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The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume)

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Since it is given that Dante's Divine Comedy is one of the most important works of Western Literature, my review will focus on the translation rather than the original. Mandelbaum's translation was good, but not great. His greatest strength is that he maitains a strong sense of readability throughout most of the text. Although he does occasionally lapse into confusing gramatical structures in order to maintain the form of the poem, these are rare and do not detract from the reading to too great of an extent. However, what is lost in this translation at times, is the sense of poetry and pacing that are so crucial to Dante. This is not entirely his fault, however. In this edition of his work, there is no white space between each triplet of the poem. This, coupled with Mandelbaum's not having made any attempt to reflect terza rima in his translation, disrupts the flow of the original. While this is a small complaint, it does keep Mandelbaum's translation from achieving the brilliance of Pinsky and Merwin. However, Mandelbaum does have one advantage over those other two translators: he does the entire Comedy. While Pinsky's Inferno and Merwin's Purgatorio are superior to the same works in Mandelbaum's hands, Mandelbaum's translation is, in my opinion, the finest complete translation available.

The glossing of the book is also strong, but, like the translation, does contain a few flaws. The notes are very thorough, but sometimes gloss the obvious, which can be quite tedious.

Also, I would have preffered a higher quality of paper and print. While I realize that this series of books is intended to be inexpensive, a work with the length and depth of the Comedy warrants the extra expense necessary to make the reading experience less ardous.

So, while I would recommend this edition to anyone just getting started on Dante (it was my first), serious Dante scholars might want to look elsewhere. The strengths of this volume (not the least of which is that it has the entire Comedy, rather than just a third) make it a worthwhile addition to the body of Dante translations, but it lacks any one tremendous strength to set it apart from the others.

The Divine Comedy consists of three books: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). A number of editions publish these as three separate volumes, so when you order you want to be sure you're getting what you want. This edition has all three in one volume.

Not knowing Italian, I can't comment on the translation except to say that it seems to be highly regarded. Mandelbaum puts the Divine Comedy in meter, but it's not rhymed the way some translations are (Dorothy Sayers, for instance). But he sticks to the same Dantean meter throughout, so the translation has a very nice rhythm to it.

Peter Armour has added a really nice set of notes: very concise yet very informative. They are are placed at the back of the book (pp. 543-791). The Divine Comedy is chock-full of references and allusions to figures and events both from Dante's own day and from classical mythology, so the notes are indispensable if one wants to arrive at a decent understanding of the text. A list of references on pp. 792-798 gives the exact place of reference in the biblical or classical literature Dante is referrring to. For instance, if in the notes Armour simply writes "Aristotle," one can turn to this reference section in order to find the exact place within Aristotle's writings. At the front of the book (pp. 40-53) is a handy timetable which sets events in Dante's own life alongside parallel political and cultural developments. Finally, interspersed throughout this volume are 42 sketch drawings by fifteenth century artist Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510). This feature has its own historical interest, as it's fascinating to see how a mind from that period would have pictured the often bizarre scenes of Dante's imagination.

What is really nice about this edition, however, is the binding: beautiful hardcover cloth and a really nice jacket (not shown in the Amazon photo) with a reproduction of a vivid fifteenth century portrait of Dante (also by Botticelli). Especially nice is the concave-shaped spine (I'm not sure what the proper word is for this feature) which allows the book to lay open flat, just like a good Bible. There's also a ribbon to keep one's place, and the typface is very clear and easy on the eyes.

The Mandelbaum translation also comes in an Italian-English parallel edition. The only one I've seen so far is a small, 3-volume paperback set. If you know some Italian and are going to devote some serious study to the Comedy, this set might prove a handy companion.

I am, and have been for many a year, a scholar of the works of Dante. Coming up to date, I have read thousands of translations of the text of all three parts of the Divine comedy, and this is the best I have found yet. First of all, it is a treat to find that all three parts of this master work are collected in this one volume, and even though the price is quite low for a hardcover book with as many pages as this, I cannot stress the quality of this edition. As many may know, Dante Alighieri was a man of great literary prowess, but was given drive by his single obsession to a small girl by the name of Beatrice. She rings true in this work, as the guiding angel, bringing Dante through the depths of hell, the wasteland of Purgatory, and finally, the glory of heaven. This has been one of the most enduring works on the human spirit, and the concept of god as seen through Christianity. Full of pun and metaphor, this is rich in language, and ready to please. Some people start their studies of Epic Poetry with Milton's "Paradise lost," but I say, speaking from experience, that Dante is far superior to Milton, but Milton is in good company as his second. I have read the original in Italian, and this is about as close of a translation as you can get. Please enjoy this.

