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A review by steveatwaywords
Paradiso: Third Book of the Divine Comedy by Barry Moser, Allen Mandelbaum, Dante Alighieri
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I was happy to have joined Baylor University's 100 Days of Dante challenge to complete the reading of the Commedia: I fear I may never have read past the much-read Inferno without it.
But my understanding of that famous first volume is forever changed by completing the full work. Yes, Paradiso succumbed to some of my concerns that the 'sensation' might be stalled in an unending cycle of 'adjectives glorioso.' How could it be else? On the other hand, what questions and challenges on the nature of fate, justice, faith, and the like which I raised through the reading of the first two volumes Dante ultimately addresses, not always with satisfactory answers, but with artful use of metaphors and arguments which explain why this satisfaction cannot be found. Readers would do well to approach this final volume as an argument, perhaps, an opportunity--despite the Florentine politics which continues even in Heaven itself--to reflect upon the nature of Creation, of our behavior and motivation for it, of some of the best that the Church might offer its flock, and why and how it might stumble.
Inferno is a prelude, a premise, to this realization, not merely a speculation upon what happens to sinners.
In addition, while the Mandelbaum translation is not always recommended, I found its poetry more evocative than other translators, and his extensive notes and discussions of process are enlightening.
But my understanding of that famous first volume is forever changed by completing the full work. Yes, Paradiso succumbed to some of my concerns that the 'sensation' might be stalled in an unending cycle of 'adjectives glorioso.' How could it be else? On the other hand, what questions and challenges on the nature of fate, justice, faith, and the like which I raised through the reading of the first two volumes Dante ultimately addresses, not always with satisfactory answers, but with artful use of metaphors and arguments which explain why this satisfaction cannot be found. Readers would do well to approach this final volume as an argument, perhaps, an opportunity--despite the Florentine politics which continues even in Heaven itself--to reflect upon the nature of Creation, of our behavior and motivation for it, of some of the best that the Church might offer its flock, and why and how it might stumble.
Inferno is a prelude, a premise, to this realization, not merely a speculation upon what happens to sinners.
In addition, while the Mandelbaum translation is not always recommended, I found its poetry more evocative than other translators, and his extensive notes and discussions of process are enlightening.