Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$39.93

Paperback
$12.20

Buy used: $39.93

FREE delivery September 14 - 19

Or fastest delivery September 12 - 14

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Dylan Products

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Dante Alighieri

The Inferno (English and Italian Edition) Hardcover – December 26, 2000

by Dante Alighieri (Author), Robert Hollander (Translator), Jean Hollander (Translator)

4.7 607 ratings

See all formats and editions

Dante's immortal poem enters English in the clearest, most accurate, most readable translation in decades, accompanied by a commentary of unsurpassed scholarship.

The Inferno, the opening section of Dante Alighieri's epic theological poem La Divina Commedia, is one of the indispensable works of the Western literary canon. The modern concept of hell and damnation owes everything to this work, and it is the rock upon which vernacular Italian was built. Its influence is woven into the very fabric of Western imagination, and poets, painters, scholars, and translators return to it endlessly.

This new verse translation (with facing-page Italian text) by internationally famed scholar and master teacher Robert Hollander and his wife, poet Jean Hollander, is a unique collaboration that combines the virtues of maximum readability with complete fidelity to the original Italian-and to Dante's intentions and subtle shadings of meaning. The book reflects Robert Hollander's faultless Dante scholarship and his nearly four decades' teaching experience at Princeton. The introduction, notes, and commentary on the poem cannot be matched for their depth of learning and usefulness for the lay reader. In addition, the book matches the English and Italian text on the Web site of the Princeton Dante Project, which also offers a voiced Italian reading, fuller-scale commentaries, and links to a database of some sixty Dante commentaries.

The Inferno opens the glories of Dante's epic wider for English speakers than any previous translation, and provides the interpretative apparatus for ever-deeper excursions into its endless layers of meaning and implication. It is truly a Dante for the new millennium.

Print length

672 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

December 26, 2000
Dimensions

6.75 x 1.75 x 9.75 inches
ISBN-10

0385496974
ISBN-13

978-0385496971
See all details

Dante
177
Paperback
33 offers from $11.78
Dante
168
Paperback
20 offers from $13.41
Mary Shelley
1,465
Paperback
in British & Irish Horror
53 offers from $5.50
Dante Alighieri
2,935
Paperback
in Italian Poetry
86 offers from $6.34
Craig A. Lockard
3
Paperback
10 offers from $102.16
Dante Alighieri
3,781
Paperback
5 offers from $3.13

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Translation is always an imperfect art, demanding from its practitioners a level of dual fidelity that even a seasoned bigamist would envy. And no work of art has prompted more in the way of earnest imperfection than Dante's Divine Comedy. Transforming those intricate, rhyme-rich tercets into English has been the despair of many a distinguished translator, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to W.S. Merwin (whose estimable rendition of Purgatorio found the poet rattling over more than one linguistic speed bump). Now comes a fresh rendition of the Inferno from a husband-and-wife team. Robert Hollander, who has taught Dante for nearly four decades at Princeton, supplies the scholarly muscle, while his wife, poet Jean Hollander, attends to the verbal music.

How does their collaboration stack up? In his introduction, Robert Hollander is quick to acknowledge his debt to John D. Sinclair's prose trot of 1939, and to the version that Charles Singleton derived largely from his predecessor's in 1970. Yet the Hollanders have done us all a favor by throwing Sinclair's faux medievalisms overboard. And their predilection for direct, monosyllabic English sometimes brings them much closer to Dante's asperity and rhythmic urgency. One example will suffice. In the last line of Canto V, after listening to Francesca's adulterous aria, the poet faints: "E caddi come corpo morto cade." Sinclair's rendering---"I swooned as if in death and dropped like a dead body"--has a kind of conditional mushiness to it. Compare the punchier rendition from the Hollanders: "And down I fell as a dead body falls." It sounds like an actual line of English verse, which is the least we can do for the supreme poet of our beleaguered civilization.

