The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise (Naxos AudioBooks)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Seeing, hearing, believing Dante
  • Wonderful Performance
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise (Naxos AudioBooks)
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Naxos Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Ancient, Classical & MedievalAncient, Classical & Medieval | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Alighieri, DanteAlighieri, Dante | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
DramaDrama | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
PoetryPoetry | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
UnabridgedUnabridged | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Poetry & DramaPoetry & Drama | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
GeneralGeneral | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Look Inside Fiction BooksLook Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. Paradise Lost (Naxos AudioBooks) Paradise Lost (Naxos AudioBooks)
  2. The Aeneid The Aeneid
  3. The Odyssey by Homer The Odyssey by Homer
  4. The Iliad The Iliad
  5. Iliad Iliad

ASIN: 962634315X
Release Date: 2004-11-30

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Seeing, hearing, believing Dante.......2007-01-09

This audiobook is a remarkably good addition for the individual who enjoys good literature well read. Superb production values, an excellent reader/actor who imbues the material with accurate intonation and enunciation, cadence, and modulation, makes this one a gem. If you are spending your money wisely, you cannot go wrong with this NAXOS production. This one will be listened to many times. I even purchased the translation in hardcopy to pay closer attention to the reading.

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful Performance.......2006-05-14

This is a wonderful performance of the entire Divine Comedy which one can listen to many times. The reader, Heathecoate Williams, must be some sort of an actor -- full throated furious at times, pale and poignant at others as he wends his way through it all, mimicking all the saints and sinners like a mockingbird. Each of the 100 cantos is prefaced by a short suggestion of period music for a breather and for atmosphere, which does not intrude or ham up the performance, as often happens with similar efforts.

Shameless drama of Williams' variety may be embarrassing to some, out of style to others. But it supplies an important element lacking to the rather dry academic fashion by which most are these days exposed to Dante. Nor is any accuracy of meaning sacrificed thereby. The three parts of the Comedy are all read from a prose translation by a man named Benedict Flynn. I am not aware that this translation is available anywhere in print, but having read several English translations of Dante, the word choice is familiar and sounds properly middle of the road. Truth be told, a dramatic flair does no disservice to this very personal poem at all, which was radical in its day for being written in common vernacular. For the hearer of our language, it places Dante in the ring where he belongs: with the fully engaged Shakespeare of the history plays, not with the closet dramas of a T.S. Eliot or a Robert Lowell.

The set is well worth the price, and the bonus disc lecture on Dante's life not only adds the academic dimension, but makes the price for the whole a steal.
The Divine Comedy : Paradise
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Medieval vision of the afterlife
  • Difficult text, rendered well
  • Wonderful, Informative, Scary Story
  • I understood the grace and beauty
  • Divine Comedy : Paradise
The Divine Comedy : Paradise
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Ancient, Classical & MedievalAncient, Classical & Medieval | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ItalianItalian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Alighieri, DanteAlighieri, Dante | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ItalianItalian | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Fiction BooksLook Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Italian BooksAll Italian Books | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. The Divine Comedy: Purgatory The Divine Comedy: Purgatory
  2. The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics)
  3. The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory
  4. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 2: Purgatorio (Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri) The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 2: Purgatorio (Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri)
  5. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1: Inferno (Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Reprint Series) The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1: Inferno (Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Reprint Series)

ASIN: 0140444432

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Medieval vision of the afterlife.......2007-05-01

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God. Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul. That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others. This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things). It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

4 out of 5 stars Difficult text, rendered well.......2003-07-28

I am not a professional Dante scholar, and in fact, speak no Italian at all, so my judgement as to the accuracy of the translation is suspect. That said, Musa does an admirable job of helping the reader understand this very difficult final third of the Divine Comedy. Of the three sections of the Comedy, my feeling is that Paradise is the least interesting, though it would be a shame to read the first two parts and neglect the third, since they all are integral to understanding what Dante was trying to accomplish. But the characters in Paradise are all literally perfect and sinless, and there is not nearly as much of interest as in the other books. There is a lot of symbolism involving what shapes the saints stand in and the like, but its all rather trying and sometimes monotonous, to me anyway. Musa is a good guide though. The translation smartly abandons any hope of recreating Rima Terza, and goes with a straight blank verse rendering. The translation is subtle and effective, even when the poem itself is slow and tedious. Despite my beliefs about Paradise, both history and personal experience tell me that Divine Comedy is an important and fulfilling part of the Western Canon that should not go neglected. I have no problem recommending Musa's version of Paradise.

