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bedcarp 's review for:
The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
monolithic, in the purest form of the word. dante's scope and vision of divinity is staggering, both in the seemingly boundless vividness of his imagination and in the depth of his theological and historical commentary. i won't presume to have grasped every facet of the comedy's remarkable composition (dante's attention to mathematical detail is genuinely stunning), but from what i did analyse (and god knows i need a less pretty copy of this book to scribble notes on, i couldn't bring myself to deface my gorgeous leatherbound edition with its gold-embossed pages), dante's comedy lends itself to an unendingly rich and complex discourse of almost every theological issue under the sun -- free will, justice, the composition of love and goodwill, the list could go on indefinitely.
and that's only to mention the intellectual side of the poem, too -- dante's story of redemption has some of the most profoundly moving passages in all of literature, which, to list a few personal highlights, includes:
- dante's meeting with ser brunetto in the inferno
- the climactic vision of the deformed chariot (because honestly how does anyone think of something like that? completely deranged in the best meaning of the word)
- the emergence from the river lethe, and dante's spiritual reunion with beatrice
- a brief section in paradiso where dante offers some of the comedy's most moving odes to florence, and the homecoming desire of the exiled poet
- the entirety of the empyrean section, specifically the descriptions of the white rose and the final mystery of the trinity
also the purgatorio was my favourite canticle, though all three are damn near literary perfection. i can't wait to dive deeper into the comedy's historical and theological roots -- there's so much to explore, a whole lifetime's worth of substance to be found within, and i feel i've barely scratched, will barely scratch the surface. life's just so short and insignificant when you're talking about god and heaven and the past, present and future of human history in 600 pages, you know?
and that's only to mention the intellectual side of the poem, too -- dante's story of redemption has some of the most profoundly moving passages in all of literature, which, to list a few personal highlights, includes:
- dante's meeting with ser brunetto in the inferno
- the climactic vision of the deformed chariot (because honestly how does anyone think of something like that? completely deranged in the best meaning of the word)
- the emergence from the river lethe, and dante's spiritual reunion with beatrice
- a brief section in paradiso where dante offers some of the comedy's most moving odes to florence, and the homecoming desire of the exiled poet
- the entirety of the empyrean section, specifically the descriptions of the white rose and the final mystery of the trinity
also the purgatorio was my favourite canticle, though all three are damn near literary perfection. i can't wait to dive deeper into the comedy's historical and theological roots -- there's so much to explore, a whole lifetime's worth of substance to be found within, and i feel i've barely scratched, will barely scratch the surface. life's just so short and insignificant when you're talking about god and heaven and the past, present and future of human history in 600 pages, you know?