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Paradise (The Divine Comedy) Paperback – February 13, 2007
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In this, the concluding volume of The Divine Comedy, Dante ascends from the devastation of the Inferno and the trials of Purgatory. Led by his beloved Beatrice, he enters Paradise, to profess his faith, hope, and love before the Heavenly court. Completed shortly before his death, Paradise is the volume that perhaps best expresses Dante's spiritual philosophy about resurrection, redemption, and the nature of divinity. It also affords modern-day readers a clear window into late medieval perceptions about faith. A brillitan verse translation, a bilingual text, classic illustrations by Gustave Doré, a critical introduction, and an appendix that reproduces Dante's key sources make this Esolen's the definitive edition of Dante's ultimate masterwork.
- Print length544 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherModern Library
- Publication dateFebruary 13, 2007
- Dimensions5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
- ISBN-109780812977264
- ISBN-13978-0812977264
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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
The Divine Comedy stands as one of the towering creations of world literature, and its climactic section, the Paradiso, is perhaps the most ambitious poetic attempt ever made to represent the merging of individual destiny with universal order. Having passed through Hell and Purgatory, Dante is led by his beloved Beatrice to the upper sphere of Paradise, wherein lie the sublime truths of Divine will and eternal salvation, to at last experience a rapturous vision of God.
About the Author
An accomplished poet in his own right, Esolen is known for his widely acclaimed three-volume verse translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (Modern Library) and for his verse translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (Johns Hopkins). His Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child has been described as "a worthy successor to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." And its sequel, Life Under Compulsion, has been called "essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone who is concerned to rescue children from the tedious and vacuous thing childhood has become." His recent books include Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and, No Apologies: How Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men.
The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Dr. Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a professor of humanities and writer-in-residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, New Hampshire.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Dante and Beatrice are at the threshold of Heaven. She explains to him
that it is the nature of the human soul to rise.
The glory of the One who moves all things
penetrates the universe with light,
more radiant in one part and elsewhere less:
I have been in that heaven He makes most bright,4
and seen things neither mind can hold nor tongue
utter, when one descends from such great height,
For as we near the One for whom we long,7
our intellects so plunge into the deep,
memory cannot follow where we go.
Nevertheless what small part I can keep10
of that holy kingdom treasured in my heart
will now become the matter of my song.
O good Apollo, for this last work of art,13
make me as fit a vessel of your power
as you demand when you bestow the crown
Of the beloved laurel. Till this hour16
one peak of twin Parnassus has sufficed,
but if I am to enter the lists now
I shall need both. Then surge into my breast19
and breathe your song, as when you drew the vain
Marsyas from the sheath of his own limbs.
Father, virtue divine, should you but deign22
that I make manifest a shadow of
the blessed kingdom sealed upon my brain,
At the foot of that tree whose wood you love25
you’ll see me stand and crown my brows with green,
made worthy by the subject, and by you.
Poets and Caesars now so rarely glean28
those leaves to celebrate a victory
(man’s fault and shame, for our desires are mean),
the Peneian branches must give birth to joy31
when any man should thirst for their high fame,
in the glad heart of the Delphic deity.
A little spark gives birth to a great flame.34
Better voices perhaps will follow mine,
praying to hear what Cyrrha shall proclaim!
By various spills of light the sun will shine37
dawning upon the world of men that die,
but at the three-cross intersection of
Four rings it rises in the company40
of a more favorable time of year,
happier stars, to stamp this worldly clay
With its most perfect seal. One hemisphere43
lay brightening in that stream and one grew dim,
as it made morning there and evening here,
When I saw Beatrice turn upon her left46
and look to Heaven to gaze into the sun:
no eagle ever held a gaze so firm.
As a reflecting ray will follow upon49
the first and in a glance, an instant, rise
just like a pilgrim longing to turn home,
So she instilled her gazing–through my eyes–52
into my powers of fancy, and I too
stared at the sun more than our sight can bear.
With our weak powers on earth one may not do55
what there one may–thanks to the special place
created as the proper home for man.
Not long could I sustain the brilliant rays58
before they seemed to flash like sparks that play
round steel still white-hot from the forge’s blaze,
And suddenly it seemed that day and day61
were fused, as if the One who wields the might
adorned the heavens with a second sun.
Into the everlasting wheels of light64
Beatrice gazed with silent constancy;
on her I gazed, far from that central sight.
Her countenance had the same effect in me67
as did the plant that Glaucus tasted when
it made him share the godhood of the sea.
To signify man’s soaring beyond man70
words will not do: let my comparison
suffice for them for whom the grace of God
Reserves the experience. If I bore alone73
that part of me which you created last,
O Love that steers the heavens, you surely know,
For your light lifted me. And when the vast76
wheel you have made eternal by desire
held me intent to hear the harmony
You tune in all its parts, the sunlight-fire79
lit so much of the sky, no flooding stream
or rain could ever fill so broad a lake.
The newness of the sound, the swelling gleam82
lighted desire in me to learn their cause–
keener than any appetite I’d known.
And she, who saw within me what I was,85
to still the troubled waters of my soul,
opened her lips before I could inquire,
And thus began: “You’re making your mind dull88
with false imagining–you don’t perceive
what you would see, if you could shake it off.
You are not on the earth, as you believe.91
Lightning that flees its proper realm is not
so swift as your returning to your own.”
I admit I was shorn of my first doubt94
by the brief words she flashed me with a smile,
but in another net my feet were caught:
“My first amazement is at peace–but still97
I am amazed that I should rise so high,
beyond the lightness of the air and fire.”
She turned her eyes to me then with a sigh100
of pity, as a mother in distress
whose child is ill and talks deliriously,
So she made matters plain: “All things possess103
order amongst themselves: this order is
the form that makes the world resemble God.
