Synopses & Reviews
The Divine Comedy marked nothing less than the arrival of vernacular Italian as a literary language—and Dante’s book is still considered Italy’s greatest literary achievement. Its highly idiomatic verse, however, has long bedeviled English-language translators. Burton Raffel, whose translation of Don Quixote is acclaimed for making Cervantes more accessible to the modern generation, in this new translation for Northwestern World Classics, shows exciting new directions, preserving both the lyricism of the original and its incisive meaning. First-time readers and longtime fans of “the supreme poet” alike will cherish this clear and lyrical rendering of one of world literature’s masterpieces.
The Divine Comedy depicts the journey of Dante the pilgrim, guided by the poet Virgil and the love of his life, Beatrice, as he moves through the stages of his life and world. Raffel’s single-volume translation of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso follows the complete journey of a spiritual pilgrim who struggles from the depths of the inferno to the heights of paradise. In the former Dante meets many of his political enemies, suffering the punishments that match their crimes in life. And in the ninth circle of Hell, Lucifer—the ultimate traitor—is shown chewing on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot, three others who committed horrendous acts of treason in the classical and early Jewish worlds. Dante’s evocative description of Heaven is a sort of homecoming for the exiled poet. Dante’s epic poem challenged the political and religious hierarchy of his time and remains a powerful and universal expression of human desires, strivings, and shortcomings.
Review
"Raffel's uncanny skill has captured Dante the poet and brought his world, his vision to life. This poem for the ages comes to us when we most need it, and ti comes to us as a living, breathing force of nature. The accomplishment is as breathtaking to contemplate as it is pleasurable to read. This is our time's
Divine Comedy."
—Michael Hettich, author of Flock and Shadow: New and Selected Poems
Review
"Burton Raffel's translation is both accurate and poetic, letting the English reader experience Dante's journey as never before. It is no less than magic—an act of sheer necromancy, bringing Dante back from the dead."
—Tita French Baumlin, Missouri State University
Synopsis
Midway upon the journey of our life- I found myself within a forest dark- For the straightforward pathway had been lost.q (Excerpt)
Synopsis
At the midpoint of his life, during Holy Week in 1300, Dante awakes to himself in the middle of a forest so dark that the sun's light cannot penetrate its gloom. of the wildness and brutality of the woods, Dante cries out for help, and thus begins one of Western literature's greatest epic journeys.
The Divine Comedy follows Dante the pilgrim--guided by the great Roman poet Virgil, then by the love of his life, Beatrice--as he travels downward through Hell, then upward through Purgatory in order to reach Paradise and witness the love that moves the sun and the stars. Raffel's translation vividly captures the divine contrapasso, the ultimate case of the punishment the crime, in the Inferno, while fathoming the complexity of the Purgatorio and the ecstasy of the Paradiso.
One of the world's greatest works of literature, Dante's Commedia revolutionized poetry and the Italian language. This epic poem was the to be written in the vernacular of the Italian people rather than in Latin. In it, Dante weaves the best of classical literature from Virgil, Statius, Aristotle, and Ovid with staples from the Christian tradition (including the Scriptures, Augustine, and Aquinas), into a colorful medieval tapestry that depicts at once the vividly checkered history of church and empire.
Synopsis
The Divine Comedy depicts the journey of Dante the pilgrim, guided
by the poet Virgil and the love of his life, Beatrice, as he moves through
the stages of his life and world. Raffels single-volume translation
of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso follows the complete journey of a
spiritual pilgrim who struggles from the depths of the inferno to the
heights of paradise.
Dantes epic poem challenged the political and religious hierarchy
of his time and remains a powerful and universal expression of human
desires, strivings, and shortcomings.
About the Author
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was born in Florence to a prominent family and trained
as a pharmacist. He fought in the Battle of Campaldino and was active in the internecine
Florentine politics of the time, which resulted in his exile. During this time, he
began writing Commedia, which he finished shortly before his death in Ravenna.
Burton Raffel is a translator, a poet, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arts
and Humanities and emeritus professor of English at the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette. His most recent translations are the Modern Library edition of Geoffrey
Chaucers The Canterbury Tales and the Penguin edition of the Poema de mío Cid.
He has translated the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, most of Horaces poems, and Rabelaiss
Gargantua and Pantagruel.