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asjublieft's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
“Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
Justice incited my sublime Creator;
Created me divine Omnipotence,
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
“All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”
One of the death rites among Hindus is performance of a reading of ‘Garuda Purana’ during the mourning period- a book that like Inferno lists punishments given to sinners. The thing has its moments – my favorite, without exception, is this Vetarni river in which the soul is left to suffer for a while before being permitted to enter the Hell. Now you can bunk this punishment by, you know, gifting away a cow to a Brahmin or, if you missed the offer, your son can do it for you after your death. If that was done, you could just cross the river by holding on to that cow’s tail.
Yeah, don’t laugh, it is supposed to be religious!
Whatever else you may say about these religious people, they did have their imagination when it comes to coming up with sadist punishments.
Now, Dante is not a very likable fellow. And he probably won't like us either. If ever he was to meet us, the chances are he would be guessing which circles we will make it to ... I mean, I don't like that kind of talk, Dante may as well go to hell with it.... okay, I heard you.
Actually I later joined the game - guessing which circle I shall be in because, let us face it, we are all sinners here. Your very own pious friend here made it to at least three circles.
You can also make guesses about people you don't like, which is basically what Dante is doing most of the time - often going ‘Tch! Tch! You sinners!’ in his religious revenge on his enemies from Florentine, from where he was exiled for political reasons.
“Rejoice , O Florence, since thou art so great,
That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!”
I guess the city had something in it which inspired this sort of crooked genius. About two centuries later, Machiavelli will write another great work to get even with Florentine government.
Back to Dante, what is still most dis-likable about him is his Devil-will-take-care attitude towards non-Christians. Prophet Mohammad is punished in last circle as Schismatic. It is worst still as at least some of this Comedy might have been inspired indirectly by Mohammad’s and early Islamic ideas.
In First circle are punished although only mildly, people who weren't Christian or before Christ Jew, including some of Dante’s favorites. The punishment is ‘without hope we live on in desire’ – Sounds like Monday morning, right? There are a number of beautiful quotes in there.
Another set of sinners who get Dante’s sympathy are those who had committed sins of sensuality. Herein are the only pairs of sinners who are not alone in hell – lovers, holding on to each-other even in hell - Not surprisingly, since it is Dante’s crush, Beatrice who sent his idol, Vigil’s soul over to guide him on divine ways and to act as his
I don’t know why people don’t mention her in their reviews – except for his poetry, his crush is about the only good thing you can say about him and it was for some time as famous as his poetry. He wrote odes to her (and not to his wife). His daughter took her name when she became nun. In fact, if you open the page on ‘Unrequited Love’on Wikipedia, you shall find a painting, one of my favorites, of him (no kidding) looking longingly at her while she walks on oblivious, conversing with her friends.
Spoiler
And oh! if you have read Brown's inferior namesake, you will notice that each of three - Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso end with same word 'stars'.
anders_holbaek's review against another edition
5.0
"In that season of the youthful year
when the sun cools his locks beneath Aquarius
and the dark already nears but half the day.
and when the hoarfrost copies out upon the fields
the very image of her snowy sister -
although her pen-point is not sharp for long -
the peasant, short of fodder, rises,
looks out, and sees the countryside
turned white, at which he slaps his thigh,
goes back indoors, grumbling here and there
like a wretch who knows not what to do,
then goes outside again and is restored to hope,
seeing that the world has changed its face
in that brief time, and now picks up his crook
and drives his sheep to pasture."
laylaaxr's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
linneak2002's review against another edition
I was intimidated by this book because I have heard how hard it is to read. I loved it! It was very easy to read, and it gives one a lot to think about. I also took the free online class about this from Hillsdale College, and I highly recommend that as well.
eesh25's review against another edition
I'm going to say this up front: This is not a review. More like me writing what I thought about the epic, because I have not idea how to review a Fourteenth century epic about a dude's journey through the nine circles of hell. Moving on.
Dante was obviously a very good poet and had an imagination that would put Spongebob to shame. Seriously, the guy did a really good job at thinking up different tortures related to different sins and his imagery was epic (pun!). If I ever need to learn how to magically torture someone, I would use Inferno as a guide book.
But, while he is a skilled writer, I also agree with the reviewer who called this a "burn book". Because Dante essentially put every person he didn't like in hell. Actually, he put everyone in hell. Every single Greek or Roman hero or leader I've ever heard of was in there. He set very strict rules and I'm not sure how anyone is ever supposed to make it to heaven.
And this book was not easy to get through. The traslation I read was good and simple but it the bajillion references that had me in a bit of a pickle. He referenced so many people and events that, had I tried to look up each and every one, I would've been reading this for a month.
Also, Dante was a genius but this wasn't something that you could agree with. And maybe he didn't intend for his work to be a lesson; Just a demonstration of talant.
Whatever the case. I did like reading this poem but it was a strange experience. I might come back to it at some point in the future. Give it another shot. For now, I'm going to leave the rating black. Reading at your own risk.
motui's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sophiasahota's review against another edition
The common fate of sinners in Inferno is a punishment of fire, agony, disfigurement, torture, etc. (except for those in the ninth and deepest circle, like Judas and Lucifer, and those is the first circles whose sins are not as great). In the midst of this violence, those who have killed themselves (”The Self Murderers”) are turned into trees where the Harpies nest. That really moved me - despite The Self Murderers’ eternal damnation, their fate is much different than the other sinners. They exist as large knotted trees, rooted to the spot, unable to harm themselves again or be harmed by the fiery torture that the other sinners face. There is a sort of mercy to this, an acknowledgement that even though suicide is technically a sin (and seen at the time as on par or as even a greater sin than murder) it is punished quite differently - I would go so far as to say that it is punished in a tragically beautiful way. Maybe this was not Dante’s intention, maybe the Forest of the Self-Murderers is only supposed to be unrelenting and disturbing, but I can’t help but feel like there is an unconscious mercy in the Self-Murderer’s fate.
themacchine's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5