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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Plumbing the crucible of happenstance.
I should give a quick intro and say that I rarely EVER, EVER re-read a book. I should also mention that 3 years ago I had never cracked Dante's Divine Comedy. Now, I am finishing the Divine Comedy for the 3rd time. I've read Pinsky's translation of the Inferno. I've read Ciardi. I've flirted with Mandelbaum and danced with Hollander, but from Canto 1 of Inferno/Hell to Canto XXXIII of Paradiso/Heaven, I can't say I've read a better version than the Clive James translation. He replaced the terza rima (**A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D-E-E** a measure hard to write without poetic stretch marks in English) with the quatrain, and in doing so made the English translation his own. It gives the Divine Comedy the verbal energy and the poetry that makes inferior translations a slog and makes Dante so damn difficult to translate well. A mediocre translation might capture the stripes but lose the tiger. Clive James pulled off a master translation of one of the greatest works of art in any medium -- ever.
I should give a quick intro and say that I rarely EVER, EVER re-read a book. I should also mention that 3 years ago I had never cracked Dante's Divine Comedy. Now, I am finishing the Divine Comedy for the 3rd time. I've read Pinsky's translation of the Inferno. I've read Ciardi. I've flirted with Mandelbaum and danced with Hollander, but from Canto 1 of Inferno/Hell to Canto XXXIII of Paradiso/Heaven, I can't say I've read a better version than the Clive James translation. He replaced the terza rima (**A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D-E-E** a measure hard to write without poetic stretch marks in English) with the quatrain, and in doing so made the English translation his own. It gives the Divine Comedy the verbal energy and the poetry that makes inferior translations a slog and makes Dante so damn difficult to translate well. A mediocre translation might capture the stripes but lose the tiger. Clive James pulled off a master translation of one of the greatest works of art in any medium -- ever.
Quintessential tale of recovery - The way out is for Dante to journey deeper into Hell.
What can you add about one of the great works of western literature? Perhaps a bit of a slog to make it all the way through for a modern audience. If you're weak on classical or medieval, especially Italian, history be sure to get a well annotated copy or a companion Cliff Notes volume. Still, well worth the time invested to read it.
slow-paced
Definitely much easier to listen to as an audiobook than read on paper. The version I listened to was a BBC version with John Hurt and David Warner, who sounds just like Paul Bettany. I love a good cast performance.
The content of the story is too date to judge fairly. It's upsetting to think so many were condemned to the second to last circle of Hell just for loving someone of the same sex. I will say I was surprised by how in your face political it was. I knew there were some politics behind its authorship, but I didn't expect to get slapped with them upside the head every other line.
The content of the story is too date to judge fairly. It's upsetting to think so many were condemned to the second to last circle of Hell just for loving someone of the same sex. I will say I was surprised by how in your face political it was. I knew there were some politics behind its authorship, but I didn't expect to get slapped with them upside the head every other line.
This is a fantastic translation to keep the original poetic spirit of the original but make it approachable for modern readers but also keep notes and other explanations to an unobtrusive level. In keeping that balance, this translation has earned my admiration.
The illustrations take what in my eyes is a meh translation of this work and make it one of my favorite editions.
Read for "The World of the Middle Ages," SP08, Thomas F. X. Noble.
yg 2 bintang itu untuk komiknya, bukan ttg ceritanya, krn crt aslinya saya jg blm smpt baca versi lengkapnya, hanya versi2 abridged yg sdh disederhanakan macam komik ini. dan dlm komik ini sama sekali tdk terasa misi pengarang memperlihatkan wajah after life seorang manusia... di inferno, purgatori maupun paradiso. malahan sinopsis di sampul blkg buku lebih bagus menjelaskan isinya.