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ljudy 's review for:
The Inferno: The Longfellow Translation
by Dante Alighieri
Actually my second reading of this (I must have accidentally logged a different version on here last time). I still feel like there's a lot of Florentine political and current events references I'm not getting (Google can only do so much here), but I'm really struck by how vivid Dante's descriptions are. It's really quite imaginative, and that helps prevent it from feeling too formulaic as you delve deeper and deeper into the pits of Hell.
I have not yet read the other two parts (part of why I re-read the first one), and I'm really curious to see if the observations here play off of what he finds in Purgatory and Heaven. But the biggest thing I noted here is how the sins of the people he meets continue in perpetuity. Those who sow discord continue to tear each other apart, for example. That's a very notable observation (and I think a sound one) related to the interplay of grace and justice and the question of "how could a good God send sinners to Hell?"
Not that every interaction meets this sort of didactic theme, mind you. But it's something that stuck out to me.
I have not yet read the other two parts (part of why I re-read the first one), and I'm really curious to see if the observations here play off of what he finds in Purgatory and Heaven. But the biggest thing I noted here is how the sins of the people he meets continue in perpetuity. Those who sow discord continue to tear each other apart, for example. That's a very notable observation (and I think a sound one) related to the interplay of grace and justice and the question of "how could a good God send sinners to Hell?"
Not that every interaction meets this sort of didactic theme, mind you. But it's something that stuck out to me.