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A review by newishpuritan
The Divine Comedy: Volume 3: Paradise by Dante Alighieri
4.0
Re: Paradise itself, I found this section of the poem just as engaging as the other two on an intellectual level, but less engaging emotionally. The spirits in Paradise have transcended the vicissitudes of their former existence. For the most part, they appear as points of light to Dante, whereas in Hell and Purgatory they are bodies. That seems symptomatic: our experience as human beings is rooted in our bodies, and once we leave those behind, we cease to be fully human. Dante of course is still subject to change and growth, and that provides the basis for the narrative as much as his progress through the spheres.
Re: the Sayers / Reynolds translation, Sayers died before completing this, and the last third of the translation and all the commentary were written by Reynolds, who was a distinguished Italian scholar (I still use her Italian dictionary, which I find superior to recent publications for historical texts). The translation feels seamless, but the commentary and notes are much less lively and engaging than in the previous two volumes, and there were several occasions when very obscure passages in the poem had no explanatory note at all.
Re: the Sayers / Reynolds translation, Sayers died before completing this, and the last third of the translation and all the commentary were written by Reynolds, who was a distinguished Italian scholar (I still use her Italian dictionary, which I find superior to recent publications for historical texts). The translation feels seamless, but the commentary and notes are much less lively and engaging than in the previous two volumes, and there were several occasions when very obscure passages in the poem had no explanatory note at all.