Customer Reviews

The Divine Comedy: Volume 2: The Purgatorio

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When I read "Inferno" I read the John Ciardi translation, so it only made sense that I read "Purgatorio" by the same translator. As I like poetry I definitely like the fact that his translations rhyme even if several liberties have to be taken with the original text. Sometimes, though, it seems as if the translator is more concerned about rhyming than getting the point across. However, as Ciardi points out, Dante is very deep and challenging. Translating is difficult. Translating the "Divine Comedy" and making it rhyme while still making sense is harder still but Ciardi does an admirable job. There are quite a few tercets that are absolutely wonderful to read.

The Purgatorio details the journey of Virgil and Dante as they go up Purgatory. If there is one thing that I like about Dante, it is in the way he thinks, which appears very logical. In Purgatory, one sees that one starts at the very bottom, which shows humility. This of course, makes perfect sense, since these souls are approaching God. I particularly liked Dante's reasoning behind "The Proud". In life, they walked around with their noses held high, thinking highly of themselves. In Purgatory, they crawl under the crushing weight of huge boulders, making them humble and bringing them "back down to earth."

Each Canto starts with a very helpful synopsis of what follows. After that is the Canto and after that are the footnotes. It is extremely beneficial to know some mythology and Italian history beforehand, but the footnotes at the end will fill in the many gaps for you, that is, if you have the patience to read them. If you're still confused about what all has gone on, the section at the very end entitled "How to Read Dante" is very helpful, a nice way to finish the book.

This book, like its predecessor, can be very challenging and tedious. But, as Virgil and Dante find, though the road is rough so are the riches that much greater when they finally come to journey's end.

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.

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 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

I read the Mendelbaum (I apologize for what may be an awful misspelling) version of _Inferno_ quite some time back, but I always wanted to finish the series. They didn't have the Mendelbaum translation at my local bookstore, so I went with this instead. I'd say that Ciardi did an admiral job with the rhyme. I was able to accept the compromise between actual terza rima and a straight translation, given the scarcity of rhymes in English. I felt that most of the work was understandable, though there were some moments of distinct confusion. The notes are very in-depth and keep a sense of humor about them, something that is vital when reading Dante. They provide a refreshing sense of perspective when one starts to become too bogged down in Dante's poem. There is certainly a lot to be gained from reading Dante, despite the effort required. I thought this edition enhanced by enjoyment of the poem considerably. I'd recommend it, with the caveat that it is probably more imprecise than other translations, due to the need to rhyme.

Although Inferno is the most well-known and Paradiso is the most challenging (for this reader, at least), Purgatorio has long been my favorite book of the Comedy. Luminous in its portrayal of the soul's suffering, Dante is at his most human here. A teacher once told me that you can't understand Inferno until you've read Purgatorio. Although the punishments for sin are just as grotesque as in Inferno, the souls in Purgatory endure their trials gracefully. Dante continues to develop the character of his narrator, who becomes more humble with each terrace.

The translator has done excellent work with this book. He states that he translated more for readability and 'feel' than flawless accuracy, and thus scholar's looking for a verbatim translation may want to go with another edition, however for someone interested in just reading for enjoyment, this is an excellent and readable narrative, and not at all abstract or convoluted the way some narrative poetries can get. At the start of each section there is a paragraph or two explanation of what is going to happen, and end notes at the end of each chapter that adds background and other interesting tidbits of info. Highly reccomended.

Hell is undesirable. It is a place of eternal pain.

Heaven is perfect. It is a place of everlalsting & unconditional love.

So, what is Purgatory like?

Even though it is impossible for any human to know exactly what Purgatory is like, it is very interesting to examine Dante's depiction of it. After being guided by an instructor through The Inferno, The Purgatorio was a unique experience that I journeyed through alone. However, this intensified the experience. Dante's image of Purgatory is just as incredible as his image of Hell. The second part of the Divine Comedy reveals to the reader how great a desire there is for the souls in Purgatory to see God. It is a dying thirst and pain, yet they must wait patiently, hoping for the souls on earth who are living in grace to pray for them.

The Inferno renewed my Spiritual life! The Purgatorio strengthened it! I am now anxious to see how The Paradisio will affect me.

I next to never start a review by discussing the edition. So just to prove that there's a first time for everything, I'll start this review by talking about the edition.

I read the Modern Library hardcover from 1996 and it was wonderously fine to read. The small hardback format made it durable and portable. The notes were put after each Canto, instead of being strung together at the end-- very handy and I wish more books that require a lot of notes would follow its example. I don't read Italian, so I can't speak to the Ciardi translation's accuracy. I will say that it read very well. It was very clean, and flowed like poetry.

I should have read Purgatorio earlier. When I was in college and reading The Divine Comedy we were really only required to read Inferno, and I'm ashamed to say that I stopped there.

The thing that I most remember about Inferno are the vivid images of suffering-- the sense of doom. I liked Purgatorio better, I think. Even as a modern reader, I found myself measuring my own behaviour against the standards that Dante suggested in the poem. It was easier to identify with this book-- more thought-provoking about the nature of sin, humanity, and God. Dante breaks Purgatory into people who either love too much or not enough-- with the immoderate lovers closer to heaven. There is a lot to think about here. A lot to like besides the historical value or the poem's place in the canon.

Recommended.

I truly enjoy reading the classics. However some classics must be translated. Some translations loose meaning since you can not translate word for word. Only the meanings can be translated and with the evolving English language sometimes words can have skewed definitions. John Ciardi is the best Dante translator I have read. Signet has done a good job at this price point. The Devine comedy is a book set that will expand your understanding on many uncannonized ideas. The Inferno (Signet Classics)The Paradiso (Signet Classics)The Purgatorio (Signet Classics)

Dante presents the renunciation of sin and purification of it in this division of his Divine Comedy. In Hell the nature of sin was realized and here in Purgatory one must cleanse themselves of the stain of sin through suffering. Like in the Inferno John provides excellent commentary to the many nuances in the poem. The poem is actually not a hard one to understand in my opinion. You simply learn more and more from it the more you read it. Do not be flabberghasted or reluctant to read it. It's one of the great poems out there.

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity). This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Purgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem). The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere. At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are attracted by a musical performance by Casella, but are reprimanded by Cato, a pagan who has been placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain. The text gives no indication whether or not Cato's soul is destined for heaven: his symbolic significance has been much debated. (Cantos I and II).

Dante starts the ascent on Mount Purgatory. On the lower slopes (designated as "ante-Purgatory" by commentators) Dante meets first a group of excommunicates, detained for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy. Ascending higher, he encounters those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths (often due to leading extremely sinful lives). These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth (Cantos III through VI). Finally, Dante is shown a beautiful valley where he sees the lately-deceased monarchs of the great nations of Europe, and a number of other persons whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).

The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter "P" (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante's forehead, abjuring him to "wash you those wounds within". The angel uses two keys, gold and silver, to open the gate and warns Dante not to look back, lest he should find himself outside the gate again, symbolizing Dante having to overcome and rise above the hell that he has just left and thusly leaving his sinning ways behind him. From there, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory. These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace purging a particular sin in an appropriate manner. Those in purgatory can leave their circle whenever they like, but essentially there is an honors system where no one leaves until they have corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend towards God in Heaven, and can ascend only during daylight hours, since the light of God is the only true guidance.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.