Robert Hollander has also supplied an extensive and very welcome commentary. There are times, perhaps, when he might have broken ranks with his academic ancestors: why not deviate from Giorgio Petrocchi's 1967 edition of the Italian text when he thinks that the great scholar was barking up the wrong tree? In any case, the Hollanders' Inferno is a fine addition to the burgeoning bookshelf of Dante in English. It won't displace the relatively recent verse translations by Robert Pinsky or Allen Mandelbaum, and even John Ciardi's version, which sometimes substitutes breeziness for accuracy, can probably hold its own here. But when it comes to high fidelity and exegetical generosity, this Inferno burns brightly indeed. --James Marcus

From Publishers Weekly

The opening canzone of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy has appeared in almost every imaginable variety of English translation: prose, blank verse and iambic pentameter; unrhymed or in terza rima; with and without the original Italian; with commentary ranging from a few notes to a full separate volume. The translations have been produced by poets, scholars and poet-scholars. In the past six years alone, six new translations of the Inferno have appeared (including Robert Pinsky's 1994 rendition for FSG) and at least 10 others remain in print, including Allen Mandelbaum's celebrated 1980 translation (Univ. of Calif. Press and Bantam) and the extensively annotated editions of Charles Singleton (Princeton Univ. Press) and Mark Musa (Univ. of Indiana Press), the latter two unlikely to be surpassed soon in terms of extensiveness of commentary.Dante scholar Robert Hollander and the poet Jean Hollander bring to this crowded market a new translation of the Inferno that, remarkably, is by no means redundant and will for many be the definitive edition for the foreseeable future. The heart of the Hollanders' edition is the translation itself, which nicely balances the precision required for a much-interpreted allegory and the poetic qualities that draw most readers to the work. The result is a terse, lean Dante with its own kind of beauty. While Mandelbaum's translation begins "When I had journeyed half of our life's way,/ I found myself within a shadowed forest,/ for I had lost the path that does not stray," the Hollanders' rendition reads: "Midway in the journey of our life/ I came to myself in a dark wood,/ for the straight way was lost." While there will be debate about the relative poetic merit of this new translation in comparison to the accomplishments of Mandelbaum, Pinsky, Zappulla and others, the Hollanders' lines will satisfy both the poetry lover and scholar; they are at once literary, accessible and possessed of the seeming transparence that often characterizes great translations. The Italian text is included on the facing page for easy reference, along with notes drawing on some 60 Dante scholars, several indexes, a list of works cited and an introduction by Robert Hollander. General readers, students and scholars will all find their favorite circles within this layered text.

From Library Journal

Inferno is the first of the three books of The Divine Comedy being freshly translated by the Hollanders, with Purgatorio and Paradiso scheduled for release in 2002. This edition offers their interpretation on the right-hand page with Dante's original Italian text on the left. Robert Hollander has a very esteemed reputation as a translator of Dante and others, so this no doubt would be a worthy addition to literature collections already possessing previous versions.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A distinguished act of poetry and scholarship in one and the same breath, the Hollander Dante, among the strong translations of the poet, deserves to take its own honored place."
--Robert Fagles

"This new version of the Inferno wonderfully captures the concision, directness, and pungency of Dante's style.  Like a mirror, it reflects with clarity and precision the Italian original.  Each canto's set of copious, authoritative notes complements the facing-page Italian and English translation. A grand achievement."
--Richard Lansing, Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature, Brandeis University

"The New Inferno, as this is likely to be called, is both majestic and magisterial and the product of a lifelong devotion to Dante's poetry and to the staggering body of Dante scholarship. The Hollanders capture each and every accent in Dante, from the soft-spoken, effusive stilnovista poet, to the wrathful Florentine exile, to the disillusioned man who would become what many, including T. S. Eliot, consider the best poet who ever lived.  The Hollanders' adaptation is not only an intelligent reader's Dante, but it is meant to enlighten and to move and ultimately to give us a Dante so versatile that he could at once soar to the hereafter and remain unflinchingly earthbound."
--AndrÈ Aciman, author of Out of Egypt: A Memoir

