50 books to read before you die discussion

I want to ask if anybody has read this book.
Is English in this book hard to read or is it difficult to interpret. Is it worth it?
Just completed To kill a mockingbird and East of Eden
should I jump on this book?

Definitely worth it, but not an easy read. There are many translations--some try to capture the poetry more, some are more prose-like. I like the Hollander translation, which is very helpfully annotated and the language is very clear.

EdX has a free MOOC on the Divine Comedy from Georgetown, which is a Catholic university and so offers insights on the religious aspects of the poem. And Yale U has free lectures on YouTube from Prof. Mazzota, which are very good. Dante was doing so much in the Comedy--politics, Church criticism, theology, his own spin on Courtly Love and the nature of language, and a whole bag of poetic master tricks that are hard to capture in a translation.

I tried several editions until I came across the Acheron Press Kindle edition from Amazon for 99p in English. It's the easiest I have found to read. Also someone advised me to look at the Youtube lectures to help with understanding the text. However, I'm still only 15% of the way through it - I find it easier to read it one Canto at a time between reading other books.

This was really helpful guys. Will do all the research before reading.

It's not a simple read, but it is worth it and, once you get into the swing of the words, it gets easier! I have the Penguin paperbacks, translated by Mark Musa. Someday I'd like to find the Dorothy Sayers translation done in verse!

Yeah, why is the Sayers so hard to find? I know. I could order it online, but that's like hunting buffalo in a veal pen.

Longhare wrote: "Yeah, why is the Sayers so hard to find? I know. I could order it online, but that's like hunting buffalo in a veal pen."

The only comments I've ever read suggest that it was a failure, but I'd like to judge for myself!

"buffalo in a veal pen"... heeheehee

Bummer. Sayers' was a prose translation, I think? But she was an important Dante scholar, so I'd be interested.

I would love to see it, just because she was a Dante scholar and a gorgeous writer!

Is it Dorothy L. Slayers? I found the book online 1955
edition.

It says volume 2 purgatory. I have read Inferno by Dan Brown If I am not wrong there are three volumes then. Did Slayer translated all the three?

Damn...!! found all 3 Inferno, purgatory, paradise
By Slayers. :)

Think I read the Sayers translation- it was in verse, plus a modernized poem. Very enjoyable but takes a lot of time.

The Divine Comedy is written by Dante Alighieri not Alighieri Dante as shown on this list. Someone may wish to correct this.