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A review by buddhafish
The Divine Comedy III: Paradise by Dante Alighieri
130th book of the year. Artist for this review is, again, for the last time, French artist Gustave Doré.
I have no idea what to rate this as there is so much to unpack and I'm just a lowly student (not even a student anymore). Without notes there's no way that I could possibly read or understand this. I found myself extremely grateful that I studied Classical Civilisation once again and knew a good number of the names Dante was dropping in regards to the Roman Empire, but the religious names, the Saints and countless people from Dante's own lifetime were mostly lost on me in their allusions. Paradiso has a poor reputation as being boring/difficult compared to the first two installments of the Comedy and to be honest it is the most boring and the most difficult. Beatrice is a boring guide compared to the awesomeness of having Virgil himself leading you through Hell itself (is anything cooler?) and the stories of finding God/understanding piety are far less compelling than the sufferings of those in Hell, and the same with Purgatory. In Hell we meet characters like Ulysses and in Paradise we meet Saints and Angels. Though the imagery is still wondrous as Dante and Beatrice fly through the circles of Heaven (in an end-of-2001: A Space Odyssey way), the bits around all that are not as great. Most of all I felt I needed so much outside research to understand it, I knew I'd have to read it several more times.
However, I have now read the whole of The Divine Comedy and I think I stand with Joyce in saying: Dante > Shakespeare. As a whole, one of the most amazing things I've read. I'll come back to this difficult beast when I read the whole thing all over again in another translation, probably Ciardi. But for now, it's finally farewell to Dante (and now I feel like I am on first name basis).
I have no idea what to rate this as there is so much to unpack and I'm just a lowly student (not even a student anymore). Without notes there's no way that I could possibly read or understand this. I found myself extremely grateful that I studied Classical Civilisation once again and knew a good number of the names Dante was dropping in regards to the Roman Empire, but the religious names, the Saints and countless people from Dante's own lifetime were mostly lost on me in their allusions. Paradiso has a poor reputation as being boring/difficult compared to the first two installments of the Comedy and to be honest it is the most boring and the most difficult. Beatrice is a boring guide compared to the awesomeness of having Virgil himself leading you through Hell itself (is anything cooler?) and the stories of finding God/understanding piety are far less compelling than the sufferings of those in Hell, and the same with Purgatory. In Hell we meet characters like Ulysses and in Paradise we meet Saints and Angels. Though the imagery is still wondrous as Dante and Beatrice fly through the circles of Heaven (in an end-of-2001: A Space Odyssey way), the bits around all that are not as great. Most of all I felt I needed so much outside research to understand it, I knew I'd have to read it several more times.
However, I have now read the whole of The Divine Comedy and I think I stand with Joyce in saying: Dante > Shakespeare. As a whole, one of the most amazing things I've read. I'll come back to this difficult beast when I read the whole thing all over again in another translation, probably Ciardi. But for now, it's finally farewell to Dante (and now I feel like I am on first name basis).