The Divine Comedy Publisher: NAL Trade

by John Ciardi

The excellent translation of The Divine Comedy by poet John Ciardi.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Anthony Ciardi was an American poet, translator, editor, writer and etymologist.

Reviews

[Lindsey Reid · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good.

Literally a book from hell. Inferno was good but the rest was the most head up own ass thing I’ve ever read.

[Nicole Farison · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me 5 months! The first time I tried to read it without an annotated version but then I was recommended John Ciardi’s version. It probably took so long to read because it was so in-depth. I love the imagery in all three books. Inferno was jaw dropping at times. Purgatory had some dry places and Paradiso was the hardest to get through. I realized I don’t know my Italian history that well especially the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Roman Empire. The emphasis on astronomy was fascinating. They really paid attention to the night sky back then. I have a pretty good foundation in Greek mythology but definitely didn’t catch all the references. I definitely want to read the Aeneid. I did know the Bible references and there is a lot of that! I like how in Canto 2 of Paradiso Dante tells the reader not to continue if they don’t know it. “You other few who have set yourselves to eat the bread of angels,…you may trust your keel to the salt track and follow in the furrow of my wake…”

[Jackson Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story of a pilgrimage to Heaven, has incredible allegorical significance, mostly stating of divine love and divine revelation take us farther than human reason. The book is much to vast for me to explain it’s beautiful complexities in a review, I’d advise anyone interested to watch Michael Knowles lecture of Dante for context and to get a feel for the near perfect work.