"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 and purgatory. It's a haunting, almost hallucinatory experience, full of the the metaphorical and supernatural horrors of the inferno, and joys of paradise.

The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, and 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 -- and down into Hell.

But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames and 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, and the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, and 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 and Virgil emerge at the base of a vast mountain, and an angel orders him to "wash you those wounds within," then lets them in.

As Virgil and 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 and the gluttons. It's a one-way trip, and you don't even get to look back.

The road up the mountain leads to the gates of Heaven, and soon Dante has been purified to the point where he's allowed 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, and finally even the angels. And after passing through heaven's nine spheres, he passes out of the physical realm and human understanding -- and sees God, the incomprehensible, represented by three circles inside each other, but all the same size.

Needless to say, it's a pretty wild trip.And admittedly "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso" aren't quite on the writing level of "Inferno," which has the most visceral, skin-crawling imagery and lines ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen and wroth...'"), and a wicked sense of irony. It makes the angels and saints seem a bit tame.

But there's plenty of power in the second two books, particularly when Dante tries to comprehend God, and almost blows out his brain in the process -- "my desire and my will were turned like a wheel, all at one speed by the Love that turns the sun and all the other stars." It's haunting, and sticks with you long after the story has ended.

More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism and allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even at the start, Dante sees lion, a leopard and a wolf, which symbolize different sins, and 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 and wildly imaginative journey makes the "Divine Comedy" a timeless, spellbinding read, and hauntingly powerful from inferno to paradiso.

Dane Walter
May 26, 2004
Dante Alighieri

Yes its a research paper but it still works.

The Divine Comedy

The great and renown Italian writer and poet, Dante Aligheri, is considered by many to be the writer of the greatest work of poetry ever, The Divine Comedy. A book that has survived for six hundred ninety years since its first publication is still popular among publishers (The Classic). This book covers such a large spectrum of the life and journey through the evolution of the human soul and mankind that its greatness is not a phantom conjured to satisfy any average man. It is something that is meant to enlighten the mind, and arouse the heart. Genius in its own right, and alive in the minds of many, The Divine Comedy.
While the book is written in verse form it is not in rhyme for all those who do not speak Italian. In Dante's time it was expected for serious works of literature to be written in Latin. Instead, Dante wrote The Divine Comedy in his native tongue of Italian. This fact may seem unim-portant or trivial but it is certainly not the case. In all likelihood, the most important linguistics contribution to mankind ever because publishing this book in the common, Italian tongue signified the last book of the middle ages, and the beginnings of the new audience of the common man. Without the publishing of his book, there may have never been a need for such things as the printing press so that mass volumes could reach the common man. It broke down all previous political boundaries and began a revolution for desire of intellect and connections with the Roman past, The Renaissance. While it can not take direct credit all of these things there is certainly reasons to believe his publications were at the very least, a catalyst of them. With the exception of religious doctrines of faith, the most important book to evolution of literature in mankind's existence.
With his many allegorical connections with the ancient Roman past, political connections with what was then contemporary church governing policy, and emotional connections with the paralleled growth of the human spirit as it traveled deeper into the depths of hell, and closer to God, the book is still popular today. First released in 1314, 690 years ago (The Classic), the book had much success for its time period. Even with documents being transcribed by hand there managed to be over 1200 copies sold in Italy alone before his death in 1321. Critics also agreed that his work was a masterpiece. Working until his final days on the last book of The Divine Comedy, Paradisio, it has been speculated by some that he never actually wrote the last fifteen chapters of the book but that has since been dismissed.
The Commedia was the original title of The Divine Comedy and saw much success under that name. After the books initial success interest in it died down slightly because of its sheer length and difficulty to copy until the invention of the printing press. This invention gave Dante a new found audience and his books became more popular than ever. People around Europe began to call him The Divine Poet and when an Italian printer misprinted his name as The Divine Comedy the name stuck and has been called that ever since. He once again received critical and popular acclaim. This success has translated into today's world where he is viewed as one of the greatest poets ever, and as for Divine Comedy, considered a masterpiece.
Dante was not typical of other writers at the time, often attacking the Catholic Church as he did in the Divine Comedy. In Iferno, Dante finds seven popes from the past in one of the deeper regions of hell. For these reasons he was often labeled a heretic despite the relative overwhelming success that The Divine Comedy had for a book in its time. Dante once said of himself and The Divine Comedy, "I was fearing that one day I would be convicted of the charge of buried talent, and I was desirous of keeping vigil for the good of the world, that I wrote a testament to the lame church that no longer serves the God of its name, but the name of its God."(Gardner) Accused repeatedly for heretical beliefs against the church but never condemned he found safe passage and friendly enthusiasts of the book everywhere he went, but accusations as well.
What is so difficult to understand about The Divine Comedy is its strange word usage and obscure passages. Written in verse form, so much of the book is lost in translation. While not recognizable at first, The Divine Comedy is actually an allegory on multiple levels. On the surface it would seem as though it were just a journey through a post-mordant hell and physical pain. When looking deeper though, one sees the levels at which it exist. Bearing the strength of the human soul, and the journey to peace. "... a realistic picture and intensely involved analysis of every aspect of earthly human life. Dante's literal journey is also an allegory of the progress of the individual soul toward God and the progress of political and social mankind toward peace on earth; it is a passionate, although moral, evaluation of human nature and a mystic vision of the Absolute toward which it strives."(The Classic).
The book that changed the face of literature is still alive and well today. No book has ever received such an audience that was not a doctrine of a faith. Once again, an amazing testament to the human soul. The audience it has touched, remarkable. The contribution it has made to literature, notable. The testament it is to the human soul, certainly undeniable. Dante's, The Divine Comedy.