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Informative, Scary Story.......2001-05-22

My interest in classic literature did not arise until recently. I read many reviews which indicated that people with this such interest absolutely MUST read Dante's Inferno. With that hefty weight upon my "newbie" shoulders I decided to undergo the journey that so many others have made over the last 700 years.

As it turns out, Mark Musa's translation of Inferno is fantastic. Each chapter begins with a very brief but informative synopsis, followed by the prose, then finally capped off my Musa's notes on the text. Musa's notes give backgroud on all of the characters and situations that take place throughout the story. These notes are a MUST for any newcomer to Dante and classical literature in general. So, not only is there the original text in English for us non-Italian speakers, but there are notes to increase the readers comprehension.

Dante is guided by the author of the Aeneid, Virgil. Virgil takes Dante through the Nine Levels of Hell to show him the pain and suffering of all those who do not love and follow God. Dante learns a great deal on this journey as does the reader.

Mark Musa's translation of Dante is smooth, entertaining, and very informative. Anyone interested in Christianity, Hell, famous Greeks, and classical literature should definitely indulge themselves as this translation is not overwhelming in the slightest. Five stars across the board.

5 out of 5 stars I understood the grace and beauty.......2000-07-19

The pilgrim's journey continues to heaven.

If you, like me, are intimidated by Dante but are interested in these great works of Western Literature, you now have an accessible translation of the Divine Comedy. Musa's translation communicates the divinity of the events in the story on an understandable level. The Divine Comedy colored my perception of religion and helped me to a new understanding of the harmony of responsibility and grace. The work also educates the reader in an enriching way about the belief system of the middle ages.

Don't miss this book and don't read any other translation.

5 out of 5 stars Divine Comedy : Paradise.......2000-04-04

In this translation of paradise, Mark Musa exhibits the same sensitivity to language and knowledge of translation that enabled his versions of the Inferno and Purgatory to caputure the vibrant powers of Dantes poetry. Thats what it says on the back of the book and boy you couldnt have said it better than that. This book is by far better than the first and a perfect sequel to the secound translation. Mark Musa puts Dante's complex poetry into plain english so that even a common student like myself can understand. I think anyone who likes Dantes interpretations about life will love this addition to his work.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Florentine/Cantica III: Paradise (Penguin Classics)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Medieval vision of the afterlife
  • DANTE THROUGH DOROTHY: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
  • Hame one cannot give 6 stars...
  • Quella che m'paradisa la mia mente
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Florentine/Cantica III: Paradise (Penguin Classics)
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Ancient, Classical & MedievalAncient, Classical & Medieval | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ItalianItalian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Alighieri, DanteAlighieri, Dante | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ItalianItalian | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Fiction BooksLook Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Italian BooksAll Italian Books | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory
  2. The Divine Comedy: Hell (Penguin Classics) The Divine Comedy: Hell (Penguin Classics)
  3. Introduction To Saint Thomas Aquinas Introduction To Saint Thomas Aquinas
  4. St. Anselm Basic Writings: Proslogium, Mologium, Gaunilo's In Behalf of the Fool, Cur Deus Homo St. Anselm Basic Writings: Proslogium, Mologium, Gaunilo's In Behalf of the Fool, Cur Deus Homo
  5. The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics) The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0140441050

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Medieval vision of the afterlife.......2007-05-01

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God. Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul. That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others. This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things). It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

5 out of 5 stars DANTE THROUGH DOROTHY: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS.......2006-08-11

please read the life and works of Dorothy L. SAyers to appreciate fully the effort she made here, her final writing, posthumously completed (no, not with any seance, which she adequately lambasted in her detective stories).

