These Books Among Us

Paradiso by Dante Alighieri (464 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 21 May 2016 Synopsis: This brilliant new verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum captures the consummate beauty of the third and last part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Paradiso is a luminous poem of love and light, of optics, angelology, polemics, prayer, prophecy, and transcendent experience. As Dante ascends to the Celestial Rose, in the tenth and final heaven, all the spectacle and splendor of a great poet's vision now becomes accessible to the modern reader in this highly acclaimed, superb dual language edition. With extensive notes and commentary. My Review: Just like the previous two in this Divine Comedy, this epic poem was very insightful. I have enjoyed being able to look back on the other two and see all of the connections between the three books. Seeing the difference between the poet and the pilgrim versions of Dante was pretty cool too! You definitely have to make sure to read th...

Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri (416 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 28 April 2016 Synopsis: Dante (1265-1321) is the greatest of Italian poets and his DIVINE COMEDY is the finest of all Christian allegories. To the consternation of his more academic admirers, who believed Latin to be the only proper language for dignified verse, Dante wrote his COMEDY in colloquial Italian, wanting it to be a poem for the common reader. My Review: I enjoyed reading this part of the Divine Comedy the most so far. In Purgatory, there seem to be even more historical connections, but instead of telling them that they have no redeeming qualities, there is more a theme of hope. It was refreshing to see that not everything was just damnation and a lack of sorrow. There was actual repentance in what they had done. Plus, Virgil gets put in his place more often in this part because he does not really know Purgatory as well as he knew Hell. It was interesting to see how Hell and Purgatory were s...

Inferno by Dante Alighieri (394 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Finished: 13 April 2016 Synopsis: In this superb translation of the Inferno, Allen Mendelbaum brings to life for contemporary readers the first and most famous part of Dante's Divine Comedy: the poet's classic journey through the underworld. Here is Dante at his ribald, shocking, and demonic best as he describes in unforgettably vivid detail his harrowing descent to the very bottom of Hell. Filled with politics and philosophy, humor and horror, the Inferno is an epic poem at once personal and universal that provides a darkly illuminating view into our present world no less than Dante's own. For as we're lead to the last circle of the Inferno we recognize the very worst in human nature...and the ever-abiding potential for redemption. Complete with an introduction and commentary, this definitive dual-language edition is unsurpassed for its clarity, beauty, and faithfulness to the original. My Review...