10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling One-Volume Edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, December 9, 2008
This review is from: The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
C. H. Sisson's one-volume edition of Dante's masterpiece on life and faith, accompanied by David Higgins' introduction and notes, may be recommended to anyone seeking entry to Dante's cosmos. The advantage of a single-volume edition of the Dante's "Comedy" is that, though one may be assigned a single volume in a course (most often Inferno), with the other volumes included in the same binding one is more likely to return to the rest of it later. To be assigned "Inferno" alone is to leave the reader stranded at hell's gate, offering neither the cautions "Purgatorio" makes for the living, nor the light its author intends "Paradiso" to shine out for the world.
Other key single-volume offerings are Mark Musa's well-annotated "Portable Dante", Allen Mandelbaum's "Everyman's" cloth edition (with concise end-notes by Peter Armour and line drawings by Botticelli), and John Ciardi's still-inviting translation (New American Library). Those seeking more expansive introductions and notes may turn to Kirkpatrick's individually available Penguin volumes, Mandelbaum's Bantam volumes (annotated by him, with illustrations by Barry Moser), and Esolen's Modern Library volumes. W. S. Merwin's stand-alone "Purgatorio", Robert Pinsky's solitary "Inferno", and Elio Zappulla's brisk "Inferno" are also each significant poetic accomplishments.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easiest to read, December 12, 2011
This review is from: The Divine Comedy (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
I bought a copy of this translation of the Dante's Divine Comedy because I wanted to read all 3 parts - Inferno, Pergatory and Heaven - beginning to end. Due to a different specialisation, I was never required to read this at university. I knew that reading Dante's masterpiece from start to finish would be a challenge and so I knew, to give myself the best chance of success, I needed to have a translation which I could understand.
I tried some different translations and browsed others. But this paired down text, whilst absent of thou's, thee's and grammatical complications, was by far the easiest to understand and keep on reading in a flowing manner. It means I can see the imagery that Dante wrote, even though I might not experience any sense of his original turns of phrase. And what imagery it is... it's stunning. I think Dante's creation of hell, pergatory and heaven carry over, through translation from an old Italian to quite modern English, via paired down text. For what it's worth, I think so much of the original writing would be lost just by translating from the old Italian to any sense of modern English - I felt it was better to not worry about that at all.
I once read in the introductory chapter of another translation of the Divine Comedy that it would be ideal to just read it from cover to cover, but that the modern reader is likely to hit a wall at some point and need some historical contextual information in order to keep going. I've almost finished Inferno, in Sisson's translation, and I've hit no wall as yet. I'm really enjoying the journey, the stunning worlds created by Dante, and the main characters. I will go and read some of the notes afterwards, I hope I can get something out of them by reading them seperately to the main text. But I'm loving have my reading experience un-interrupted by footnotes all over the place.
I'm enjoying this translation as the easiest way to just flow through the story and appreciate this incredible work - I would highly recomend this translation to anyone who just wants to understand what it is they're reading, rather than struggling to comprehend the very meaning of what is written.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice translation, September 24, 2002
The book is a bit bulky as a paperback, with a third of the bulk being footnotes and extraneous writings. Why not go ahead and include etchings, too? I don't need that. I already have the books in separate with all the historical info I need, and if I hadn't, I have the library within a few minutes drive. I was looking for a compact version of the trilogy to carry around (I don't know why) or keep beside my bed. Anyway, the translation compared to others I've leafed through is superb. No nonsense and very straight-forward, but at the same time betraying a certain depth. You can choose to read between the lines or not. The translation warrants a 5-star rating, but the book's fuction as a paperback brings that rating down.
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