Anyone read Dante's "divine comedy"?

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It was always one of those books I meant to read, so I reserved it at the library. When the librarian brought it out I said
" Hmmm.. that should keep me busy for a while" she suggested I could also use it as a doorstop.

O weel it's a long weekend and State of Origin to boot... I might read it by Tuesday....

Hope you know a thing or two about 14th century Italian politics if you want to understand Inferno.

look this up to make sure, but I dated an English professor once (so I got some of the inside dope on the book). It's the first of 3 books, the Purgatoria and Paradiso, and concerns a trip through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, by Dante and his pal Virgil. The first book consists of what people get one punishments (red-hot coffins? I'll pass... until you get down to the bottom, where Satan chews on Brutas, Judas, and the 3rd worst traitor of ancient times (can't remember the name). btw- everyone who ever crossed Dante seems to have wound up in Hell, and he enjoys himself thoroughly...

The 2nd and 3rd books concern Dante's trip upwards to Heaven. Some woman he was devoted to, Beatrice, is put on what is literally Creations' largest pedestal...

It's written in Italian in the original, and flows very well, with lots of rhyming. English translators have complained for centuries about how hard it is to do it 'right'. It tended to get to me after awhile; I wound up with this bouncy little rhythm (If you've ever read A Wrinkle In Time, imagine the world with the 'beat'...it's like that...

It's not a really bad read, but it's a bit thick at times. Have fun.

I have the Everymans Library Hardcover Edition, translated by Allen Mandelbaum, I have yet to read it thoroughly, in my edition before each chapter starts there is a condensed paragraph of basically what is in that chapter, so ive read them, it also has a chronology at the beginning of my book giving insight to historical events, not politics though

I read it when I was very young. The 'choking on water' Hell scared me.

That's a claim that's often touted around, but there were some people in Dante's Inferno that he liked or was close to. There's that very moving scene where he meets his old tutor, Ser Brunetto Latini, being pelted with fire in the Circle of the Sodomites. And Francesca da Rimini, in the Circle of the Lustful, was the aunt of Guido Novello, a great friend and supporter of Dante's who took him in when he was in exile. To be fair, where he used people he didn't personally like, it was usually as a good example of a particular sin.

I can't remember the earliest edition I had out of the library (a blank verse translation - I do remember they used the Flaxman illustrations, which I like), but I have the Penguin Dorothy L. Sayers (yes, she of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels), plus the English-Italian edition by John D. Sinclair. (I don't actually speak Italian, modern or medieval, but I know enough bits of Latin and the other Romance languages to very roughly attempt to follow what's going on.)

Joe Lee's 'Dante for Beginners' is a cool cartoony little guide to the basic background of Dante's life, his other works, and the Commedia. You only need a fairly basic understanding of the politics of the time, I think, together with at least some idea of the beliefs of the Catholic Church, and an understanding of what allegory is and how it can be used, because the whole thing is one big allegory. Some people think the Purgatorio and Paradiso get bogged down in theology, but I kind of find that stuff interesting.

Despite Inferno's popularity, I recall preferring the the second two for precisely that.

I want to read it now, but I'm stuck with Canterbury Tales for the time being.

Ah, as the Miller told his tale...

See if you can spot the one that appears in the Arabian Knights...

I'm quite enjoying it, but
I must say I'm enjoying the old litho prints in it more than the text....

I tried reading it a few years ago, but I only got as far as Inferno and Purgatorio. Hmmm...I wonder what that says about me?