The Divine Comedy

EXPECTATION: 1 starI'm not sure what's going on here, does this seller have like 5 different versions of this hardcover book? You don't know what your getting because the description is simply the summary on the back of the book.TRANSLATION: 1 starI was mislead by the comments saying this was John Ciardi's translation. I saw others mention it was Longfellows translation. I didn't mind if it was either of those two because they are easier to follow and enjoy the story, but in FACT, the hardcover version I got was Henry Francis Cary's translation, which I find unnatural and hard to follow along and visualize.ARTWORK: 1 starThe other reason I'm giving this a 1 star (I thought about 2 stars because this could definitely be the book some people were after, just not me and I'm really upset about being misled), was because I thought this book had the artwork by Gustave Dore, but what I got had NO artwork to inspire me and help me visualize while readingSHIPPING: 5 starsIt came in two days, so that was niceSUMMARY: 1 starJust disappointed because didn't get at all what I was after. Description is lacking details, comments are for many different books. What should I have expected? (Not a rhetorical question, a real question, did I miss something somewhere?)Oh btw, this book doesn't actually say who translated it, I looked up a couple lines on Google to find the name of the translator

Excellent translation with superb commentary. Dante Alighieri’s triology is undoubtedly the giant amongst giants in the world of classic literature and an important adjunct to the bible. The bible, while alluding to the afterlife that continues in eternity, does not focus on the places a soul can reside in the after life. Three places, namely hell, purgatory and paradise, are where souls will check in, depending on whether they are God's elect and the sins one has committed. It is clear that if one is God's elect, he could reside in either purgatory, a temporary holding ground based on the sin records, or paradise where God's chosen will end up for eternity serving and praising Him ceaselessly. If one is not amongst the chosen, hell is the only destination. But hell has nine levels. *The unchosen will go to one of the nine levels depending on one's predominant sin. The worst sin in Dante's definition was betrayal and we find the unfortunate Judas Ischariot in the company of Satan on the deepest coldest level of hell.A person can commit the worst sin or sins and yet he is not condemned to hell if he is chosen. But he will have to purify himself by doing time in purgatory, the holding place for sinful souls, before they finally reach paradise.Paradiso is Dante's crown jewel in the three part Divine Comedy. But certainly Dante gave us much more than the Bible can tell us about heaven. He gave us a fantastic blinding light show of celestial symmetry complete with song and dance by angels and souls that made it to paradise. Some prominent souls Dante met in paradise were Adam the first man who fell from grace and began the adventure for mankind, and the king Solomon, whose excess and debauchery would have earned any other mortal a certain place in hell. But because they were were God's elect and they only had to do time in purgatory before gaining entry of paradise. So unless one is super Biblical savvy, informed in astronomy, well versed in Greek mythology and has paid attention in school to European and middle eastern history from ancient times to the 13th century, one will miss many gems in Dante's presentation of God's Alpha and Omega plan for mankind and His exquisite design of the universe. Underpinned by His unchanging laws of the nature or laws of classical physics, the stars and planets orbit in perfect rhythm and position. Complex as Dante's 33 cantos are, fear not because our excellent translator Robin Kirkpatrick gave us wonderful notes to cross check. We also live in the age of Google and Wikipedia. Uncovering the background of that unfamiliar name of a person or place is only a few keystrokes on the keyboard away. Just like 9 descending strata of hell, and the slow ascent to the different heights of purgatory, Dante's paradise too is an interstellar journey across the planets and stars, each orbit with lights more blinding and celestial hymns more haunting than the previous as Dante zooms across space in light speed with his sweetheart Beatrice as guide. At some point, I began to the wonder if I was reading Dante's poetry and not actually reading astronomy and the law of physics written by someone who lived centuries before the appearance of people like Newton, Einstein and even Hawking. For those of us who love and know the Bible, Dante gave us the additional info on the Biblical characters by writing about his encounters with such eminent characters like the first man Adam, the blessed virgin Mary, Jesus' favourite disciple, Apostle John the eagle, and king Solomon just to name a few. Mysteries such as how did Adam remain in the garden of Eden, the language he spoke and the exact offence Adam angered God to give mankind the inheritance of the original sin. It is clearly evident that Catholicism was Dante's Christianity with the blessed Virgin Mary getting more ink and praise compared to her son Jesus. The protestant church did not exist during Dante's time since Martin Luther was still a futuristic figure by two hundred years. It was surprising to read Dante's brutal and scathing criticism of the papacy and the corruption of the Catholic church pre-Lutheran times. But maybe I shouldn't be surprised that discerning educated people like Dante and Luther, especially in the Latin language could cross check the actions of the Catholic church with the Latin Bible. I was also at first surprised theologically by Dante's strong advocate for predestination and God's favour for only His elect, a theology on God's grace we often associate with John Calvin, who also came roughly the same time as Martin Luther, which was 2 centuries after Dante. But I shouldn't be surprised if the Bible I read today is the same as the Latin Bible of Dante that contains the same clear messages that God saves only his elect and his criteria is only known by Him. It was interesting to read that people of olden times like Dante (lived 900 years ago) also grappled with questions like the fate of virtuous people who lived the earth and died without knowing Jesus. Much more widespread was ignorance of Jesus in olden times before the digital age of internet and when bibles were hand copied in a few languages, chiefly Latin. Accessibility to Jesus then was acutely reserved for monks and the educated who had their hands on the precious few hand copied of bibles in extremely limited circulation. Also the souls of babies who died too soon. Where do their souls go? Dante seized his chance to get answers from the higher powers and was comforted to know that God had reserved places for these ignorant virtuous souls and the babies that died too soon. But alas places in Heaven are limited to those God has elected and they are filling up even as I write this book review. Once the last throne is filled, the day of reckoning will be upon mankind and all will be revealed. We will see how close Dante's vision of hell, purgatory and paradiso are to the real thing. Paradiso was not rarefied air or a vacuum of darkness as Dante reached beyond the outermost of Primum Mobile to finally glimpse the orbit call Empyrean, reserved for the most exclusive club (called paradise) members like the blessed Mary and Abraham. Far from it, we find a universe bathed in Gods blinding rays of love emanating from the centre of the Empyrean (which encircles the Primum Mobile and all the other 9 orbits of paradiso). God's love represented by the ray of lights of the sun is the single force that holds the universe in perfect unchanging symmetry & balance, the future of mankind and the meaning of life and the universe. While Hawking may still be seeking his elusive "unifying theory" for the universe, Dante Alighieri has already revealed it to the world, nearly 900 years ago.

