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The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno Paperback – Illustrated, December 31, 2002
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A Penguin Classic
This vigorous translation of Inferno preserves Dante's simple, natural style, and captures the swift movement of the original Italian verse. Mark Musa's blank verse rendition of the poet's journey through the circles of hell recreates for the modern reader the rich meanings that Dante's poem had for his contemporaries. Musa's introduction and commentaries on each of the cantos brilliantly illuminate the text.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Classics
- Publication dateDecember 31, 2002
- Dimensions7.76 x 5.08 x 1.02 inches
- ISBN-109780142437223
- ISBN-13978-0142437223
- Lexile measure1220L
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Mark Musa is Distinguished Professor of French and Italian at the Center for Italian Studies, Indiana University.
Product details
- ASIN : 0142437220
- Publisher : Penguin Classics; Revised edition (December 31, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780142437223
- ISBN-13 : 978-0142437223
- Lexile measure : 1220L
- Item Weight : 10.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 7.76 x 5.08 x 1.02 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #20,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Ancient & Classical Poetry
- #658 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #1,927 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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I would definitely recommend that anybody looking to read The Inferno, but concerned over if they could understand the language and the constant references Dante makes to people and landscapes, should most certainly read Mark Musa's translation of the classic Inferno.
In short, Mark Musa makes The Inferno very accessible to the everyday reader. His introduction before the text provides some historical background of the time and religious/political situation in which Dante lived and wrote and this helps the reader understand a bit about life in Renaissance Italy. He then follows up with his translator's notes, in which Musa spells out his intentions and methods in translating the text. Good stuff to know and very helpful for understanding the context of the story.
The most helpful part of Musa's translation was that before each Canto, he would give a brief preview summary of what happens in that particular Canto. Then at the end of each Canto, he has a section of notes that explain things in the text that might not be clear to everyone, such as the backstories of the shades that he encounters and references to other texts and works of literature. Having the summary and notes bookending each Canto made them extremely easy to follow and understand.
His translation abandons the rhyme of the original in favor of conveying the narrative. This might bother some purists but not having to force rhymes at the end of every line leaves the translator a lot of room to make sure that the reader can follow what is going on in the story.
I couldn't believe it, but I read through this centuries old work of Medieval literature just as quickly and easily as I would any modern novel. Musa's translation made that possible.
The Comedy is a masterpiece of world literature, a work that should be read by all, but one that I had put off for quite some time due to the intimidating nature of its length and subject matter--worried, perhaps, that the famous "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" warning applied as much to the general reader of Dante as to the souls of the damned. Yet, thanks to Musa's help, I found the Comedy to be a pleasantly entertaining and enlightening work, and perhaps even more surprisingly, an exciting "page turner" as the classics go.
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Ie dante . A must read for all
Generally, I didn't have any problems with the translations and it all seemed to flow quite nicely. Admittedly, I haven't read any other versions so have nothing to compare it to, but suffice to say I didn't struggle with this book one bit.
Onto the actual story that Dante tells, I actually really enjoyed it. Despite being hundreds of years old, the story seems very timeless. Although it does seem like a medieval way of name dropping; with a constant barrage of people who were then famous (or infamous, I suppose) but without the notes, I'd have had no idea who they were or their significance.
There's so many layers to each Canto that you don't even realise are there until you read the notes. It's quite brilliant, in a way, and another reason why I enjoyed this version of the book.
The "comedy" part of it is, as you would imagine, rather dark at times. For example, two blokes are stuck in a frozen lake in Hell with only their heads above the ice, with one guy eating the other guys brains. Turns out that the person eating the head was forced to eat his own children/grandchildren after the other guy locked them in a room and starved them to death. Hilarious stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. Although I did laugh out loud at one or two phrases, like the devils that were blowing raspberries at each other, with the other devil "saluting them with his bugle of an a--hole"!
It's an easy to read book, considering how old it is, and it is really worth what little effort it takes to get through. A great book and a very nice translation.








