Customer Reviews
Whoa!!! - By: Orborus13, 11 Oct 2008 
I got this book because i was going through my 'interestin the after life' thing. I think of myself as a pretty down to earth person, not particularly well read but i can get my teeth into something im interested in.
I have to say while i agree with the other reviewers & that to say Dante was talented would be an understatement, This book was a little over my head. There is a small section at the beginning of each partin the book describing what followedin Layman's terms, by far the most useful thing to me & im glad they included it. I found myself scan reading the main text & concentrating on the pictures.
I can honestly say i enjoyed the book though, which to me, is the most important thing.
Divine - By: E. A Solinas, 10 Nov 2007 
"Midway life's journey I was made aware/that I had strayed into a dark forest..."
Those eerie words open the first cantica of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," the legendary poem that takes its author through the eerie depths of hell, heaven & purgatory. It's a haunting, almost hallucinatory experience, full of the the metaphorical & supernatural horrors of the inferno, & joys of paradise.
The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, & Dante is lostin a creepy dark forest, being assaulted by a trio of beasts who symbolize his own sins. But suddenly he is rescued ("Not man; man I once was") by the legendary poet Virgil, who takes the despondent Dante under his wing -- & down into Hell.
But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames & dancing devils. Instead, it's a multi-tiered carnival of horrors, where different sins are punished with different means. Opportunists are forever stung by insects, the lustful are trappedin a storm, the greedy are forced to battle against each other, & the violent liein a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, & are trapped on a volcanic desert.
Well, that was fun. But after passing through hell, Dante gets the guided tour of Purgatory, where the souls of the not-that-bad-but-not-pure-either get cleansed. He & Virgil emerge at the base of a vast mountain, & an angel orders him to "wash you those wounds within," then lets them in.
As Virgil & Dante climb the mountain, they observe the seven terraces that sinners stay on, representing the seven deadly sins -- the angry, the proud, the envious, the lazy, the greedy, the lustful & the gluttons. It's a one-way trip, & you don't even get to look back.
The road up the mountain leads to the gates of Heaven, & soon Dante has been purified to the point where he's allowed to go inside. Virgil doesn't get to enter Heaven, so he passes Dante on to the beautiful Beatrice, the woman he lovedin his younger years.
She whisks him up to the spheres of those who are now pure of soul -- the wise, the loving, the people who fought for their religion, the just, the contemplative, the saints, & finally even the angels. And after passing through heaven's nine spheres, he passes out of the physical realm & human understanding -- & sees God, the incomprehensible, represented by three circles inside each other, but all the same size.
Needless to say, it's a pretty wild trip.And admittedly "Purgatorio" & "Paradiso" aren't quite on the writing level of "Inferno," which has the most visceral, skin-crawling imagery & lines ("Fixedin the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen & wroth...'"), & a wicked sense of irony. It makes the angels & saints seem a bit tame.
But there's plenty of powerin the second two books, particularly when Dante tries to comprehend God, & almost blows out his brainin the process -- "my desire & my will were turned like a wheel, all at one speed by the Love that turns the sun & all the other stars." It's haunting, & sticks with you long after the story has ended.
More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism & allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even at the start, Dante sees lion, a leopard & a wolf, which symbolize different sins, & a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. Not to mention Purgatory as a mountain that must be climbed, or Hell as a Hadesian underworld.
Dante's vivid writing & wildly imaginative journey makes the "Divine Comedy" a timeless, spellbinding read, & hauntingly powerful from inferno to paradiso.
One of the best works of literature!! - By: Robert Hatt, 21 May 2007 "Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost" is the opening line to this story.
This edition of Dante Alighieri's masterpiece 'The Divine Comedy' is an extremely well made book that tells the story of Dante's pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory & Paradise. Trying to find the meaning behind the work is no small feet; you can try & interpret the meaning of letter or what the letter signifies.
This book is famousin modern culture for defining nine levels of hell & using the seven deadly sins.
In the begining Dante is guided by the famous poet Virgil (author of the Aeneid) who escorts Dante through Hell & Purgatory. As Dante a reaches the top of Purgatory, he joined by Beatrice his unrequited lovein life (mentioned heavilyin Dante's book `La Vita Nuova") who takes him through the celestial realm of paradise.
The book contains additional images from the famous illustrator Gustave Doré who gives justice to Dante's work with imagery based around Dante's journey. Many of these images display the full horror (and violence) of what Dante sees, such as Bertram De Born who displays his own severed head to Dante & Virgil. Gustave also matches the pace of how the journey unfolds, as the characters journey through Purgatory & Paradise the imagery becomes more & more heavenly & gives a real instance of what such blissful places could be like.
This story uses many persons from real life as well more legendary characters such as Tristan, Isolde, Achilles, Ulysses, Nimrod, Antaeus, Brutus etc. The background stories of many of these characters is hardly common knowledge (especially Dante's own personal acquaintances) & I often found myself using the internetin order to find out who these people were,in order to understand why Dante chose to place themin this level of Hell, Purgatory or Paradise. This story gives good examples of the best & worst examples of humanity & conveys the notion of action & consequence & there effects on the human soul
This book is top notch & uses a good translation. This translation isn't easy but I have read harder editions so I would recommend this to anyone who are seriously interestedin reading Dante! A good collectors item as well!
