The Divine Comedy

[Stephen Speicher 0]

Book suggested for rating by CodyD.

[CodyD 0]

This is a book about a man(Dante), who wandered into hell, was then shown about, all the way to the very depths by Virgil-then climbs back out, through purgatory, and into paradise. It is a christiano/greek mythology from what I have read, as it follows principles of Christian hell and heaven, but brings forth all of the ancient Greek attributes-Charon ferrying across a river, presumably styx, meeting of the ancient Greek poets(Homer among them), and all of the people described throughout Greek history.

Written in the 12th century-very deep poetry that takes a while to get the hang of and understand.

[Bill Bucko 0]

Actually, written in the 1320s ... and a towering monument in world literature, revered by Michelangelo, T.S. Elliot, and countless others in between for its powerful language. What Shakespeare's works are to English, the Divine Comedy is to Italian.

It marks a transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. While it does codify the medieval view of the universe, you'll notice that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are elevated to the highest status allowable: they are ensconced in a comfortable castle on the outskirts of the Inferno, where they are allowed to philosophize forever. As pagans, they cannot be saved; but the only "punishment" they suffer, is being deprived of seeing God. Dante calls Aristotle "the master of those who know."

I strongly recommend the Laurence Binyon translation, published in Viking's "Portable Dante." It follows the original's rhyme scheme, and includes notes on the background history.

The Inferno (hell) holds the most interesting characters. That tells you something about the effects of traditional morality (just as the most interesting characters in Romantic fiction are often the villains--as pointed out by Ayn Rand, in The Romantic Manifesto: they exercise a self-assertiveness denied to altruism's "heroes"). I myself made it most of the way through Purgatory, but gave up on Paradise, when terminal boredom set in.

The Divine Comedy has been the subject of countless works of art, including drawings by Botticelli, etchings by Gustave Dore, and Delacroix's dramatic painting "Virgil and Dante in the Underworld."

[Capitalism Forever 0]

All I know about The Divine Comedy is what my boring literature teacher told about it in high school, so I am not at all qualified to vote on it, but I remember fondly the one quote that stuck in my mind:

Call to mind from whence we sprang:

Ye were not form'd to live the life of brutes

But virtue to pursue and knowledge high.

The Hungarian translation sounded even better; literally--with a little makeshift rhyme --it went: "Keep in mind the strength of man's / Ye were not born to subsist like the brute / But to know and to advance."