The Inferno

Customer Reviews

• Journey to deep down under  Apr 7, 2000 (33 of 34 found this helpful)

  Don't read Dante for his fame, don't judge The Inferno for its subject. Instead, savor Dante's overpowering language that is cleverly winded around one of life's most daunting matter-Hell. Pervaded with vivid and often gruesome imageries, Inferno captures the very essence of suffering through Dante's unqiue understanding of religion with a blend of paganism and christianity. Also it's a thrilling ride down the underworld to be met by history's greatest souls. The notes before every Canto is crucially helpful in helping readers keeping up with ancient historical references. And feeling yourself penetrating the Nine Circles of Hell in the company of Dante and Vergil, you will surely catch a rare taste of the living value as Vergil guides curious eyes down a path where judgment befalls every single flaw of human nature. Perhaps, just perhaps you will attain a better sense of your existence once matched against the standards of Nine Circles designed for different sins. I call that a gripping journey.

• The Cream of The Crop  Dec 16, 2002 (25 of 27 found this helpful)

  First let me say that i am 13 years old; however, my favorite thing to do is to sit down with a good book and read for a good 2 to 5 hours. I have read books like For Whom The Bell Tolls and To Kill A Mockingbird. I heard about the inferno from one of my teachers who said that I should read it when I get to college or to my seinor year in high school. Well I didn't want to wait that long so I came to this site and purchased this book. It changed my life, never before have I read anything like it. When I finished this book I went and read other translations of it. However, this one was by far the best. It captured every aspect of Dante's genious writing and put it into american coming the closest to the real version as possible. Notes also help to decipher and understand Dante's masterpiece. I would recommend this book to anyone who can read.

• Beautiful prose version of Dante's extraordinary poem  Dec 26, 1997 (16 of 17 found this helpful)

  I feel so enthusiastic about this book that I want to tell everybody about it. This translation is unrhymed; it is in prose; and it follow's Dante's syntax and meaning closely. If you know a little Italian, you can use the text (it is a bilingual edition) as a crib to read Dante in the original, which is a tremendously moving experience. Dante's Hell is full of striking characters who still feel the passions they experienced during their life in history; only now their identity is even more sharply defined because they are living in eternity. The narrator travelling through Hell, guided by Virgil, is filled with fear, pity and anguish. Dante's writing is extraordinarily beautiful and supple.

• What the Hell?  Nov 29, 2001 (13 of 15 found this helpful)

  600 years and I'm the first to review it?

  Okay, maybe just the first to review this paperback edition.

  Having read my fair share of classic literature, this is the first time I've read the poetic technique of storytelling (haven't read any Homer yet either).

  I gather from the translator's note and the Introduction that Ciardi's departure from the original, strict three line rhyme gave him more freedom to translate Dante's spirit and intent of the journey through Hell and make it an easier read for the typical reader (like me) than other translations. As it is, Ciardi employs the rhyming first and third line rhythm and it worked for me.

  I found the "prefaces" at the beginning of each chapter or "Canto" to be very useful in preparing me for what was to appear on the following pages. And not being a student of mythology, the notes at the end of each chapter tended to fill in the blanks in what I had just read.

  For me it was still a challenging read but the simplification helped. And while purists may find Ciardi's liberties an abomination (just a suspicion), they certainly helped me understand and enjoy the work more. If Dante's Inferno is required reading for class or personal enlightenment, this edition is likely a good choice.

• Intro to Inferno  Aug 22, 2007 (9 of 10 found this helpful)

  Translators, according to the Italian proverb are traitors.
  There is no way around it, something is always lost in the
  leap from one language to another. You can consult a modern
  'adaptation' of Shakespeare to get the feel of what has to
  be surrendered. In the end, a preference for one translation
  over another is a matter of what you're most willing to lose.
  
  John Ciardi decided to keep the original rhyme scheme: 'aba'
  in which the poem is divided into groups of three lines of
  which the first and third rhyme. In Italian, this is fairly
  easy, in English a great deal more difficult.
  So in order to keep the feel of the tercets (as they're called)
  Ciardi sometimes had to stray a bit from the literal
  meaning. Nothing vital is lost, but the specialist will
  surely find some points to dispute.
  For the rest of us, this is a first-rate view into a world
  we can barely otherwise imagine. Ciardi's notes and glosses
  on the cantos are breezy, illuminating and approachable.
  
  There are other, more correct translations- Mandelbaum's
  is first among them -that might be better for the specialist
  or the student of the Italian Language. I notice, however,
  that when I want to spend a pleasant few moments in the
  Poet's company-and especially for the Inferno- that this
  is the translation I usually reach for.
  
  --Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
  the novel bang BANG. ISBN 9781601640005