Inferno [Paperback]

Dante (Author), Elio Zappulla (Translator), Dante Alighieri (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vintage Classics | Publication Date: October 5, 1999

"As poetry, Mr. Zappulla's English Dante is successful--. The power of Dante's descriptive poetry should be apparent, and that is perhaps the highest compliment one can pay a translator."--Washington Times

In this new rendition of a timeless classic, Italian scholar Elio Zappulla captures the majesty and enduring power of the Inferno, the first of the three canticles of Dante's The Divine Comedy, unarguably one of the masterpieces of world literature. Rendering Dante's terza rima into lyrical blank verse, Zappulla's translation makes accessible to the modern reader the journey of the famed Florentine poet Dante through the nine circles of hell. With Virgil at his side, the great poet descends through horrific landscapes of the damned--dark forests, boiling muck, and burning plains filled with unspeakable punishment, lamentation, and terror--depicted with gruesome detail unmatched in all literature. Richly annotated, this translation takes even the first-time reader on a truth-seeking journey whose imaginative and psychological discoveries make clear why this work persists at the heart of Western culture.

"If Dante's Inferno is a cautionary tale of the history of human depravity, it is also an amazingly complex narrative, treating timeless ethical themes, medieval philosophy and religion, tendentious political issues and deeply personal events."--San Diego Union-Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

This new blank verse translation of the first ``Canticle'' of Dante's 14th-century masterpiece compares interestingly with some of the recent English versions by American poets, though it suffers particularly by comparison with Allen Mandelbaum's graceful blank verse one. Its aim to provide ``a clear, readable English version . . . that nevertheless retains some of the poetry of the original'' is only imperfectly fulfilled, owing partly to moments of unimaginative informality (``In Germany, where people drink a lot''), though these are intermittently redeemed by simple sublimity (``Night now revealed to us the southern stars,/While bright Polaris dropped beneath the waves./It never rose again from ocean's floor''). Translator Zappulla, an American Dante scholar and teacher, offers helpful historical and biographical information in an Introduction and exhaustive Notes following each of the poem's 34 ``Cantos.'' Readers new to Dante may find his plainspoken version eminently satisfying; those who know the poem well may be disappointed by it. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679757082
• ISBN-13: 978-0679757085
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating. The best translation out there. Bar none., November 20, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inferno: A New Verse Translation (Hardcover)

Elio Zappulla's translation of The Inferno is, in my mind, the clearest and most effective one to date...and I've read most of them, I assure you. Others have made Dante's work a chore to read. Zappulla makes it a joy. If you buy one book this year...first of all, you're obviously not reading enough...but if you buy one book this year, make it this one. It'll make one helluva stocking stuffer. Bravo Mr. Zappulla. Continue with your important work!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best. Book. Ever!, July 15, 2011

By 

Birdman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inferno (Paperback)

Definitely the best translation of Inferno I've ever read, and one of the few books I can just read continuously.
My only criticism is that the author hasn't done the same outstanding job on the other 2 canticles, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zappulla succeeds in his task, July 21, 2000

By 

Simon Legree - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inferno (Paperback)

As mentioned above by the translator himself, Zappulla's aim in this book was to make a piece of classical literature accessible to those that are otherwise turned off by verse. This edition is one of few that summarize the canto immediately after the verse, and give a good, general explanation of the allusions and meanings behind less obvious lines (2-5 pages of notes each canto). For one inexperienced in reading Dante, I would suggest Zappulla's free verse translation, and once the semantic and logistical aspects of Inferno are understood, attempt a more stylized translation (maybe Pinsky's edition). And yes, it is well worth buying two copies of the "same" book, if you hope to have any more than a superficial understanding of the book.