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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Bowie’s Books by John O’Connell ⚡️4 of 100
#StoryGraph: fiction classics poetry challenging informative reflective slow-paced
528 pages | first published 1320
• Read in 1974
• Read in 2013 (Henry Wordsworth Longfellow version)
• Read in 2022 in conjunction with Hillsdale College’s new free online course, “Dante's Divine Comedy.”
https://online.hillsdale.edu/landing/dantes-divine-comedy
The Divine Comedy is one of the greatest works of Western literature. An epic poem in three parts, it tells the story of Dante’s journey through the afterlife: Inferno describes the suffering of souls warped by vice. Purgatorio explores the theme of repentance and the elements of good character. Paradiso reveals the true glory and freedom attainable with God.
Product Description
"Professor Esolen's translation of Dante's Inferno is the best one I have seen, for two reasons. His decision to use unrhymed blank verse allows him to come nearly as close to the meaning of the original as any prose reading could do, and allows him also to avoid the harrowing sacrifices that the demand for rhyme imposes on any translator. And his endnotes and other additions provoke answers to almost any question that could arise about the work." —A. Kent Hieatt
A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante's masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante's key sources and influences. Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem's line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with scholars, teachers, and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art.
#StoryGraph: fiction classics poetry challenging informative reflective slow-paced
528 pages | first published 1320
• Read in 1974
• Read in 2013 (Henry Wordsworth Longfellow version)
• Read in 2022 in conjunction with Hillsdale College’s new free online course, “Dante's Divine Comedy.”
https://online.hillsdale.edu/landing/dantes-divine-comedy
The Divine Comedy is one of the greatest works of Western literature. An epic poem in three parts, it tells the story of Dante’s journey through the afterlife: Inferno describes the suffering of souls warped by vice. Purgatorio explores the theme of repentance and the elements of good character. Paradiso reveals the true glory and freedom attainable with God.
Product Description
"Professor Esolen's translation of Dante's Inferno is the best one I have seen, for two reasons. His decision to use unrhymed blank verse allows him to come nearly as close to the meaning of the original as any prose reading could do, and allows him also to avoid the harrowing sacrifices that the demand for rhyme imposes on any translator. And his endnotes and other additions provoke answers to almost any question that could arise about the work." —A. Kent Hieatt
A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante's masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante's key sources and influences. Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem's line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with scholars, teachers, and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art.
This book is really a "you had to be there" type thing. I can't really say I understood all the references because they all looked like random Italian names. But hey, I feel Dante's pain.
Wild, I need to read this again because so much of it went over my head. Really strange imagery though. Dante definitely had a huge crush on Virgil.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Imagery is fabulous, while sometimes difficult to comprehend the relevance of the figures mentioned or encountered by Dante and Virgil, the footnotes helped significantly. Would have loved some more Lucifer/Judas/Dis interaction.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Mfw I go to hell and see all my political and ideological rivals burning for their sins.
Go Trojans beat Acheans
Go Trojans beat Acheans
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Sexual content