I love this book. My husband loves this book. My mother loves this book. A very good read! everyone should have a copy of this in their home library!

I am not a Dante scholar and don't read Italian, but I selected this translation based on the many reviews I have seen praising its rigour and readability. I can't vouch for the faithfulness of the translation, but it is a splendid book to read as English literature, and a splendid book to use - beautifully bound and printed.

The whole idea of it is beautiful. The woman he loves dies and he travels through Hell and everything to find her. Then, after meeting her near the end of Purgatory, she gives him a tour of Heaven (which is basically the solar system..with Mars, Jupiter, etc.. in the story). I like how here "Heaven" just means EVERYTHING in the sky. Or...i guess just everything except the Earth, because in the story Hell is inside of the Earth and Purgatory is a huge mountain very far away (remember that the Europeans did not know yet of America).

There are a lot of beautiful metaphors in the book. I wish i could remember them all. They are very poetic. A lot of places are in there where the book made me stop and think about something. But i think that is the purpose of it. There are a lot of 'scare tactics' in Inferno and a lot of promises in Paradise. It is obvious that Dante wrote this book for a mass audience...to be read by everybody. It is a very good story and it does make the reader think about their life, but i think that one has to remember that it is still art, and it is not truth. I remember when Passion of the Christ came out and a lot of people thought, "Oh, i better change my ways!" because of it. One needs to keep in mind that that is just one person's interpretation of the story. It was not filmed with a camera 2000 years ago. It is just how one person read the story and pictured it in their mind. I see the same thing with The Divine Comedy. It was required reading in Italian schools and I sincerely hope nobody took everything word for word, though there are lessons to be learned from it. It is a fictional story with a lot of historical people in it. He chose to put some in Paradise and some in the Inferno. They are in those places in the story because that is where he wanted them. During the past 2 weeks in my philosophy class, i have learned about some of the people who were shown in The Divine Comedy such as Plato, Socrates, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, etc.. I think i would have understood the book better (though i did learn a lot from the notes in the book too) if i would have started it today, just because i know more about the people in it.

I think in the future..maybe 5 years or 10 years, i don't know..that i will read it again and have a much better understanding of the things he was trying to say. I am glad i read it and it was much more enjoyable than sitting around staring at the TV all day.