"A brisk, vivid, readable-and scrupulously subtle-translation, coupled with excellent notes and commentary.  Every lover of Dante in English should have this volume."
--Alicia Ostriker

"English-speaking lovers of Dante are doubly in the Hollanders' debt: first, for this splendidly lucid and eminently readable version of Dante's Hell, and second, for the provocative, elegantly-written commentary, which judiciously synthesizes a lifetime of deeply engaged, wide ranging scholarship, as well as as the past six centuries of commentary on the poem. No student of Dante would want to be without it."
--John Ahern, Antolini Professor of Italian Literature, Vassar College

From the Inside Flap

Dante's immortal poem enters English in the clearest, most accurate, most readable translation in decades, accompanied by a commentary of unsurpassed scholarship.

The Inferno, the opening section of Dante Alighieri's epic theological poem La Divina Commedia, is one of the indispensable works of the Western literary canon. The modern concept of hell and damnation owes everything to this work, and it is the rock upon which vernacular Italian was built. Its influence is woven into the very fabric of Western imagination, and poets, painters, scholars, and translators return to it endlessly.

This new verse translation (with facing-page Italian text) by internationally famed scholar and master teacher Robert Hollander and his wife, poet Jean Hollander, is a unique collaboration that combines the virtues of maximum readability with complete fidelity to the original Italian-and to Dante's intentions and subtle shadings of meaning. The book reflects Robert Hollander's faultless Dante scholarship and his nearly four decades' teaching experience at Princeton. The introduction, notes, and commentary on the poem cannot be matched for their depth of learning and usefulness for the lay reader. In addition, the book matches the English and Italian text on the Web site of the Princeton Dante Project, which also offers a voiced Italian reading, fuller-scale commentaries, and links to a database of some sixty Dante commentaries.

The Inferno opens the glories of Dante's epic wider for English speakers than any previous translation, and provides the interpretative apparatus for ever-deeper excursions into its endless layers of meaning and implication. It is truly a Dante for the new millennium.

About the Author

ROBERT HOLLANDER has taught The Divine Comedy to Princeton students for thirty-nine years. He is the author of a dozen monographs, editions, and translations, and some six dozen articles on Dante, Boccaccio, and other writers. A member of Princeton's Department of Romance Languages and the former chairman of its Department of Comparative Literature, he has received many awards, including the Gold Medal of the city of Florence in recognition of his Dante scholarship. JEAN HOLLANDER, his wife, is a poet, teacher, and director of the Writers' Conference at the College of New Jersey. They are at work translating Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso, and Doubleday will publish their complete Divine Comedy in 2002.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INFERNO I OUTLINE 1–9 Dante, having lost his way, in a dark wood 10–21hint of dawn: the sun on a mountaintop 22–27simile: survivor of shipwreck looking back at sea 28–36journey resumed; ascending the slope; a leopard 37–43dawn and reassurance 44–54a lion renews his fear; a she-wolf drives him back 55–60simile: merchant (or gambler?) losing everything 61–66apparition (of Virgil) and Dante’s first words 67–75Virgil identifies himself 76–78his pointed question to Dante 79–90Dante’s recognition, praise of Virgil; plea for aid 91–100Virgil’s warning: power of the she-wolf 101–111Virgil’s prophecy of the hound that will defeat her 112–120Virgil will guide Dante through two realms to a third 121–129Virgil: a second guide will take him to those in bliss, since he is not allowed into that realm 130–135Dante agrees to be led through the first two realms 136the two set out

Inferno I Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, 3ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte 6che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte; ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, 9dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai, tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto 12che la verace via abbandonai.

Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto, là dove terminava quella valle 15che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,

guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta 18che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

Allor fu la paura un poco queta, che nel lago del cor m’era durata 21la notte ch’i’ passai con tanta pieta.

