The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dan... read full description
reviews
Jul 21, 2011
Kira
rated it: 
There are a lot of people who were born in the wrong century.
Georgiana Cavendish, for example. And Oscar Wilde, for sure. Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci. Charles Darwin. Dante.
Dante would be a fascinating person to meet face-to-face. The questions we could ask! The riddles we could solve! The things we could learn!
Is The Divine Comedy simply an intricate model of the universe beyond man - or is it something more?
Doubtless, his answer would be somethin More...
Georgiana Cavendish, for example. And Oscar Wilde, for sure. Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci. Charles Darwin. Dante.
Dante would be a fascinating person to meet face-to-face. The questions we could ask! The riddles we could solve! The things we could learn!
Is The Divine Comedy simply an intricate model of the universe beyond man - or is it something more?
Doubtless, his answer would be somethin More...
11 comments
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(22 people liked it)
Dec 27, 2008
Manny
rated it:
"You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth."
- Niels Bohr
I was thinking about Dante the other day and wondering how one could approach him from the angle of a GoodReads review. One of the obvious problems is that he lived a long time ago, and many of the cultural referents have changed. You're constantly having to think "Well, nowadays what he's saying would correspond to THAT". More...
- Niels Bohr
I was thinking about Dante the other day and wondering how one could approach him from the angle of a GoodReads review. One of the obvious problems is that he lived a long time ago, and many of the cultural referents have changed. You're constantly having to think "Well, nowadays what he's saying would correspond to THAT". More...
21 comments
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(31 people liked it)
Nov 12, 2011
Marvin
rated it:
Written for the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament
(sung to the tune of "Minnie The Moocher")
Folks, here´s a story about Winnie the Pooh-cher
He was a chubby Pooh-chie-koocher
He was fat and loved his honey
but he was sweet and his heart was sunny
(chorus)
Hunny-Hunny-Hunny-hi
Hundee-hundee-hunndee-ho
Pigletee-pigletee-hee
Tiggery-Tiggery--Ho
He met a dude whose name was Virgil
who hung around in More...
(sung to the tune of "Minnie The Moocher")
Folks, here´s a story about Winnie the Pooh-cher
He was a chubby Pooh-chie-koocher
He was fat and loved his honey
but he was sweet and his heart was sunny
(chorus)
Hunny-Hunny-Hunny-hi
Hundee-hundee-hunndee-ho
Pigletee-pigletee-hee
Tiggery-Tiggery--Ho
He met a dude whose name was Virgil
who hung around in More...
6 comments
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(9 people liked it)
May 15, 2011
Fahima
rated it:
أرجأتُ الشروعَ في قراءةِ هذا السِفر المذهلِ طويلاً. كعادتي/كعادتنا كنتُ ألتمسُ لهذا التكاسل المتطاولِ عذراً .. أملاً في اقتناصِ فرصةٍ مناسبةٍ أو مزاجٍ رائقٍ أو صباحٍ ماطرٍ أو أمسيةٍ شاعِرة. وَلم أدركَ أن أعذاراً كهذه لا تليقِ بغيرِ الأعمال العابرة الصغيرة.. تلكَ التي نجترُّ أحداثها بتململِ قطّةٍ متطلَّبة. أمّا إنجازٌ كـ"الكوميديا" لا تملكُ عندهُ إلا أن تنفكَّ قهراً من عوالمك الرتيبة لتقعَ في ثراءِ عوالمه الآسرةِ وكثافتها وتباينها المدهشين. سيهبط بكَ دانتي من غفلةِ "اليمابيسِ"
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0 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Oct 09, 2011
Celebrity Death Match tournament versus The Sound and the Fury. (I am now switching teams to make things interesting!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilLDwVLbKM.
Winner: The Divine Comedy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilLDwVLbKM.
Winner: The Divine Comedy.
Nov 12, 2011
Bird Brian
rated it:
CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW*
(* entertainment purposes only)
Dante’s Divine Comedy v. The Complete Winnie the Pooh
After his wife went to bed, and the house got dark and quiet, that seemed to be the best time for thinking. Naturally, every moment was precious, and he wanted to spend the time he had left with her as much as possible, but these thoughts -these memories- demanded some reflection.
“You go on ahead, Sarah. I’ll just be a little bit.”, he always told More...
(* entertainment purposes only)
Dante’s Divine Comedy v. The Complete Winnie the Pooh
After his wife went to bed, and the house got dark and quiet, that seemed to be the best time for thinking. Naturally, every moment was precious, and he wanted to spend the time he had left with her as much as possible, but these thoughts -these memories- demanded some reflection.
