The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Dante Alighieri (Author), Robin Kirkpatrick (Editor, Translator, Introduction, Commentary)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: August 29, 2006

The most famous of the three canticles that comprise The Divine Comedy, Inferno describes Dante's descent in Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonizing torture, Dante encounters doomed souls that include the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicidal Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit. Led by leering demons, Dante must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all-for it is only by encountering Satan himself, in the heart of Hell, that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin. BACKCOVER: "Kirkpatrick brings a more nuanced sense of the Italian and a more mediated appreciation of the poem's construction than nearly all of his competitors. . . . There is much to recommend here-certainly the intelligence, the energy, the linguistic range. . . . His introduction and canto-by-canto notes are remarkably level and lucid, as attentive to structure as to syntax, language and motif, and deftly cross-reference the whole poem. On their own, they would justify the price."
-The Times (London)

"We gain much from Kirkpatrick's fidelity to syntax and nuance, and from the fact that the Italian is on the facing page for our inspection. . . . His introduction . . . tells you, very readably indeed, pretty much all you need for a heightened appreciation of the work. . . . Kirkpatrick edges us, smoothly, into Dante's mind, and shows just how and why his influence has seemed to grow with the passage of time. We even get a map of trecento Italy (nestling against a map of hell). . . . If the Purgatorio and Paradiso are as good as this, then English readers will, I hope, start familiarising themselves with the two-thirds of the work most never get round to reading."
-Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

"The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism... likely to be the best modern version of Dante.
-Bernard O'Donoghue

"This version is the first to bring together poetry and scholarship in the very body of the translation-a deeply informed version of Dante that is also a pleasure to read."
-Professor David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism... likely to be the best modern version of Dante.
—Bernard O’Donoghue

"This version is the first to bring together poetry and scholarship in the very body of the translation—a deeply informed version of Dante that is also a pleasure to read."
—Professor David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote The Divine Comedy, it is believed, between 1308 and 1320.

Robin Kirkpatrick is a widely published Dante scholar. He is fellow of Robinson College and professor of Italian and English literature at Cambridge University.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0954113284
• ISBN-13: 978-0954113285
• ASIN: 0140448950
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence. His family, of minor nobility, was not wealthy nor especially distinguished; his mother died when he was a child, his father before 1283. At about the age of 20 he married Gemma Donati, by whom he had three children. Little is known of Dante's formal education-it is likely to have included study with the Dominicans, the Augustinians, and the Franciscans in Florence, and at the university in Bologna. In 1295 he entered Florentine politics and in the summer of 1300 he became one of the six governing Priors of Florence. In 1301, the political situation forced Dante and his party into exile. For the rest of his life he wandered through Italy, perhaps studied at Paris, while depending for refuge on the generosity of various nobles. He continued to write and at some point late in life he took asylum in Ravenna where he completed the Divine Commedia and died, much honoured, in 1321.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For translation try the Hollanders; for commentary this Oxford Don, April 19, 2008

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C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

for great translation of the Inferno I far prefer the fairly recent The Inferno version done by the husband and wife team of Robert and Jean HOllander, who have now completed all three parts of the Commedia, Purgatorio and Paradiso. They added a better than pedestrian but in fact a very useful commentary to each line, to each canto, plus a great introduction and remarks on the process of translation. I like their faithfulness to the text and to the triplet rhyming as possible while placing it into a living contemporary and comprehensible English which does not in itself need any explanation. For me this is the most faithful and readable version.

Of course the standard version widely used in our schools is the old John Ciardi The Inferno (Signet Classics). If you really require an Oxfordian tone to your translation, then certainly Dorothy L. Sayer's monumental, unmatchable and moving translation of the entire Commedia: The Divine Comedy: Hell (Penguin Classics), The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory (Penguin Classics), and her posthumous The Divine Comedy Part 3: Paradise (Penguin Classics). I especially appreciate the way she courageously, correctly and brilliantly translates the title of the first section in to good old, clear and monosyllabic anglo-saxon.

For a flavor of a more recent, and male, Oxford Don we have this present new translation by Robin. I find this translation the least felicitous of all, yet the introduction and the commentary highly informative, uesful and not to be missed. In fact the notes and commentary alone, although limited to the world view of a Protestant Oxford Don, are alone worth the price of the book.

Like the Hollander's, this edition is bilingual, placing face to face the currently most authoritative version of Dante's original vernacular, that published in his native Florence in 1994 by the Casa Editrice Le Lettere as Commedia: Secundo l'Antica Vulgata. [edizione nazionale] from Giorgio Petrocchio. For this we are most grateful, and in fact is our sole object in purchasing this edition.

