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blueschala 's review for:
The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, Clive James
Disclaimer: I received an advance reading copy of Clive James' translation as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
There's not much for me to say that hasn't already been said about Dante's Divine Comedy, so I'll focus my review on the specific translation that I read.
This was my second time reading Inferno, but my first time reading Purgatorio and Paradiso, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the translation. There were parts of it that felt a little anachronistic, and others that were hard to understand because of the way sentences were structured to fit the rhyming scheme. Also, due to the lack of footnotes, a lot of the historical references went over my head.
That's not to say this isn't a good translation. I was able to follow along for most of it. I think Clive James' translation would be excellent for someone who wants to read Dante's work and either doesn't like footnotes or would rather just do the research themselves. Personally, I could have used some notes for clarification.
There's not much for me to say that hasn't already been said about Dante's Divine Comedy, so I'll focus my review on the specific translation that I read.
This was my second time reading Inferno, but my first time reading Purgatorio and Paradiso, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the translation. There were parts of it that felt a little anachronistic, and others that were hard to understand because of the way sentences were structured to fit the rhyming scheme. Also, due to the lack of footnotes, a lot of the historical references went over my head.
That's not to say this isn't a good translation. I was able to follow along for most of it. I think Clive James' translation would be excellent for someone who wants to read Dante's work and either doesn't like footnotes or would rather just do the research themselves. Personally, I could have used some notes for clarification.