Thence the high beings read the signs, the trace106
of that eternal Power who is the end
for which the form is set in time and place.
All natures in this order lean and tend109
each in distinctive manner to its Source,
some to approach more near and others less–
Whence from their various ports all creatures move112
on the great sea of being, with each one
ferried by instinct given from above.
This is what makes the fire rise toward the moon;115
this, the prime mover of the mortal heart;
this makes the heavy earth condense in one;
Nor does this bow with target-cleaving art118
strike only things that lack intelligence,
but beings made with intellect and love.
The glorious world-ordaining providence121
forever stills the highest heaven with light,
beyond the spinning of the swiftest sphere,
And to that place as to our destined site124
we’re speeded by the power of that cord
shooting each arrow in its happy flight.
Often it’s true a form may not accord127
with the intent of him who works the art
because the matter’s deaf and won’t respond:
So, from this course, a creature may depart130
if it should have the power, despite the push,
to swerve away and veer off from its start,
And as you’ll see a fall of lightning flash133
from the high clouds, so cheating pleasures skew
that first urge, and they plunge it to the earth.
No more amazement should it bring to you136
that you ascend, than if a mountain stream
should tumble rushing to the plains below.
But it would be a cause of just surprise139
if, free of every bar, you should remain
like a still flame on earth, and not arise.”
Then to the heavens she turned her gaze again.142
Product details
- ASIN : 0812977262
- Publisher : Modern Library; Reprint edition (February 13, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 544 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780812977264
- ISBN-13 : 978-0812977264
- Item Weight : 13.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #39,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #29 in Ancient & Classical Poetry
- #47 in Epic Poetry (Books)
- #1,375 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Anthony Esolen is a professor of English and a writer in residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, New Hampshire. He is a senior editor of Touchstone magazine, and a contributing editor of Crisis and Chronicles. A poet in his own right, Professor Esolen is known for his verse translations of epic poetry, including the three volumes of Dante's Divine Comedy (Random House, Modern Library), Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (Johns Hopkins), and Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (Johns Hopkins). His sacred work, The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, is a book length sacred poem centered on the life of Christ. A noted essayist and social commentator, Anthony Esolen has published books on a broad range topics from literature, to theology, to education and culture, ancient to modern.
Books by Anthony Esolen
On the Nature of Things
(Verse translation of Lucretius’ De rerum natura, with scholarly commentary)
Johns Hopkins, 1995
Jerusalem Delivered
(Verse translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, with scholarly commentary)
Johns Hopkins, 2000
Ironies of Faith: The Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature
ISI, 2007
Inferno (verse translation of Dante’s Inferno)
Random House, Modern Library Edition, 2002
Purgatory (verse translation of Dante's Purgatorio)
Random House, Modern Library Edition, 2003
Paradise (verse translation of Dante's Paradiso)
Random House, Modern Library Edition, 2005
The Beauty of the Word: A Running Commentary on the Roman Missal
Magnificat, 2012
Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching (treatise on the social teaching of Pope Leo XIII)
Sophia Instute Press, 2014
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization
Regnery, 2008
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of your Child
ISI, 2010
Roman Missal Companion
Magnificat, 2011
Reflections on the Christian Life
Sophia Institute Press, 2012
Living the Days of Advent and the Christmas Season
Paulist Press, 2013
Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity
St. Benedict Press, 2014
Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child
ISI, 2015
Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church
Tan Books, 2016
Angels, Barbarians, & Nincompoops
Tan Books, 2017
Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture
Regnery, 2017
Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World
Regnery, 2018
No Apologies: How Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men
Regnery, 2022
Defending Boyhood
Tan Books, 2018
How the Church Has Changed the World,
Magnificat, Volume One, 2019; Volume Two, 2020; Volume Three 2022
In the Beginnng Was the Word
Angelico Press, 2021
The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord
Ignatius, 2018
Peppers
New Poets Series, 1991
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Dante (the poet not the character in the poem) spends much effort on what constitutes a just ruler and on the relationship between Church and state. Never does he discuss the joy in heaven over the repentant sinner. Nor does he present the saints he meets as active intercessors for those on earth, though in canto xviii Dante the character does ask the heavenly army to pray for those led astray by a corrupt pope, and later (xxxii) he asks Beatrice to pray for him. In the final canto St. Bernard intercedes for Dante, begging the intercession of the Blessed Virgin that Dante may behold the beatific vision. But all those folks on earth who beg the saints to pray for them? I didn't notice any saint responding to the entreaties of those on earth, or indeed, even acknowledging that he heard their prayers.
I did not find Dore's illustrations of much value in my appreciation of Paradise, unlike with the Inferno and Purgatory. I thought the final cantos of Paradise were the volume's strongest. Esolen's Introduction and his notes are very good aids.
I've read (and reviewed on Amazon) Esolen's translations of the three books of the Divine Comedy. He's to be complimented on these highly readable and reasonably priced books.
There aer great notes that help you understand the poem, but the CANTOS have no individula line numbers, like the ESOLEN translation does. This makes using it difficult as a reference for a lecture that refers to line numbers. It is a pretty book that has its own advantages, but not for the Hillsdale course.
I cannot commend Anthony Esolen’s translation highly enough. He brings to the translation such a wonderful understanding of Dante’s poetry. His introduction to this work is INVALUABLE. Even if the translation was not as good as it is, I’d still get it for the introduction.
If anybody is interested in more, the author is preparing a series of instructional CD's for the entire Divine Comedy. As of this writing , only the CD's on the Inferno are available, but I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the series because I think Esolen has a great way of explaining things.
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