The book itself is poorly constructed. The pages have ink blots and letter distortion, it’s practically unreadable. It looks like if someone googled a bad translation of The Divine Comedy, printed it off with a printer and glued them to a book cover.The translations are absolutely horrible, I can’t make my mind up on if this is a scam or they just don’t care THAT much.I would highly suggest not buying this.

I have many translations of the Comedy, both in English and Arabic. However, I really wanted to get Longfellow's rendering of Dante and I did. The only thing that I did not like is the poor quality of Dore's magnificent illustrations.

The book I received is a reproduction which does not provide ANY information on the translator, original publishing date, NOR annotations or commentary.....Many of the reviews here are of other printed books of Dante's works, by other publishers.........!The reviews are MISLEADING!

While this translation by Longfellow is reminiscent of the Douay-Rheims Bible (Latin to sometimes mannered, even stilted English), this edition is splendidly bound and illustrated with the classic drawings on THE DIVINE COMEDY by Gustave Dore. The cover is red linen hardcover embellished with gold titles and a large black "engraved" Dore drawing. The book is oversized and comes in a superb box "book sleeve" for protection and display. Any informed and educated Catholic must read (at least once) and keep a copy of THE DIVINE COMEDY, but so should any informed and literate person. There are other translations that I prefer to this one by Longfellow (i.e., Mark Musa's in the Penguin edition also available on Amazon). However, this is one I will keep on my shelf for its beauty as an example of the book art alone.

I’ve always wanted to own this book but never felt ready to start reading it. It is the most amazing enthralling written work I’ve ever started . I know it will take me an age to completely read, but to understand it I know I will have to keep re reading it. It is bothe Literal and Mystical with lots of hidden messages. The divine messages are profound, the poems are moving and epic. The two worlds that he writes about are mind blowing and you can see the change happening.The characters that he uses are personal to him which makes it human during the journey. The whole book is dramatic and open to all kinds of interpretation. The illustrations are dark but define the text they mirror.

I didn't laugh once.

I had wanted to get a copy of The Devine Comedy for sometime and opted for this more expensive version as I thought it should be something a little bit special, however this translation it’s not a easy read, but I’m no scholar so don’t let that put you off. The text I believe is as close to period translation as it gets which uses language that takes a bit of getting used to if your not a literary scholar or well versed in language of the time. Perhaps I should have opted for a more modern English translation. Even so I’m happy with the look and feel of the book it does look better than your average hardback.

A truly frightening, beautiful and thought-provoking account of a human being's vision of the realms of the hereafter. I had read Dan Brown's "Inferno" and was interested in familiarising myself afterwards with various things mentioned in it, including Dante's Inferno and the architecture that Mr Brown describes, and I was amazed by Dante's incredible poetry and sense of drama.On the Kindle, I was not totally keen on the layout - even with adjustments there was not much to a page, which interrupted the flow a bit, but I quickly got used to it and was able to make it work.Whether people choose to read this work on the Kindle or as a real printed book, I totally recommend it to all.

I'd highly recommend this edition of The Divine Comedy to any fan of poetry and even if you've read it before or own a different version (as I do), it certainly makes a great addition to any book collection. It is a beautifully produced book that really stands out on the shelf, with golden edged pages and a spine that grants it an age old and dignified feel.It's quite striking when you open it up for the first time, I was studying the front and back cover for some time before I even began reading and it instantly felt precious; it's something that should be looked after with great care. These features certainly enhance the words on the page too and truly make the work feel that much more epic. There are illustrations throughout the book that are quite spectacular too and, as the poem itself can be a little tricky to navigate at times, the images certainly help to clarify some of the more convoluted parts of the poem, at least for me, and make it clear what is going on. In many ways the images strengthen the work, helping you to visualise what's going on and also adding to the shock value, particularly in the Inferno.There's a neat introduction preceding the poem which is very informative, with a bit of background information on Dante and an outline of each of the three sections, which is also helpful. I'd have liked more in way of analysis, but that's probably best left for the Oxford Classics Edition. At any rate, the information given here is made very accessible, and it's a nice little addition to the rest of the book. The layout is clean and tidy too, with the cantos neatly divided up and line numbers to help clarify where you're at.Buy it, you won't regret it.