Synopses & Reviews
Belonging in the company of the works of Homer and Virgil, The Inferno is a moving human drama, a journey through the torment of Hell, an expression of the Middle Ages, and a protest against the ways in which men have thwarted the divine plan.
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From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less
Synopsis
So full was I of slumber at the moment
in which I had abandoned the true way . . .
O Muses, O high genius, now assist me
O memory, that didst write down what I saw,
. . . thy nobility shall be manifest
Although chiefly remembered for such works as The Psalm of Life, The Children's Hour and Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) spent many years as professor of modern languages at Bowdoin, and later at Harvard. In 1843, after several trips abroad, he began work on his translation of Dante.
Immensely popular, and commanding a larger audience than any other poet in America, Longfellow produced a body of work which skillfully rendered European culture into terms his New World readers readily appreciated -- with his translation of The Inferno one of his most important offerings.
Synopsis
Belonging in the immortal company of the works of Homer, Virgil, Milton, and Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece is a visionary journey that takes readers through the torment of Hell.
The first part of Dante's Divine Comedy is many things: a moving human drama, a supreme expression of the Middle Ages, a glorification of the ways of God, and a magnificent protest against the ways in which men have thwarted the divine plan. One of the few literary works that has enjoyed a fame both immediate and enduring, The Inferno remains powerful after seven centuries. It confronts the most universal values--good and evil, free will and predestination--while remaining intensely personal and ferociously political, for it was born out of the anguish of a man who saw human life blighted by the injustice and corruption of his times.
Translated by John Ciardi
With an Introduction by Archibald T. MacAllister
and an Afterword by Edward M. Cifelli
Synopsis
Belonging in the company of the works of Homer and Virgil, The Inferno is a moving human drama, a journey through the torment of Hell, an expression of the Middle Ages, and a protest against the ways in which men have thwarted the divine plan.
Synopsis
All three volumes of Dante's "The Divine Comedy" are now available in striking new packages, translated by John Ciardi and each one featuring a new Afterword by Edward M. Cifelli. Revised reissue.,
About the Author
John Ciardi was a distinguished poet and professor, having taught at Harvard and Rutgers universities, and a poetry editor of The Saturday Review. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1955 he won the Harriet Monroe Memorial Award, and in 1956, the Prix de Rome. He died in 1986.