Inferno (Modern Library Classics) [Paperback]

Dante (Author), Gustave Dore (Illustrator), Anthony Esolen (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2003 | Series: Modern Library Classics

Translated by Anthony Esolen
Illustrations by Gustave Doré

A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante’s masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante’s key sources and influences.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Professor Esolen’s translation of Dante’s Inferno is the best one I have seen. . . . And his endnotes and other additions provoke answers to almost any question that could arise about the work.” —A. Kent Hieatt, translator of The Canterbury Tales

“Crisp and clear, Esolen’s version avoids two modern temptations: a slavish literalness to the Italian or a taking of liberties in the attempt to make this greatest of medieval poems esthetically modern. . . . In addition to his scholarly tact, Esolen is simply one of the most vigorous English translators of Dante ever.”—Crisis magazine

“Esolen’s new translation follows Dante through all his spectacular range, commanding where he is commanding, wrestling, as he does, with the density and darkness in language and in the soul. This Inferno gives us Dante’s vivid drama and his verbal inventiveness. It is living writing.” —James Richardson, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University

“Opening the book we stand face to face with the poet, and when his voice ceases we may marvel if he has not sung to us in his own Tuscan."—William Dean Howells, The Nation

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: 528 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (December 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812970063
• ISBN-13: 978-0812970067
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent translation of an excellent poem, May 26, 2006

By 

Jordan M. Poss (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inferno (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback)

Anthony Esolen's [relatively] new translation of Dante's Divine Comedy is my personal favorite for leisure reading. Here he captures the high drama, rage, fear, and pathos of Dante's poem better than any other translator I've read (and I've read many). I had already read Inferno umpteen times when I bought Esolen's translation, and it was like reading it for the first time again. I was almost brought to tears by Ugolino and his story, a story, like I said, that I had already read what seemed like a million times. A good translator makes the familiar seem new again, and Esolen's version of Dante accomplishes just that.
One nice thing, poetically, about this translation is that Esolen avoids most of the flaws of other translations. His poetry is neither ridiculously ornate nor boringly literal, as many have the tendency to be. He walks the tightrope gracefully, sticking to an iambic pentameter line. He doesn't attempt to force rhyme on the translation (the fatal flaw of the otherwise excellent translation by Dorothy Sayers), but does use a rhyme when it presents itself naturally.
This translation is highly recommended for anyone interested in The Divine Comedy. The notes section is scanty, especially compared to the Ciardi and Musa translations, but should be quite enough for even beginning readers.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dante's pilgrimage through Hell., February 8, 2004

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inferno (v. 1) (Hardcover)

"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wilderness,
for I had wandered from the straight and true."
(Canto 1, ll. 1-3)

So begins Dante Aligheri's (1265-1321) notorious descent into the ten concentric rings of Hell. The INFERNO is not about wickedness and punishment, Anthony Esolen observes in the Introduction to his unrhymed, blank verse translation of Dante, "but about beauty and love: the terrible beauty of God which should arouse in man the most ardent love, and the ruin of beauty which the soul becomes when it turns that love elsewhere" (pp. xxii-xxiii). For Dante, the goal of human life is to know beauty, and the way to behold Beauty is through love; Hell is a place where no love can dwell (pp. xi; 423). Man's goal, Dante would say, is to dwell, body and soul, in the presence of God, enjoying the intellectual vision of God (PARADISO, Canto 14, ll. 43-51).

In the INFERNO, Virgil guides Dante the pilgrim poet through the depths of Hell, which is organized by the categories and subcategories of the sinners who dwell there. Dante first encounters the seven deadly sins on his journey, lust, gluttony, avarice, wrath and sloth, and then goes on to encounter even greater wickedness on his downward descent, before finally confronting the "evil worm" Lucifer, who flaps his wings while gnawing a hole into God's sweet creation. It is interesting to note that Dante considers violence a greater sin in that it violates the rights of God by turning creation into an arena of destruction (p. 437).

This was my second visit to Dante's Hell, though via a new translation. In his excellent Modern Library edition of Dante's INFERNO, Professor Esolen demonstrates through his insightful Introduction and endnotes that there are three fundamental principles that underlie Dante's view of the world and its beauty: that things have an end, that things have meaning, and that things are connected. Esolen is a professor of English at Providence College, and he has also translated Dante's PURGATORY for the Modern Library.

G. Merritt

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice balance, June 26, 2008

By 

David W. Lafferty "Dante Explorer" (Exiled from Florence) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inferno (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback)

Choosing which translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to read is a very subjective and personal question. Any translation involves balancing the meaning, feel, and artistry of the work, normally at the expense of at least one of these qualities. A major consideration is the topic of rhyme. The Divine Comedy has a complex rhyme scheme that suits itself well to the rhyme-rich language of Italian (where, unlike English, many words end in vowels). Translations that attempt to maintain any type of rhyme scheme often sound forced and usually compromise the meaning of the text.

At the other end of the spectrum are straight prose (spoken word) translations. Prose translations are great for communicating the story and it's nuances, however any poetical structure is lost. A third choice is a translation written in blank verse (iambic pentameter). This format allows freedom to communicate the work without rhyme, yet maintains a metrical structure. In addition, it's well suited for English (Shakespeare wrote much of his work in blank verse).

So, which version should you read? I have no vested interested in selling a particular author's work, my recommendations are just my personal opinion. My favorite version is by Mark Musa (written in blank verse). I also enjoy Anthony Esolen's translation (blank verse with some rhyme). They also both have good notes (a necessity). Ultimately, it's great to read a few and decide which version you like best, each has strengths and weaknesses.