“You go on ahead, Sarah. I’ll just be a little bit.”, he always told More...
4 comments
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(19 people liked it)
Sep 21, 2008
Ben
rated it: 
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 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 More...
Jan 15, 2008
Solomon
rated it: 
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
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4 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Nov 10, 2011
For CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH PURPOSES ONLY: The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh versus The Divine Comedy
*More doggerel than verse, but for what it's worth...
I. Inferno
Into a dark and gloomy wood
Strolled the little bear and his friends.
They found a cave and by it stood
And wondered if it did descend
To hell or rise to paradise.
Would this match see them sacrificed?
The circles had been so designed
To dam More...
*More doggerel than verse, but for what it's worth...
I. Inferno
Into a dark and gloomy wood
Strolled the little bear and his friends.
They found a cave and by it stood
And wondered if it did descend
To hell or rise to paradise.
Would this match see them sacrificed?
The circles had been so designed
To dam More...
9 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Jan 25, 2011
Winston
rated it:
Dante’s moral history reflects the conflict of natural justice and Christian theology in its complex taxonomy of iniquity in the Inferno; why else the invention of ‘Limbo’ in Hell to ameliorate the fate of good non-Christian souls, like Virgil, which Christian – particularly Roman Catholic - orthodoxy would exclude from Paradise? Neither is Dante averse to the subjectivity of his primal justice in sending the betrayers of hospitality to eternal damnation upon commission of such a sin, and leavin
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0 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 26, 2009
James
rated it:
I first read this poem four years ago as part of a dare. And by “dare,” I mean a professor listed it on the syllabus and I had to read it and then write papers about it. The next summer, I wanted to read it again on account of the graphic imagery of Inferno and Purgatorio. The punishments/reparations are mindblowing, scary, and beautiful. Everyone should at the very least skim Inferno. Particularly in Inferno, the political references are funny and provocative, and the historical significan
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0 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Feb 18, 2012
Robert
rated it:
Inferno
Even in translation, the beauty of the poetry and the clarity of Dante's image of Hell is wonderful. This is not my heritage or religion, but I found myself really absorbed in the story-telling, and curious about what came next.
(Small note: I read a different version than the cover I selected, but don't want to spend the time trying to find it among the 600+ versions in GoodReads. My version was translated by John Ciardi, and had gorgeous illustrations by Gustave Dor More...
Even in translation, the beauty of the poetry and the clarity of Dante's image of Hell is wonderful. This is not my heritage or religion, but I found myself really absorbed in the story-telling, and curious about what came next.
(Small note: I read a different version than the cover I selected, but don't want to spend the time trying to find it among the 600+ versions in GoodReads. My version was translated by John Ciardi, and had gorgeous illustrations by Gustave Dor More...
Jan 16, 2012
Ken
rated it:
This review is for the Laurence Binyon translation of The Divine Comedy that I read as a part of this(The Portable Dante; 1947, 1965 edition) anthology:
All I can say is that this was breath-taking. An epic poem in every sense of the word. I began reading this Poem on and off since 2007-2008, and have only finished it now in January 2012!
It was staggering and just magical to read this poem and I mean the WHOLE poem not just the Inferno. As a bonus the Binyon translation rende More...
All I can say is that this was breath-taking. An epic poem in every sense of the word. I began reading this Poem on and off since 2007-2008, and have only finished it now in January 2012!
It was staggering and just magical to read this poem and I mean the WHOLE poem not just the Inferno. As a bonus the Binyon translation rende More...
Nov 12, 2011
Celebrity Death Match Final
The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh versus The Divine Comedy
Cue aerial shot of two women walking in a green leafy park. One shouts up to the camera that appears to be hovering about fifteen feet above her head
SUE: Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! And welcome to the grand final of The Great British Bake-off!
Camera swoops down to eye-level. We see these two:
MEL: Yes, the Great British Ba More...
The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh versus The Divine Comedy
Cue aerial shot of two women walking in a green leafy park. One shouts up to the camera that appears to be hovering about fifteen feet above her head
SUE: Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! And welcome to the grand final of The Great British Bake-off!
Camera swoops down to eye-level. We see these two:
MEL: Yes, the Great British Ba More...
27 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Oct 29, 2011
Erik
rated it:
For Celebrity Death Match
Big Brother: Where are we now O'Brien? I remember giving the order to launch missiles against East Asia, or was it Madagascar?
O'Brien: Oceania is at War with East Asia, Oceania has always been at war with East Asia
Big Brother: Don't be such a toady. Shut up! What's it say on the door here:
per me si va ne la citta dolente...