E come quei che con lena affannata, uscito fuor del pelago a la riva, 24si volge a l’acqua perigliosa e guata,

così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva, si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo 27che non lasciò già mai persona viva. Midway in the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark wood, 3for the straight way was lost.

Ah, how hard it is to tell the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh— 6the very thought of it renews my fear!

It is so bitter death is hardly more so. But to set forth the good I found 9I will recount the other things I saw.

How I came there I cannot really tell, I was so full of sleep 12when I forsook the one true way.

But when I reached the foot of a hill, there where the valley ended 15that had pierced my heart with fear,

looking up, I saw its shoulders arrayed in the first light of the planet 18that leads men straight, no matter what their road.

Then the fear that had endured in the lake of my heart, all the night 21I spent in such distress, was calmed.

And as one who, with laboring breath, has escaped from the deep to the shore 24turns and looks back at the perilous waters,

so my mind, still in flight, turned back to look once more upon the pass 27no mortal being ever left alive. Poi ch’èi posato un poco il corpo lasso, ripresi via per la piaggia diserta, 30sì che ’l piè fermo sempre era ’l più basso.

Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l’erta, una lonza leggiera e presta molto, 33che di pel macolato era coverta;

e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto, anzi ’mpediva tanto il mio cammino, 36ch’i’ fui per ritornar più volte vòlto.

Temp’ era dal principio del mattino, e ’l sol montava ’n sù con quelle stelle 39ch’eran con lui quando l’amor divino

mosse di prima quelle cose belle; sì ch’a bene sperar m’era cagione 42di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle

l’ora del tempo e la dolce stagione; ma non sì che paura non mi desse 45la vista che m’apparve d’un leone.

Questi parea che contra me venisse con la test’ alta e con rabbiosa fame, 48sì che parea che l’aere ne tremesse.

Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza, 51e molte genti fé già viver grame,

questa mi porse tanto di gravezza con la paura ch’uscia di sua vista, 54ch’io perdei la speranza de l’altezza.

E qual è quei che volontieri acquista, e giugne ’l tempo che perder lo face, 57che ’n tutti suoi pensier piange e s’attrista; After I rested my wearied flesh a while, I took my way again along the desert slope, 30my firm foot always lower than the other.

But now, near the beginning of the steep, a leopard light and swift 33and covered with a spotted pelt

refused to back away from me but so impeded, barred the way, 36that many times I turned to go back down.

It was the hour of morning, when the sun mounts with those stars 39that shone with it when God’s own love

first set in motion those fair things, so that, despite that beast with gaudy fur, 42I still could hope for good, encouraged

by the hour of the day and the sweet season, only to be struck by fear 45when I beheld a lion in my way.

He seemed about to pounce— his head held high and furious with hunger— 48so that the air appeared to tremble at him.

And then a she-wolf who, all hide and bones, seemed charged with all the appetites 51that have made many live in wretchedness

so weighed my spirits down with terror, which welled up at the sight of her, 54that I lost hope of making the ascent.

And like one who rejoices in his gains but when the time comes and he loses, 57turns all his thought to sadness and lament, tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace, che, venendomi ’ncontro, a poco a poco 60mi ripigneva là dove ’l sol tace.

Mentre ch’i’ rovinava in basso loco, dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto 63chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco.

Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto, “Miserere di me,” gridai a lui, 66“qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!”

Rispuosemi: “Non omo, omo già fui, e li parenti miei furon lombardi, 69mantoani per patrïa ambedui.

Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi, e vissi a Roma sotto ’l buono Augusto 72nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.

Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto figliuol d’Anchise che venne di Troia, 75poi che ’l superbo Ilïón fu combusto.

Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia? perché non sali il dilettoso monte 78ch’è principio e cagion di tutta goia?”

“Or se’ tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?” 81rispuos’ io lui con vergognosa fronte.

