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The Inferno of Dante
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Categories Alighieri, Dante   General   Literary Classics   Poetry, Drama & Short Stories   Pinsky, Robert   Anthologies   Continental European   Classics   Books on Cassette   Abridged   Unabridged  

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Description
Together with the poet Virgil as his guide, Dante travels throughout the nine circles of Hell, listening to voices of the condemned. Poet, essayist, and translator Robert Pinsky has captured the intensity and passion of The Inferno in an unsurpassed contemporary translation. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award. 2 cassettes.
The one excellence this all classic works of literature share is their timelessness. Shakespeare still plays in Peoria 400 years afterwards his death for the reason that the stories he dramatized resonate in modern readers' hearts and minds; methods of warfare have changed quite a bit since the Trojan War described by Homer in his Iliad, but the passions and conflicts this formed such warriors as Achilles, Agamemnon, Patroclus, and Odysseus still locate their counterparts today on battlefields from Bosnia to Afghanistan. Likewise, a little journey guide to hell written by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri in the 13th century remains in print at the end of the 20th century, and it continues to talk to new generations of readers. There have been countless translations of the Inferno, but this one by poet Robert Pinsky is together eloquent and tailored to our times.

Yes, this is an epic poem, but don't let this put you off. An outstanding introduction offers context for the work, while detailed notes on every canto are a virtual who's who of 13th-century Italian politics, culture, and literature. Excellent of all, Pinsky's brilliant translation communicates the horror, despair, and terror of hell together with such immediacy, you can nearly smell the sulfur and feel the heat from the rain of fire as Dante--led by his faithful guide Virgil--descends lower and lower into the pit. Dante's journey throughout Satan's kingdom must rate as one of the excellent fictional journey tales of all time, and Pinsky does it excellent justice.

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Customer Reviews
Customer rating is 5 of 5  The darkest thing I have ever read   2009-10-03
By Todd Steck (Minneapolis, MN)
A guided tour through hell written in the form of a poem? An idea that good only comes once in a thousand years.
Customer rating is 2 of 5  Brilliant work but I didn't enjoy it   2009-03-29
By Stefan Yates (Manhattan, KS United States)
As a literature minor, I know that I'm supposed to take great joy in dissecting and analyzing a great work of literature such as The Inferno, but I didn't really enjoy this book all that much.

I found way too much of the storyline to be repetitive and drawn out for two long. The first half or so of the story is basically traveling from one circle of Hell to another, finding out what the sin and the punishment for the sin in that area is, meeting and talking with one or two of the sinners and relating what they did in their lives to the reason that they are here. Dante reacts to their trials either sympathetically or feeling that they deserve what they got mainly based on who they are (if they happen to be somebody from his actual life who treated him badly or had a hand in his expulsion from his home, he feels pretty justified in thinking that they are getting what they deserve.)

I don't want to take away from the greatness of this piece of literature. The rhyming scheme and the contrapasso (matching up the punishments so that they fit the crime) that Dante has developed are pure genius and the poem itself is a great accomplishment. My rating is based entirely upon my personal enjoyment (or lack there of) of the work.
Customer rating is 5 of 5  As Good as it Gets...   2009-02-18
By Bertrum
When I came across Mr. Pinsky's translation over a decade ago, I was thrilled and impressed. I loved sitting with the beautiful prose in Italian and English. When I heard my daughter was taking a course in Italian on Dante's Inferno at Syracuse (ahhh to be in college again), I sent her the book. Both my daughter and her professor love this translation. The professor has used the text in her class before. A great buy in hardcover...even better in paperback. A great enhancement would be a version for my new kindle2!
Customer rating is 5 of 5  Excellent for the Rookie   2008-08-06
By Derek Manchette
Perhaps you are reading these reviews because, let us be honest, you are a bit intimidated to read a book of this nature. Written over seven centuries ago, many, perhaps even most, of the references are today obscure. Yes, the scholars can read Dante, but what of you, who just wants something deeper, who recognizes that you should fill your head with something a bit more permanent than the latest best seller? You still want something accessible and understandable. To you I say...you should plunge ahead and read THE INFERNO OF DANTE. It is fantastic.

I am no expert on the time period reflected in THE INFERNO. And I remember nothing about any poetry class I ever took. I cannot even say whether Pinsky did a good job of translating Dante into English. I can only comment on the pages that are in front of me, and they are extremely enjoyable. Dante himself sought to make THE INFERNO accessible to the masses. He wrote it in Italian rather than Latin for exactly that reason and this translation remains true to that end.

As most are aware, THE INFERNO takes us through the circles of Hell, deeper and deeper into the abyss. THE INFERNO's descriptions are excellent, grabbing the reader's attention as the sins become more and more serious the deeper we go, with the eternal punishments meted out becoming more and more severe. Although many references are now obscure, the notes for the book provide an excellent context that allows one to follow along. I personally was concerned that I would be spending too much time with the endnotes to really enjoy the text. But the two really complement each other very well, making the book that much more enjoyable.

We learn a great deal along the way. In limbo, for instance, Dante encounters many souls worthy of salvation, but which are doomed to limbo, as they were born before Christ provided that salvation to man. Interestingly, although most Muslims are later found deeper in hell with the heretics, several notable Muslims are here, evidencing at least a grudging appreciation on the part of the deeply Chritian Dante for the damned of a non-Christian religion.

Following that same theme, the founder of Islam himself, Mohammed, is further down still than the heretics. Following the belief that Mohammed was a fallen Catholic cardinal, he is with the schismatics, who broke from the one true church to lead others onto a false path. Eternally split open from head to tailbone only to heal up for another round of the same, his torture perfectly symbolizes his sin.

Of course, I use the above merely as examples. THE INFERNO is rife with others, each as readable as they are gruesome. Contrary to my own initial concerns, I found THE INFERNO OF DANTE very much worth the time and I recommend it without hesitation.
Customer rating is 3 of 5  not bad...not bad.. I wonder if Dante is with Beatrice now...   2008-06-16
By Medusa (Troy, MI)
Even though the Inferno is not intended to be an analysis of the philosophy of sins, but rather an implementation of Christian doctrines, Dante did not miss the opportunity to enhance his glory at the expense of his sinner rivals. A sinner's punishment was proportional to their sin, but the degree of evil associated with each sin was defined by Dante's own moral system. It was interesting to note that he considered murder less evil than fraud. Another interesting point was that it was necessary for Dante and Virgil to stop at the river of forgetfulness before getting out of Hell.

The intention of the journey was in one way or another to find Beatrice, the love that Dante lost early on earth and was hoping to meet in heaven. Most likely, the Divine Comedy wouldn't have seen the light of day if Dante had married Beatrice.

Nice poem, Dante's ego gets out of control at some points, but that can be forgiven, given the artistic work he created.



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