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buffalomj 's review for:
The Inferno: The Longfellow Translation
by Dante Alighieri
I have a soft spot in my heart for this 1300s kook who bottled a lifetime of spite in history's most epic poetic work. Dante is nothing if not vengeful.
However, only reading the Longfellow translation will leave many a little confused. Longfellow is above all a poet of his time, and that time was almost two hundred years ago. The ebb and flow of language has made that translation almost as hard to follow today. To combat this, I also read Robert M. Durling's translation alongside Longfellow's. This helped me decode the language into the 21st Century.
Also invaluable to reading Dante is Guy P. Raffa's Danteworlds. I recommend the Complete Danteworlds, since it will give you all three parts of the Comedy. But if you are only dipping your toes in Hell, there is one only on The Inferno. This complementary book tells you the history of the people Dante meets and the literary allusions that he uses. If you aren't up to speed with your 13th Century Italian politics, you cannot skip this book.
If you can make it through all of that, The Inferno (and The Divine Comedy in general) remains one of the finest examples of literature ever created. You do not have to be a Catholic or a Christian to gain from reading this, because it is just a great story.
However, only reading the Longfellow translation will leave many a little confused. Longfellow is above all a poet of his time, and that time was almost two hundred years ago. The ebb and flow of language has made that translation almost as hard to follow today. To combat this, I also read Robert M. Durling's translation alongside Longfellow's. This helped me decode the language into the 21st Century.
Also invaluable to reading Dante is Guy P. Raffa's Danteworlds. I recommend the Complete Danteworlds, since it will give you all three parts of the Comedy. But if you are only dipping your toes in Hell, there is one only on The Inferno. This complementary book tells you the history of the people Dante meets and the literary allusions that he uses. If you aren't up to speed with your 13th Century Italian politics, you cannot skip this book.
If you can make it through all of that, The Inferno (and The Divine Comedy in general) remains one of the finest examples of literature ever created. You do not have to be a Catholic or a Christian to gain from reading this, because it is just a great story.