“O de li altri poeti onore e lume, vagliami ’l lungo studio e ’l grande amore 84che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore, tu se’ solo colui da cu’ io tolsi 87lo bello stilo che m’ha fatto onore. such did the restless beast make me— coming against me, step by step, 60it drove me down to where the sun is silent.

While I was fleeing to a lower place, before my eyes a figure showed, 63faint, in the wide silence.

When I saw him in that vast desert, ‘Have mercy on me, whatever you are,’ 66I cried, ‘whether shade or living man!’

He answered: ‘Not a man, though once I was. My parents were from Lombardy— 69Mantua was their homeland.

‘I was born sub Julio, though late in his time, and lived at Rome, under good Augustus 72in an age of false and lying gods.

‘I was a poet and I sang the just son of Anchises come from Troy 75after proud Ilium was put to flame.

‘But you, why are you turning back to misery? Why do you not climb the peak that gives delight, 78origin and cause of every joy?’

‘Are you then Virgil, the fountainhead that pours so full a stream of speech?’ 81I answered him, my head bent low in shame.

‘O glory and light of all other poets, let my long study and great love avail 84that made me delve so deep into your volume.

‘You are my teacher and my author. You are the one from whom alone I took 87the noble style that has brought me honor. Vedi la bestia per cu’ io mi volsi; aiutami da lei, famoso saggio, 90ch’ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi.”

“A te convien tenere altro vïaggio,” rispuose, poi che lagrimar mi vide, 93“se vuo’ campar d’esto loco selvaggio;

ché questa bestia, per la qual tu gride, non lascia altrui passar per la sua via, 96ma tanto lo ’mpedisce che l’uccide;

e ha natura sì malvagia e ria, che mai non empie la bramosa voglia, 99e dopo ’l pasto ha più fame che pria.

Molti son li animali a cui s’ammoglia, e più saranno ancora, infin che ’l veltro 102verrà, che la farà morir con doglia.

Questi non ciberà terra né peltro, ma sapïenza, amore e virtute, 105e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro.

Di quella umile Italia fia salute per cui morì la vergine Cammilla, 108Eurialo e Turno e Niso di ferute.

Questi la caccerà per ogne villa, fin che l’avrà rimessa ne lo ’nferno, 111là onde ’nvidia prima dipartilla.

Ond’ io per lo tuo me’ penso e discerno che tu mi segui, e io sarò tua guida, 114e trarrotti di qui per loco etterno;

ove udirai le disperate strida, vedrai li antichi spiriti dolenti, 117ch’a la seconda morte ciascun grida; ‘See the beast that forced me to turn back. Save me from her, famous sage— 90she makes my veins and pulses tremble.’

‘It is another path that you must fo...

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (December 26, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385496974
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385496971
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1.75 x 9.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #914,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #73 in Italian Literary Criticism (Books)
- #706 in Ancient & Classical Poetry
- #21,171 in Classic Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.7 607 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Dante Alighieri

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence. His family, of minor nobility, was not wealthy nor especially distinguished; his mother died when he was a child, his father before 1283. At about the age of 20 he married Gemma Donati, by whom he had three children. Little is known of Dante's formal education-it is likely to have included study with the Dominicans, the Augustinians, and the Franciscans in Florence, and at the university in Bologna. In 1295 he entered Florentine politics and in the summer of 1300 he became one of the six governing Priors of Florence. In 1301, the political situation forced Dante and his party into exile. For the rest of his life he wandered through Italy, perhaps studied at Paris, while depending for refuge on the generosity of various nobles. He continued to write and at some point late in life he took asylum in Ravenna where he completed the Divine Commedia and died, much honoured, in 1321.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

607 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

dmontag

Outstanding translation, scholarship and perfect as an e-book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2012

Verified Purchase

Jean and Robert Hollander's edition of Inferno is outstanding in every way. The translation is well-suited to the modern reader and seems to follow the Italian quite closely. The synopses preceding each canto are very useful and Hollander's analyses are exhaustive, interesting and complete with detailed references to earlier analytical works. The detail and extent of the analyses is remarkable. Hollander's commentary on the text is much more detailed than any other edition with which this reader is familiar, and the analyses are clear, interesting and well-referenced.

