book data
3119 ratings, 4.14 average rating, 308 reviews
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published
November 19th 1977
(first published 1472)
by W. W. Norton & Company
binding
Hardcover, 602 pages
isbn
0393044726
(isbn13: 9780393044720)
description
NB -- This is not a CD-ROM. This is an electronic book on three diskettes. These works are here presented in a public domain edition. The material o...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 4601)
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avg 4.14
Read in August, 2008
I have travelled a goodly distance since I last read the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, and what a long strange trip its been. So, it was with an introspective bit of drollness that I embarked on this reread.
I was fascinated with Inferno as a teenager and between Dante Alighieri and Robert Smith/Rimbaud it is, frankly, nothing short of a miracle that I didn't put enough reasons together to wind-up as a fleshy tree with harpies perched in my branches somewhere in the lower circles of hell...more
I was fascinated with Inferno as a teenager and between Dante Alighieri and Robert Smith/Rimbaud it is, frankly, nothing short of a miracle that I didn't put enough reasons together to wind-up as a fleshy tree with harpies perched in my branches somewhere in the lower circles of hell...more
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Read in January, 2007
Sure--why not write a trite, pithy review of one of the great works of Western Literature? Fuck it! Yes, it's beautifully poetic, but Dante is also intolerably self-righteous and hilariously bitter in it, skewering, roasting, and tearing to pieces (quite literally) his detractors, enemies, and some people that he maybe just didn't like much. The tortures are sometimes hilarious and in no way biblical...it is disturbing to think that people used to believe a lot of this silliness...oh, and that s...more
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Read in January, 1982
My first exposure to The Divine Comedy was through an old copy I bought at a used bookstore. It was filled with Gustave Dore's engravings. I poured over it as though I had just discovered a wonderful treasure. Dante was pure genius. To read his work combined with Dore's art was a wonderful experience. I have since lost the book, with many of my other prized books, due to a sudden move. I miss being able to pull it out of the bookshelf on a whim.
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
People who enjoy reading about religions and mythology
This is a very difficult read. Not because it's not enjoyable, I'm actually really loving it. But it's just a very intense read, and not one I can run through quickly, which is what I've gotten used to lately.
I've gotten through the Inferno, now in Purgatory. Still in the beginning, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to finish it. I feel like I'm going so slowly. And I've got a lot of books to read. I'm trying not to think that way, but it's difficult.
Really enjoying myself, t...more
I've gotten through the Inferno, now in Purgatory. Still in the beginning, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to finish it. I feel like I'm going so slowly. And I've got a lot of books to read. I'm trying not to think that way, but it's difficult.
Really enjoying myself, t...more
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This is arguably (and i will argue) the greatest work of non-canonized literature ever produced by mortal hands. Considering where and when he lived, he put forth some surprising religious ideas. I don't agree with everything he said (directly or indirectly), but he made my eyebrows raise a few times. He talks about reason and faith, good and evil, and uses very creative symbolism to illustrate these ideas. Also, the story is the conversion process on many levels. He writes about his conversion ...more
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Read in August, 2008
Having, apparently, only read minute bits of Inferno in high school, I was quite surprised by the length (almost 900 pages!) of Dante's complete Comedy. After recently finishing Inferno, I am already duly impressed by its depth of meaning and structure (I can’t even imagine how great it must be to read it in its original language in true terza rima!). I find it fascinating how it fits in with Ptolemy’s conception of the universe. Hell is a far more complex locale than I ever imagined! Th...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
English major nerds, Middle Ages buffs and theology nerds
So I finally finished Purgatory and Paradise after two months. It felt like an epic undertaking, but this translation was definitely way less reader friendly (at least for more casual readers) than the Robert Pinsky translation I read of the Inferno. I'm glad I went through it all, and it was a really interesting look at medieval theology (as well as at what a narcissistic prick Dante was), but the translation seemed to use unnecessarily obscure language.
