Dante's Divine Comedy: The Inferno (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback)

~ L. Vergani (Editor) "Dante was born in Florence in May 1265..." (more)
Key Phrases: two sinners, final circle, poets move, Critical Commentaries, Dante the Pilgrim, Dante the Poet (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dante wrote three epic poems about heaven, purgatory, and hell. The Inferno is about the latter and is encyclopedic in scope and information. From Dante's own world of politics, theology, and learning, he poured everything he was and knew into this text.

From the Back Cover

More New and Revised Titles. The Best Just Got Better! Plus Glossary from Webster's New World™ Dictionary Anthem Atlas Shrugged Beowulf Brave New World The Canterbury Tales The Catcher in the Rye The Contender The Crucible The Fountainhead Frankenstein The Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations The Great Gatsby Hamlet Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer Huckleberry Finn The Iliad Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Inherit the Wind Jane Eyre Julius Caesar The Killer Angels King Lear The Lord of the Flies Macbeth 1984 The Odyssey Oedipus Trilogy The Once and Future King Othello The Outsiders Pride and Prejudice The Red Badge of Courage Romeo and Juliet The Scarlet Letter A Separate Peace A Tale of Two Cities To Kill a Mockingbird Wuthering Heights See inside for the complete line-up of available CliffsNotes! Check Out the All-New CliffsNotes Guides To AOL®, iMac™, eBay™, Windows® 98, Investing, Creating Web Pages, and more! More Than Notes! CliffsComplete™ CliffsTestPrep™ CliffsQuickReview™ CliffsAP™ Over 300 CliffsNotes Available @ cliffsnotes.com Downloadable 24 hours a day Free daily e-mail newsletters Free tips, tricks, and trivia Free online CliffsNotes catalog Free self-assessment tools Freeware and shareware downloads --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Cliffs Notes (June 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822003910
• ISBN-13: 978-0822003915
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 4.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,091,461 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Divine Comedy, November 22, 2007

By	Sun Bulak "book soa" (Alabama) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Divine Comedy: Inferno (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback)

It is very compact. It contains everything you need to know. If you are in a hurry to complete your report, this is the very one.

5.0 out of 5 stars latin? please., November 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Divine Comedy: Inferno (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback)

Readers, please note: The two people who gave this negative reviews thought that The Inferno was written in Latin. It wasn't. Clearly, they read neither the Cliff's Note nor the book. Silly to write a review of a book that you know nothing about!

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Cliff Note review?!?!, December 29, 2000

By	NYJ (Atlantic Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

Well, it's odd to write a review for a set of Cliff Notes, but I'll make an exception in this case. People often equate buying Cliff Notes with kids who have to read a book and want to actually get OUT of reading the book. However, I bought Dante's Divine Comedy: The Inferno for leisure reading (actually I like the theological implications that Dante ponders in the writing of his poem) and the Cliff Notes have become quite useful. The Notes start out with a general background of Dante, giving a mini biography of the author. Throughout this sketch they allude to a number of instances in his life which will come into play in his work The Divine Comedy. They then go on with an overall synposis of The Inferno. After that they go into a full-out commentary on the work itself.

I picked up the Cliff Notes at the same time I bought my copy of The Divine Comedy. Why? Well, I didn't want to miss a thing. I read for fun, but I also try with the books I truly enjoy, to read critically. Knowing that the copy of The Inferno was actually a translation from the latin meant that since I cannot read latin, that there would be certain nuances of the language that I may miss out on when reading it in english. Hence, I am relying on the Cliff Notes (which I read AFTER I finish a particular section) to point out these instances to me. I can then go back and re-read the section and gain the deeper insight into the poem itself. Used as a supplement (not as the source itself, which unfortunately happens with many users of Cliff Notes) this has proven to be a nice tool. It is by no means absolutely necessary (my copy of The Inferno comes with its own commentary... I have the Bantam issue of Dante's Divine Comedy) but it is nice to have on hand when there are sections that are a bit 'heavy'. I will not go into the book itself here in this review, since this is the Cliff Notes, but instead I'll tackle that in a review of the book itself. Overall, I think the Cliff Notes are a nice addition, something to have next to the armchair when reading the actual book. The only downside... the Cliff Notes cost almost as much ($4.95) as the book itself ($5.95).