The Inferno

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Sunday, January 20. 2019

At Great Books' podcast, an enjoyable discussion of Dante's Inferno. "Dante was a man of tremendous and wide desires, desires for personal, literary, political excellence. And then he lost everything." Of course, Verona is not a bad place to which to be exiled. That's where he wrote The Divine Comedy. In the end, they did make his tomb back in Santa Croce.

Nice statue of him in Verona.

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:42 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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One of the great opening lines in all literature:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

#1 Zachriel on 2019-01-20 16:11 (Reply)

And the "our" is interesting too

#1.1 the B on 2019-01-20 16:51 (Reply)

Just as the journey in "Pilgrim's Progress is our journey.

#1.1.1 RJT on 2019-01-20 21:18 (Reply)

I read Mandelbaum's excellent translation some time ago. It almost reads like English poetry, and it has adequate notes.

However, aside from settling old scores, I don't see what Dante is about. There is plenty of old Catholic doctrine in it, actually more Catholic than the Pope, the modern anti-Pope anyway.

I suspect Dante's reputation is based on the excellence of his Italian poetry, but I have no Italian and cannot judge.

#2 bob sykes (Link) on 2019-01-21 15:26 (Reply)

The Great Courses has an excellent course about The Divine Comedy by Professors William Cook and Ronald Herzman of the State University of New York at Geneseo:

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dante-s-divine-comedy.html

It's been a while since I've listened to this course, but it is outstanding. Professors Cook and Herzman do an excellent job explaining the context of Dante's world. They also emphasize that it is not just "Inferno." The other two books, "Purgatory" and "Paradise," revisit and add further perspective to the themes discussed in "Inferno."

They use the translation by Mark Musa.

#3 The Switchel Blogger (Link) on 2019-01-21 21:20 (Reply)

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent essay about Dante's Divine Comedy by Rod Dreher in 2014:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ultimate-self-help-book-dantes-divine-comedy-1397832431

"'The Divine Comedy' is not just a classic of world literature. It's the most astonishing self-help book ever written."

#4 The Switchel Blogger (Link) on 2019-01-21 21:30 (Reply)

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Sunday, January 20. 2019

The Inferno