Her total translation of the Commedia is worth the price of admission (Do not abandon all hope, as she will bring you home to the beatific vision).

There are several translations of varying usefulness and grace, but Dorothy is the rock upon which to stand when comparing the rest.

5 out of 5 stars Hame one cannot give 6 stars..........2004-04-12

This is not the most up - to - date translation: however, it is one of the more worthy bits of the history that has grown up around the Comedy, and its perspective is still of practical use. (She actually tries to avoid Freud, for example). Her misunderstandings are ones we can overlook, and she could even help to correct any new ones (not that I do not have full faith in our, er, "currentness", of course!) that might arise.
As for the work of the Master himself, what can one say? Its the best book in world history (have not read any better: and I am, in all humillity, considered something of a reader).
Simply put, its Heaven.

5 out of 5 stars Quella che m'paradisa la mia mente.......2001-03-06

The elevated sound of poetry are here heard. Not fisical reality, but the ideal; In the Paradiso, ideas and feelings are visible. Dante sees God's unexpressible force: love.
Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A classic only for $17.98
  • dante, longfellow and dore'
Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Chartwell Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

GeneralGeneral | Literature & Fiction | Bargain Books | Stores | Books
ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
  1. Milton's Paradise Lost Milton's Paradise Lost
  2. The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy
  3. The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library) The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library)

ASIN: 0785821201

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A classic only for $17.98.......2007-06-08

NOTE: Barnes and Noble sells it for only $17.98 in store or online.

Great translation.The classic black and white illustrations by THE master Gustave Dore. A must for your classics library. I bought it at B&N, very happy with the quality of paper and the lay-out.
This title is quite large in size, almost coffee table book style. Not for dragging around the beach.
Highly recommended!

5 out of 5 stars dante, longfellow and dore'.......2007-04-18

this is a beautiful book and contains all three volumes of the divine comedy. the longfellow translation is very clear and readable and i like the fact that he didn't try to reproduce the rhyme. the language is only slightly outdated in places, but i don't mind that since it is a very old poem and the slightly formal language gives it a classic feel. the original woodcut illustrations are wonderful, there are many of them, and the whole thing adds up to a very nice volume.
Dante's Paradiso (The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise) (The Divine Comedy)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Medieval vision of the afterlife
Dante's Paradiso (The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise) (The Divine Comedy)
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Digireads.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
FictionFiction | Literature & Fiction | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
FictionFiction | Fiction & Poetry | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
GeneralGeneral | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 DealsAll 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. Dante's Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy, Volume 2, Purgatory) (The Divine Comedy) Dante's Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy, Volume 2, Purgatory) (The Divine Comedy)
  2. Dante's Inferno (The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell) (The Divine Comedy) Dante's Inferno (The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell) (The Divine Comedy)
  3. Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
  4. The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library) The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library)

ASIN: 1420926403

Book Description

The "Divine Comedy" was entitled by Dante himself merely "Commedia," meaning a poetic composition in a style intermediate between the sustained nobility of tragedy, and the popular tone of elegy. The word had no dramatic implication at that time, though it did involve a happy ending. The poem is the narrative of a journey down through Hell, up the mountain of Purgatory, and through the revolving heavens into the presence of God. In this aspect it belongs to the two familiar medieval literary types of the Journey and the Vision. It is also an allegory, representing under the symbolism of the stages and experiences of the journey, the history of a human soul, painfully struggling from sin through purification to the Beatific Vision. Contained in this volume is the third part of the "Divine Comedy," the "Paradiso" or "Paradise," from the translation of Charles Eliot Norton.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Medieval vision of the afterlife.......2007-05-01

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God. Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul. That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others. This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things). It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, with Introductions and Notes (The Harvard Classics, Deluxe Editions, Registered Editions)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, with Introductions and Notes (The Harvard Classics, Deluxe Editions, Registered Editions)

    Manufacturer: Collier
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover
    ASIN: B000EXHSHG
    Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: Paradise-Italian Text And Verse Translation / Paradise-Commentary (Indiana Masterpiece Editions)
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Outstanding Translation and Notes
    Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: Paradise-Italian Text And Verse Translation / Paradise-Commentary (Indiana Masterpiece Editions)

    Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    GeneralGeneral | Criticism & Theory | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Ancient, Classical & MedievalAncient, Classical & Medieval | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    ItalianItalian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: Purgatory - Italian Text With Verse Translation; Purgatory - Notes and Commentary (Indiana Masterpiece Editions) Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: Purgatory - Italian Text With Verse Translation; Purgatory - Notes and Commentary (Indiana Masterpiece Editions)
    2. The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics)

    ASIN: 0253341388

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Outstanding Translation and Notes.......2005-09-17

    Even though I have not yet completed this translation of Dante's Paradiso by Mark Musa, I have read his original translation published several years ago. Knowing his first publication (especially the notes for each canto), I can say with certainty that this new edition is so much better. I have only completed the first five canto's, and I have learned a great deal from Mr. Musa's notes. This truly is his defenitive version of The Paradiso. I truly recommend this version to anyone who reads Dante's Divine Comedy as I do.
    Paradise: From the Divine Comedy
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Paradise: From the Divine Comedy
      Dante Alighieri
      Manufacturer: Naxos Audiobooks
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Audio CD

      ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      Alighieri, DanteAlighieri, Dante | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      DramaDrama | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      PoetryPoetry | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      ClassicsClassics | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      Poetry & DramaPoetry & Drama | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Jazz | Styles | Music
      Similar Items:
      1. Purgatory: From the Divine Comedy Purgatory: From the Divine Comedy
      2. Inferno: From The Divine Comedy Inferno: From The Divine Comedy
      3. The Inferno: From the Divine Comedy The Inferno: From the Divine Comedy

      ASIN: 9626341793
      Release Date: 2000-04-11
      The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri; Hell - Purgatory - Paradise (The Harvard Classics)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri; Hell - Purgatory - Paradise (The Harvard Classics)

        Manufacturer: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover
        ASIN: B000F41OF6

        Product Description

        The "Divine Comedy" was entitled by Dante himself merely "Comedia,"meaning a poetic composition in a style intermediate between the sustained nobility of tragedy, and the popular tone of elegy." The word had no dramatic implication at that time, though it did involve a happy ending. The poem is the narrative of a journey down through Hell, up the mountain of Purgatory, and through the revolving heavens into the presence of God.
        Divine Comedy: Paradise (Large Print Edition)
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Divine Comedy: Paradise (Large Print Edition)
          Alighieri Dante (Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
          Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
          Poetry & Short StoriesPoetry & Short Stories | Large Print | Formats | Books
          Similar Items:
          1. Divine Comedy: Purgatory Divine Comedy: Purgatory
          2. Divine Comedy: Hell Divine Comedy: Hell

          ASIN: 1426403569
          Release Date: 2007-10-01

          Book Description

          Dante's classic work, as translated by Longfellow.

          Books:

          1. The Food of France
          2. The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition)
          3. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina
          4. The Haunted Hotel (A to Z Mysteries) (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
          5. The House of Seven Gables (Bantam Classics)
          6. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Signet Classics)
          7. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
          8. The Innocents Abroad (Dover Value Editions)
          9. The Lion and the Jewel (Three Crowns Book)
          10. The Man in the Iron Mask (Oxford World's Classics)

          Books Index

          Books Home

          Recommended Books

          1. The World Is Flat
          2. The Art Crowd
          3. Racial Discrimination and Minority Business Enterprise: Evidence from the 1990 Census
          4. Ritual, Politics, and Power
          5. Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin
          6. The Honorable Imposter/The Captive Bride/The Indentured Heart/The Gentle Rebel/The Saintly Buccaneer
          7. Reassessment of Metals Criteria for Aquatic Life Protection: Priorities for Research and Implementat
          8. A Guaranteed Annual Income: Evidence from a Social Experiment
          9. MP Equity Valuation and Analysis with eVal 2004 CD-ROM
          10. Missouri Business Directory 2000-2001: The Ultimate Sales & Credit Tool