Reviews

The Paradiso by John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri

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steelcitygator's review against another edition

3.0

Definitely better than what some people say but it is easily the least enjoyable section of The Divine Comedy. It still retains some of the loose journey but it is much more surreal and focused on reflection and philosophy more the the Inferno or Purgatory which I think works against it in the sense that there is less structure and a feeling of progress. Another item that brings it down is the fact I felt Virgil was a much more interesting guide than Beatrice. Paradise doesn't work without her but that does not mean she isn't less interesting and just generally a weaker character than Virgil. Some of the surreal work is pretty interesting but once again less so than the first two sections of the Comedy. Mussa's translation was great with the flow of reading and his notes were very informative and intersting and filled out the picture I was working with. Overall I really enjoyed the Comedy as a whole and recommend everyone try and get to it at some point.

geneticginger's review against another edition

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3.0

Paradiso was a lot harder for me to get through than the other books of the Divine Comedy. I missed Virgil being Dante's guide. There were also so many detailed descriptions of heaven that could have benefited from pictures to help visualize the complexity.