I guess I shouldn't have banned Italian all those years ago.
per me se va ne l' More...
Big Brother: Where are we now O'Brien? I remember giving the order to launch missiles against East Asia, or was it Madagascar?
O'Brien: Oceania is at War with East Asia, Oceania has always been at war with East Asia
Big Brother: Don't be such a toady. Shut up! What's it say on the door here:
per me si va ne la citta dolente...
I guess I shouldn't have banned Italian all those years ago.
per me se va ne l' More...
4 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Oct 29, 2011
Manny
rated it:
For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, The Divine Comedy versus 1984
Gabriel, Michael and Raphael
Celestial Architects
Eternity
Dear Mr. O'Brien,
Thank you for your response to our recent tender. After due deliberation, we must regretfully inform you that we have decided not to implement your interesting plan for restructuring and downsizing the afterlife.
Our accounting department confirms your statement that it would be more cost- More...
Gabriel, Michael and Raphael
Celestial Architects
Eternity
Dear Mr. O'Brien,
Thank you for your response to our recent tender. After due deliberation, we must regretfully inform you that we have decided not to implement your interesting plan for restructuring and downsizing the afterlife.
Our accounting department confirms your statement that it would be more cost- More...
9 comments
like
(13 people liked it)
Sep 30, 2011
CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW*
(* entertainment purposes only)
The Divine Comedy v. The Sound and the Fury
That were a fearful. A frightful. World upheaval an' fearsome fire in the sky. Flood waters and earthquake accident. I was a'feared my life. Frightful. Frightful.
Caddie put her arms around me, and she smelled like trees.
She tol' me we's a gonna be safe, but we no safe.
Terrible animal noises and terrible, terrible.
Then we More...
(* entertainment purposes only)
The Divine Comedy v. The Sound and the Fury
That were a fearful. A frightful. World upheaval an' fearsome fire in the sky. Flood waters and earthquake accident. I was a'feared my life. Frightful. Frightful.
Caddie put her arms around me, and she smelled like trees.
She tol' me we's a gonna be safe, but we no safe.
Terrible animal noises and terrible, terrible.
Then we More...
4 comments
like
(13 people liked it)
Sep 29, 2011
Thinking about Dante's Divine Comedy makes me want to cry. I hate Beatrice with every fiber of my being. It is not a Christian allegory, it's more like a medieval sci-fi novel, what with the equal parts Christian teachings and Greek lore. I am not approve, but I'm not cruel enough to rate it down, because of it's significance and impact throughout the years and all that.
But I did not enjoy it. At all.
The theology was convoluted and polluted. I mean, the fact that he put Brutus an More...
But I did not enjoy it. At all.
The theology was convoluted and polluted. I mean, the fact that he put Brutus an More...
Sep 20, 2011
Steven
rated it:
Dante's entire Divine Comedy is not often taught in schools. More frequently students either read The Inferno or Purgatorio, but I have yet to encounter another student who has read the whole work. I chose to read this on my own about four years ago, simply as an exercise in self-discipline.It is very difficult to get through this text due to the fact that most of the people Dante encounters would only be known in his own circles, and were of little import to Italian history as a whole. To under
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Aug 08, 2011
Luke
rated it:
Don't ask what happened for two-thirds of the book. The first part, Inferno, was very interesting and although it was difficult to read, it was not so difficult that one could not understand it. The next parts, Purgatorio and Paradiso, were just so boring. Even with the footnotes it was impossible to try to stay interested in what was happening. Even after finishing those two parts I have a hard time remembering what happened. Honestly, the novel just ends with the Inferno. There is a reason why
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jul 26, 2011
The Divine Comedy wishes to be Christian yet cannot leave behind paganism. Dante displays sparks of real light but clings to the examples and learning of classical Rome. He encourages the study of the Scriptures, after he already praised Virgil as the greatest writer and Aristotle the premier thinker. He condemns the excesses of the papacy (most interestingly, its synthesis of spiritual and temporal power) but exalts Caesar so high to place Brutus and Cassius beside Judas Iscariot in the lowe
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(1 person liked it)
Jul 22, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
I know John Ciardi has gotten some criticism for taking certain creative libteries with Dante's original text, but as Robert Frost said, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." I do not speak Italian and probably never will in my lifetime, but I still wanted to experience the incredible piece of literature that is The Divine Comedy. That said, being an English speaker, I immensely enjoyed and appreciated this translation. Ciardi gives lengthy explanations as to how he attempted to r
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0 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Apr 28, 2011
Erik
rated it:
I was first drawn to the Divine Comedy in a college course on medieval literature. In that class I was introduced to The Inferno with the requirement of reading the Ciardi translation. I fell in love with the story and translation. The historical and religious references, the poetic meter, and the wonderful detail fascinated me. I am not really the literary type, so reading it was a challenge, but the challenge was worth every minute.