Having read the Inferno before on its...more
Having read the Inferno before on its...more
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Read in November, 2007
There are periods of my life which makes me reread this book. I read it when I was ten years old and stole it from school library (and returned ofcourse after reading it). The vision of Christian afterlife and the philosophical portrait of the different moral dilemmas were wrapped in to the greatest epic poem of mankind. The rigid view of the sin and sinner is explained to the poet by Virgil (Roman aka pagan) who is poet as well. The hell and purgatory was Virgil domain but the paradise was woma...more
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Read in January, 2008
I am still in awe after reading this book. Dante is a genius on so many levels it's mind numbing. He has this unbelievable ability to write like he is painting. His imagination is so vivid and visual that his writing actually made me question whether or not he had really been on a guided tour of hell, purgatory, and paradise. On top of that, he's got that magical poet's ability to write that one line that makes you wake up for a second and take note. I think knowing the story of Dante and Be...more
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Read in March, 2007
Dante’s famous tour of hell, purgatory, and heaven was a bit of surprise to this first time reader. I was surprised that the inferno wasn’t the strongest and most interesting of the three. I was surprised at how engaging the tour of purgatory was and how much I enjoyed the improbable tour-guide Virgil—Beatrice for all her perfection couldn’t manage heaven alone and was, well, bland. Virgil, a pagan, has Dante’s respect and there is challenge and humility in the Italian poet’s writing...more
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I get cravings for book the way I get cravings for food, and the same way that Easter time means Cadbury mini eggs, it also means The Divine Comedy. I don't re-read the entire 3-part story every year, but I do open up one of the books and spend a couple of weeks reading. The entire story encompasses Dante's journey through Hell, Pugatory and Paradise as a traveler who has lost his way, guided for part by the poet Virgil and in part by Beatrice. Be very careful which translation you read, it shou...more
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Absolutely stunning! Terrifying, beautiful, tragic, hopeful, depressing, inspiring... Not only is Dante's collection gorgeous literature, it is historically fascinating as an illumination of the teachings of the Catholic church of Dante's day. I'm not sure why "The Inferno" gets all the buzz--probably for the same reason that CSI and hospital dramas get the top ratings on televison. Certainly it is awesome poetry and gut-wrenchingly vivid and tragic; yet, at the same time, a certai...more
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Read in January, 1999
I first read the Inferno as a senior in high school and couldn't put it down. I thought it was really creative, gory, scary, etc. Reading it was kind of like watching a a gruesome horror movie...but with so much substance(if thats possible). I'm sure that being brought up Catholic was a big reason why I was drawn to this book. As a Catholic you're always warned about hell and what will happen to you...but it always seemed so vague to me. I was amused with Dante's idea of the circles/levels o...more
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Read in September, 2007
A great thinker and poet-
Within the theological boundaries of Christianity, Dante's Divine Comedy presents one of the most remarkable and rational orders of things. Dante never seemed to have solved the fundamental problem of those who didn't have access to Christianity for their salvation being condemned in Limbo or Hell. At least in the Divine Comedy, he resorts to the unknowability and incomprehensibility of God's justice by the human mind. Why should these innocent infants and unconverte...more
Within the theological boundaries of Christianity, Dante's Divine Comedy presents one of the most remarkable and rational orders of things. Dante never seemed to have solved the fundamental problem of those who didn't have access to Christianity for their salvation being condemned in Limbo or Hell. At least in the Divine Comedy, he resorts to the unknowability and incomprehensibility of God's justice by the human mind. Why should these innocent infants and unconverte...more
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بخشی از اثر جاودانه دانته یعنی کمدی الهی را با هم بخوانیم
در سرود بیست و هشتم، دانته و ویرجیل به طبقه (دایره) هشتم جهنم و گودال مخصوص منافقان و تفرقه اندازان میرن و دانته مشاهدات خودش را اینگونه شرح میده.
22
Già veggia, per mezzul perdere o lulla,
com'io vidi un, così non si pertugia,
rotto dal mento infin dove si trulla.
...more
در سرود بیست و هشتم، دانته و ویرجیل به طبقه (دایره) هشتم جهنم و گودال مخصوص منافقان و تفرقه اندازان میرن و دانته مشاهدات خودش را اینگونه شرح میده.
22
Già veggia, per mezzul perdere o lulla,
com'io vidi un, così non si pertugia,
rotto dal mento infin dove si trulla.
...more
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in March, 2006
recommends it for:
Gentlemen and scholars
Finally finished. Took me a year and a half, but I'm done. I'm left feeling that I wish I could read it in Italian.
Ciardi's translation seems quite good, and intellectually, I appreciated his attempt to translate the feel of terza rima.
The footnotes were many and expansive, though my determination to read them is what made my reading take so long.
As for the actual text, I think my feelings about it were obscured by the time it took me to wade through the footnotes.
However, the ...more
Ciardi's translation seems quite good, and intellectually, I appreciated his attempt to translate the feel of terza rima.
The footnotes were many and expansive, though my determination to read them is what made my reading take so long.
As for the actual text, I think my feelings about it were obscured by the time it took me to wade through the footnotes.
However, the ...more
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Read in October, 2003
One of the most important series in literature, no exaggeration. Paradiso is my favorite because it is so beautiful, and because Beatrice and her green eyes (!! woohoo!!) get more attention. Purgatorio is so/so. But you have to read all three.
When I say read, though, this isn't something you read a few pages of while lying in bed. You read this with a highlighter, a dictionary,a cultural reference book and at least an hour or so. You have to pull apart the sentences and stanzas and everything...more
When I say read, though, this isn't something you read a few pages of while lying in bed. You read this with a highlighter, a dictionary,a cultural reference book and at least an hour or so. You have to pull apart the sentences and stanzas and everything...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to Elli by:
badgerrecommends it for: Everyone
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in December, 1972
I was forced to read this in Junior High School. Ms. Petrusa, a woman we were all convinced had a love affair with Dante himself, would come in to English class once a week and take us through the books. Over the course of three years, we read all three books. I hated it then.
Many years later though I am constantly amazed at the multitude of cultural references that I run into originating from this work. My friends are often taken aback by the detail of my memory of the trilogy. The Div...more
Many years later though I am constantly amazed at the multitude of cultural references that I run into originating from this work. My friends are often taken aback by the detail of my memory of the trilogy. The Div...more
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well, since we recently returned from Italy I have been reading material about and by Italians. This is as far back as I am going.
Fascinating for its rigid dogmatic punishment system (so far I am in Inferno) dictated by the catholic church, which at the time was so corrupt it is hard to believe anyone actually followed the church's teachings. Usefully compared to Boccacio's Decameron, which emphazises church corruption and everyday life despite the corruptive influences.
Fascinating for its rigid dogmatic punishment system (so far I am in Inferno) dictated by the catholic church, which at the time was so corrupt it is hard to believe anyone actually followed the church's teachings. Usefully compared to Boccacio's Decameron, which emphazises church corruption and everyday life despite the corruptive influences.
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