For the serious student of Dante, this e-reader edition perhaps sets the standard for its ready access to the Italian and to the commentary. The default mode for each canto is the english text with links to the left for the corresponding original Italian. To the right are links to Hollander's analyses, line by line. Click on the link and the relevant Italian or annotation appears. Having read and studied the poem both with the Hollanders' hard-copy edition, the electronic version is far more user-friendly than scrambling back and forth through twenty or more pages to find an annotation and then return to the text, only to find another annotation in the next line or tercet.

It might be of interest to also view the youtube videos of two Robert Hollander lectures at the University of Dallas. He is complete FULL of Dante. His enthusiasm and humor are infectious while transmitting a scholarly approach. Hollander says that Dante only offends two groups of people, non-believers and believers! This highlights one important aspect of this great poet, Dante's statement that Commedia is theological, not poetic allegory. This means that the narrative is claimed by Dante as to be literally true.

This e-book is a gem and a bargain.

34 people found this helpful

Helpful

bunny

Lovely language, handy to have on Kindle, format muddled for outlines of English translation

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

I always thought I should read Dante's Inferno because there are so many references to it, but was intimidated by its length what seemed like stilted translations. I really like this version. The language is easy to follow, I don't have to lug around a big book, and it's easy to go to and from footnotes. One format problem is in the short outlines before each English section - the numbers are superimposed over the words, making them hard to read, so I skipped over them. And of course there are no illustrations. One thing that surprised me is what a gossip rag the Inferno seems to be! Lots of references to politicians and other public figures getting their due. It would be easy to substitute current names and events instead, which I suppose is what makes this such a cultural touchstone.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Cullom

el mezzo camnin something or other

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2007

Verified Purchase

I'm pretty sure this is what anyone that doesn't speak Italian wants out of an Inferno translation.

1. There's facing page Italian so you can do the Milton thing. You really can understand what the Italian is saying, and when you read it, you can get some idea of what an incredible achievement the Comedy really was. The poetry itself is astounding, but you have to read the Italian to get it - and to understand why it's untranslatable.

2. The translation is fairly literal. This time, the translation is there to tell you what the Italian actually says instead of serving as a clever solution to the poetic problems posed by translation. Nobody is going to pull off a translation into a Germanic language that conveys Dante's vowel heavy Italian rhyming. We would not translate Palestrina into Bach, please give up on this.

3. The notes are written to interpret the poem. Instead of merely providing historical background to the obscure personages, the notes provide readings across the past 700 years on difficult lines. That's one heck of a resource. I wish I had that for poets in English; I might actually read the stuff.

4. There's actually literary criticism. One of the revelations from the critical work here is how much Dante is making fun of the Virgil character. You see him get mad, plot and scheme, become boastful. It's really pretty hilarious. I never got a sense of that before, but it's pretty obvious once you start looking for it. That adds a completely different flavor to the poem. Like most great works, part of the reason it's great is because it's funny. Maybe not Milton. Screw Milton.

I've always liked the Inferno, but I feel like I must have been missing huge themes. Not even really sure why I liked it. Read this, you'll have a whole new take on the poem. I'm waiting on the next two volumes.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Opinion8d

Great translation; the Book is Rough Going for non christian persons, or else I am terrible at interpretation!

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read this book through a class online from Georgetown on EdX.org. It is an excellent translation. It has almost the exact same words as the italian. When I first considered reading this, it was Longfellow's translation only. Ye Thou Shallt learn all about this dark hued cavern. (go see what's in the dark cave)

The book itself is a bit much if you are not a Christian. It is decent poetry, but I feel stupid reading poetry in translation, since the sounds are not going to be included. Since I read Spanish, I could understand the Italian text to see that it was very similar. The book is full of catholic symbolism, the number nine appears everywhere to symbolize the trinity squared, allegedly. The book is Dante's journey through Hell, led by Virgil, when Dante happens to lose the "straight way" and is lost in a dark forest. Everything is dark down there, pretty much. there are lots of fun Greek Gods and characters from Rome and others; references to Aristotle, Homer, Euclid, and other famous authors he had read.