Now, I cannot review this with reference to ot More...
Now, I cannot review this with reference to ot More...
Mar 24, 2010
Patricia
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Feb 09, 2010
Alik
rated it:
I do not remember much, and I did not understand much of the politics.
I learned the word 'petto' from the Italian edition.
Pearls of Russian translation I still remember include:
И чтобы показать, как он ничтожен,
О нем напишут с сокращеньем слов,
Где многий смысл в немного строчек вложен.
And pearls of commentator wit:
34-39. В слезах предстала дева... - Лавина, или Лавиния (А., IV, 125;
Р., VI, 3), дочь царя Лация, Латина, и Аматы. О More...
I learned the word 'petto' from the Italian edition.
Pearls of Russian translation I still remember include:
И чтобы показать, как он ничтожен,
О нем напишут с сокращеньем слов,
Где многий смысл в немного строчек вложен.
And pearls of commentator wit:
34-39. В слезах предстала дева... - Лавина, или Лавиния (А., IV, 125;
Р., VI, 3), дочь царя Лация, Латина, и Аматы. О More...
Feb 03, 2010
Nicole
rated it:
The Devine comedy: Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri
Pgs:408
ISBN:0-553-21344
Publisher: Bantam Books
As we already traveled into the world of Dante, going with him to visit his own hell, we’re now ready to visit Purgatorio, a mountain he must climb to finally reach paradise in which where he beloved Beatrice lies. Dante sees new things, as such he did in hell that makes him get a new outlook of his life. One good thing he realizes is that his Love for Beatrice is real, and t More...
Dante Alighieri
Pgs:408
ISBN:0-553-21344
Publisher: Bantam Books
As we already traveled into the world of Dante, going with him to visit his own hell, we’re now ready to visit Purgatorio, a mountain he must climb to finally reach paradise in which where he beloved Beatrice lies. Dante sees new things, as such he did in hell that makes him get a new outlook of his life. One good thing he realizes is that his Love for Beatrice is real, and t More...
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 16, 2009
David
rated it:
Dante's Divine Comedy is the story of the soul’s journey from the depths of despair to pure enlightenment, and you don't have to be a Catholic or even religious to be awed and inspired by it. If you ignore all the academic dust that has settled on this astounding creation over the seven hundred years since it was written, and imagine it more as an adventure movie with better special effects than The Matrix and with a deeper message than The Seventh Seal, you'll set off on a journey across space
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5 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Oct 09, 2009
Russell
rated it:
T. S. Eliot: "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them, there is no third."
Dante's magnus opus exceeds my weak grasp to illuminate. If you are part of the Western world, you have been colored by this book, whether you have read it or not. So many authors have drawn upon the imagery from Dante's work, and used so many ideas from him. Not to mention how Dante took poetry to new heights and new places, using common tongue from his part of Italy instead Latin, More...
Dante's magnus opus exceeds my weak grasp to illuminate. If you are part of the Western world, you have been colored by this book, whether you have read it or not. So many authors have drawn upon the imagery from Dante's work, and used so many ideas from him. Not to mention how Dante took poetry to new heights and new places, using common tongue from his part of Italy instead Latin, More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 11, 2009
I'm actually reading the Modern Library edition, but I can't figure out how to search for it.
~~~
I started this book because I adore T.S. Eliot, and he adores Dante; I was looking for context for his epigraph to Prufrock. Having reached it, I have very little impetus to continue reading. I skipped to the end and rolled my eyes at Brutus and Cassius, and I think I need a break.
The problem is that I can't suss out the point to this book, aside from being a recor More...
~~~
I started this book because I adore T.S. Eliot, and he adores Dante; I was looking for context for his epigraph to Prufrock. Having reached it, I have very little impetus to continue reading. I skipped to the end and rolled my eyes at Brutus and Cassius, and I think I need a break.
The problem is that I can't suss out the point to this book, aside from being a recor More...
Jan 01, 2009
Bob
rated it:
I've actually read this before, just wanted to plug this particular edition my wife got for me for Xmas. It's quite nice, not my favorite translation (the Longfellow translation -- to be honest I like the Singleton prose translation with the facing text in Italian the best because it doesn't try to wrench the English into terza rima -- which doesn't work in English very well, although Ciardi did a pretty good job in his version), but the reason I like this particular book is the Dore illustratio
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