Dante's Divine Comedy is considered as one of the supreme works of Western Literature and it certainly deserves that title. It is about the author being taken and shown around the late-Medieval, Catholic worldview. There are 3 sections: in the first he visits hell to see the torments of the wicked, in the second he goes to purgatory where the souls are purified and await heaven and the third section of the work is his visit to heaven itself. It begins with the author being lost and threatened in a dark wood (metaphorical no doubt) and the eminent Beatrice (read the book to find out about her) sends the poet Virgil from the Limbo (in hell) to take Dante so safety and show him around the Inferno and Purgatorio. Then Beatrice herself accompanies Dante through the Paradiso. As such, according to the poem, this is all part of God's plan to have an eyewitness see the afterlife and take a didactic message back to a troubled earth.

The book is probably classed as a late Medieval, early Renaissance work. It is written in superb Italian vernacular verse (or so I would imagine) and has many things in common with the epic poem and the romance genre, both of which were important in Dante's time.

Dante has several objectives. The most pragmatic one is to establish himself as a poet and a quality one despite his use of the vernacular. As such, he can be seen as a foreshadower of an increased availability of learning to the masses. Dante wants to dispel the notion that only works in Latin can be erudite and he is considered to have been very inventive in his use of the Italian dialect, often inventing words like Shakespeare did.

The most interesting one I found was to expound his worldview, theology and philosophy. Dante is an orthodox Catholic and the Divine Comedy is a great window the Medieval thought as it combined religion with Greek philosophy and a certain outlook on history. As such, we find that the Aristotelian cosmos with the earth in the centre and ten spheres (one for each planet) surround it, except that the spheres are populated by an increasingly holy presence of angels and souls of those holy to Catholicism. Hell is inside the earth, also being a series of concentric circles, leading to Satan in the centre. Purgatory is a mountain located on the other side of the earth (that is, from the point of view of Europe) and the physical connects with the symbollic as the souls make circuits round the mountain leading higher and higher until, purged from their sins they can go to heaven.

Through the travels, Dante meets hundreds of characters, demons and historical figures who have died. From this perspective, a large part of the book is a tad inaccessible as it requires a fairly good knowledge of his world to get the subtleties of his political contemporaries and the such. He distributes historical figures based on how good he thinks they were. Overall, it is impossible to convey the feeling but the book is essentially a collection of hundreds of stories of people who've lived in Dante's world, the things they did, how they were rewarded and punished and what they think of the contemporary world. There are popes, kings, Dante's ancestors, mythological figures etc etc. And all through one gets the central ideal of Dante - that he is a scourge (both as the fictional visitor to the afterlife and as the real writer of the work) of the corrupt offices of the Church and other human institutions that have gone astray and that a view into the afterlife is necessary to bring the world to the right path.

Sounds like heavy stuff and it often is but the great thing is that a lot of profound ideas from a late-Medieval writer and thinker are presented in very colourful and strong images that you'll remember for years.

This translation seems pretty good though I haven't seen any other. The edition is great as it has plenty of white space making reading easy as well as extensive notes and references. Finally, an often-neglected component of classics is illustrations. Here, there are about 50-60 pencil sketches from a single Renaissance artist which bring the episodes to life.

Finally, the emotional and symbollic levels of this work in terms of a personal spiritual journey from a troubled world to the depths of depravity, through purification and to the divine, are magnificent even if like me you aren't a Christian.

Overall, a timeless work, very intricate, thoughtful and sublime.

The Divine Comedy was written in the 14th century proximate
to the year 1313. The work traverses the reigns of Pope Clement
and Pope John the 22nd. Dante attempts to answer the question
"What happens when we die?" Through the character of Beatrice,
the author takes us through the regions of the underworld
both purgatory and hell in preparation for the glory of heaven.
This is literature of the highest quality in terms of
the use of picturesque vocabulary and sentence construction.

The reader is taken through scenes depicting souls stationed
upside down through eternity somewhat like bats. In other parts,
the soul is tortured by flying demons with pitchforks.
The work is a good assignment to challenge the imagination
of young readers. It is highly recommended for readers in the
latter part of high school or the early collegiate years.