Please note that unlike the indication in another review's title, Robin does not use the most remembered words "Abandon hope" to translate the closing line of the inscription which opens Canto Three: "Lasciate ogni speranza . . ." Rather Robin writes: "Surrender as you enter every hope you have (p. 21)." I would prefer, without thinking too deeply about the matter, something along the lines of "Let go of all hope, you entering (here)."

In a word please think of this then as a brilliant historical, cultural and textual commentary rather than easy reading translation. For instance we read on p. xxiii: "Dante is never more Christian than when he vibrates in horror at the corruption disseminated by the institutional politics of the contemporary Church, the Whore of Babylon ( . . .) impelled in all its decisions by avarice and violence." Or again we may read on pp. xivff: "Dante comes to believe in a providence that creates and sustains human beings in all aspects of their existence. In the end it is charity that underlies Dante's political vision - a love which seeks not to possess (n)or to violate but rather to promote the good of others ( . . .) Despair then is no part of Dante's vision ( . . .) The awful pain of exile informs Dante's representation of Hell, which is a state of absolute alienation form human and divine companionship. But exile in Purgatory is transformed into the condition of pilgrimage, of a quest for distant truth; and in Paradise it finally becomes clear that exile, in spiritual terms, is a metaphor expressing the true nature of charity: 'caritas' demands nothing less than exile; it is that absolute and willing dispossession of self ( . . .)."

This beings therefore to read much like Pope Benedict's First Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est God Is Love: Prepack of 50 or Thomas Merton on peace or something from Dante's own contemporary Saint Francis of Assisi. The commentary by Robin is well worth the price of admission; the translation is like a host's dreary after-dinner reading of his own poetry. For Dante, read the Hollanders, or the original.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abandon hope, August 18, 2007

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E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Midway life's journey I was made aware/that I had strayed into a dark forest..." Those eerie words open the first cantica of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," the most famous part of the legendary Divina Comedia. But the stuff going on here is anything but divine, as Dante explores the metaphorical and supernatural horrors of the inferno.

The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, and Dante is lost in a creepy dark forest, being assaulted by a trio of beasts who symbolize his own sins. But suddenly he is rescued ("Not man; man I once was") by the legendary poet Virgil, who takes the despondent Dante under his wing -- and down into Hell.

But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames and dancing devils. Instead, it's a multi-tiered carnival of horrors, where different sins are punished with different means. Opportunists are forever stung by insects, the lustful are trapped in a storm, the greedy are forced to battle against each other, and the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, and are trapped on a volcanic desert.

If nothing else makes you feel like being good, then "The Inferno" might change your mind. The author loads up his "Inferno" with every kind of disgusting, grotesque punishment that you can imagine -- and it's all wrapped up in an allegorical journey of humankind's redemption, not to mention dissing the politics of Italy and Florence.

Along with Virgil -- author of the "Aeneid" -- Dante peppered his Inferno with Greek myth and symbolism. Like the Greek underworld, different punishments await different sins; what's more, there are also appearances by harpies, centaurs, Cerberus and the god Pluto. But the sinners are mostly Dante's contemporaries, from corrupt popes to soldiers.

And Dante's skill as a writer can't be denied -- the grotesque punishments are enough to make your skin crawl ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen and wroth...'"), and the grand finale is Satan himself, with legendary traitors Brutus, Cassius and Judas sitting in his mouths. (Yes, I said MOUTHS, not "mouth")

More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism and allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even pre-hell, we have a lion, a leopard and a wolf, which symbolize different sins, and a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. And the punishments themselves usually reflect the person's flaws, such as false prophets having their heads twisted around so they can only see what's behind them. Wicked sense of humor.

Dante's vivid writing and wildly imaginative "inferno" makes this the most fascinating, compelling volume of the Divine Comedy. Never fun, but always spellbinding and complicated.

1.0 out of 5 stars worst translation of any work ever, November 30, 2011

By 

Fred Negem "fred" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the worst translation of any work that I have ever read. Even if you don't read Italian, you can recognize that the translation is bad. When you see "quattro" in the Italian facing page translated as "seventh" in English when referring to the fourth circle in Hell, you know something it bad. Then "raising ones first" instead of raising ones "fist." And on and on. Kirkpatrick even gets some of the notes wrong. He explains some of the passages totally incorrectly--recognizable even if you know nothing of Dante. These are only a few examples of egregions errors. I used this translation to teach a course in Dante and had to have the superior Singleton translation handy at every canto. Students also brought in other translations and read them first in order to make sense of the Kirpatrick disaster. You shouldn't even sell this travesty of a literary classic. Shame on Penguin Classics. Where was the copy editor!!! I hope that this saves some from buying this edition.