If you are good at interpreting poetry, and interested in religious allegory and imagery, enjoy. If not, you might want to get some help like a class or a Cliff's notes.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Tito Das

A treasure for all book lovers

Reviewed in India on August 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

My review will be divided into sections, which I feel, is necessary to make a detailed discussion about this book. This edition of Dante Alighieri's Inferno is translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. I purchased it on 24 August, 2021 for ₹914.

First, a little about myself. I am a 27-year-old, professor of English, and teach undergraduates in a reputed Kolkata college.

1. Choosing the right Dante translation

There are so many translations of Dante's work available that it might seem confusing at first. I wanted to buy the whole Divine Comedy in a single volume but chose instead to go for separate books for each poem. Therefore, the logical order is to first read the Inferno, then Purgatorio, and finally Paradiso.
There are many translations of The Divine Comedy. Here's a quick sum up of the editions available in the market: Allen Mandelbaum (Everyman's Classics) ; John Ciardi (Penguin USA) ; H.W. Longfellow (Om as well as Fingerprint) ; Robin Kirkpatrick (Penguin Classics). There are other translations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Mark Musa (also available from Penguin Classics). It is to be noted that only Mark Musa has separate volumes of the texts out of all these. So as you can see, the list is long and choosing the right version for yourself can be a daunting affair.

All the aforementioned translations, except Musa's, offer Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso in a one-volume text, meaning you get all 100 cantos in the same book. You don't have to buy Purgatorio and Paradiso separately.

All the aforementioned books are also cheaper in the sense that you get three books in one volume. At the time of writing this review, the Allen Mandelbaum Everyman's Classics is ₹1267; John Ciardi's is ₹981 and the other editions are well below ₹550.

2. Why did I choose the Hollander edition?

The Hollander translation by Anchor Books publishers is, in my opinion, the most detailed version of Dante available in the world. This is a bilingual text, meaning the original Italian is printed on the left side and the English translation is on the right.

However, this edition is priceless because of the exhaustive annotations, notes and commentary by Robert Hollander, who was a Princeton University graduate and later professor; a man who taught Dante for 42 years. This is the most readable, modern translation of the Inferno.

This is the only book out of all the aforementioned books that offers the Italian version side by side. Hollander's notes at the end of each canto is immensely helpful in understanding the subtle nuances of the text. You will understand it better if I told you that this book is 736 pages in length. Do you understand what I am saying? This is just the first part of the Divine Comedy. In other editions, you get all three books within a thousand pages.

The Allen Mandelabaum edition is 960 pages; John Ciardi 928 pages; Robin Kirkpatrick 752 pages. Mark Musa's version of the Inferno is 432 pages. This tells you the enormity of notes and annotations available in the Hollander edition.

I suggest you not to go for the H.W. Longfellow edition as it is a prose-translation and Dante is best enjoyed in poetry.

3. Which edition is the best suited for you?

I personally chose the Hollander edition because it has detailed annotations and offers the most readable English translation of Dante. The poem is written in terza rima, a three-line stanza rhyme scheme which was invented by Dante himself. This edition offers the poem in terza rima and appears the closest to the Italian.

Now, when it comes to buying, choose a version that most suits your needs.

If you want to save money and have all three parts of the poem in one volume, go for either Allen Mandelabaum or John Ciardi. With the Everyman's edition of Mandelabaum, you get the book in hardcover.

Get the Ciardi edition if you want a more lyrical rendering of the poem. Out of all the above mentioned translators, only John Ciardi has Italian roots. He was a native Italian speaker who translated Dante into English.

