part of The Divine Comedy so much that we included a portion of it in our wedding.
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Read in June, 2007
Beautifully written and very illistrative in verbage - but still not as amazing as the inferno
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Read in May, 2005
This is a tough book to read, but worth it to see how the Commedia ends.
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