Get the Hollander edition if a detailed understanding of the poems is your priority. In that case, you will have to buy three separate books. Right now, the Hollander edition of Purgatorio, the second book of the Divine Comedy, is priced at ₹703. So if I buy it, I already will have paid ₹1617 for the first two books. I will of course also have to buy the third part, Paradiso. But I consider it a worthwhile investment considering that it offers me a much detailed resource. It also offers me the option of quoting the original Italian text if I choose to write research papers, or savour the cadence of Dante's Italian poetry.

If you want the books separately but don't want to shell out too much cash, get Mark Musa Penguin Classics edition. You will get all three books within ₹1200. It is also a well-loved version of the poem.

If you want a prose-style translation, go for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These editions are also the most inexpensive of all available books.

If you want to get a little archaic flavor in an English translation, go for Dorothy L. Sayers. It is also the most convoluted and difficult to read translations of the Inferno.

4. Conclusion

If you are a casual reader and want to know what the fuss with Dante is all about, go for a one-volume edition. If you want to become an expert, go for Hollander. But most importantly, read the poem in large chunks. Read 8-10 pages at a time. Better yet, try to read at least one canto in a sitting. This will help you appreciate Dante more.

Also, for added context, read the essays on Dante by Nobel Prize winning Italian poet Eugenio Montale. The research of Peter Armour, who spent all his life studying Dante, is also immensely helpful. Just don't abandon all hope when you begin reading the maestro.

7 people found this helpful

DanEjam

Hell of a good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am not a well read man, and when I say 'well read', I mean I have had not read many classical novels or poems etc. And before buying this book, these such thoughts were going through my mind:

"Oh, I've never read a poem before in my life, I probably wont understand it"
"Commentaries? Urgh, but they were such a bore in school"

Despite these thoughts, I bought this translation of the Inferno anyway, and I couldnt have chosen better.

The poem is tranlated brilliantly, because I understand it, and I can feel it. Simple as that.

The commentaries after each Canto are not dull or boring at all, because they are not only interesting, but are a humungous help. On first reading a canto on its own, I could understand it yes, but after reading the commentary with it, I understood it even more, and understood the depths behind it.

I had great fun reading this book, its entertaining for a good read and even contains some good humour, both in the poem itself and in the commentary.

All in all, if like me you're not an English literary expert. Do not worry! The poem is a joy to read (considering where its based) and the commentaries explain it so well, that it felt like I had Mr and Mrs Hollander sitting next to me explaining what it all meant as I went along.
So in a way, as I read about Dante's trip through hell with Virgil as his guide, I took a trip through hell, following behind Dante and Virgil, with Robert and Jean Hollander as my guide.

My Recommendation: Buy it!

16 people found this helpful

Leseratte

Authoritative and accessible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought this as preparation for a course on Dante, recommended by the tutor, and it is an ideal choice, even for the beginner. A dual-language version, Italian on the left, English (by poet Jean Hollander) on the right, each Canto preceded by a useful summary and followed by explanatory notes by Robert Hollander, which I would say are essential to a fuller understanding of the poem, though the constant cross-referencing (which I have no intention of following up - at 73, my remaining days are more precious to me than that) makes the reading of the notes more of a chore than it need be.
It might be worth noting that the 'translation' is actually a poetic English version of the original, so I was often at something of a loss as to how the English meant what the original seemed to be saying. Otherwise, absolutely perfect for my purposes.

Chicky

Dope book, shouts out to the OG D-Boy for some hq entertainment

Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

I really like the Italian on the one side and translation on the other, thats a really dope feature. Its getting pretty good, and I like how the ‘translator’ explains some of the lines after the cantos. Ive been steadily reading it, but it takes a while to read the Italian and also the english.

One person found this helpful

JDM

Best Dante

Reviewed in Canada on June 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

Probably the best translation I’ve read

See more reviews

Follow the Author

The Inferno (English and Italian Edition) Hardcover – December 26, 2000

Customers who viewed this item also viewed