Reviews

Paradisul by Dante Alighieri

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adrianlarose's review against another edition

3.0

Eulogistic poetry of light and fire and love. Amazingly contemporary. Of the three, by far the least dramatic...and yet the most.

newishpuritan's review against another edition

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4.0

Re: Paradise itself, I found this section of the poem just as engaging as the other two on an intellectual level, but less engaging emotionally. The spirits in Paradise have transcended the vicissitudes of their former existence. For the most part, they appear as points of light to Dante, whereas in Hell and Purgatory they are bodies. That seems symptomatic: our experience as human beings is rooted in our bodies, and once we leave those behind, we cease to be fully human. Dante of course is still subject to change and growth, and that provides the basis for the narrative as much as his progress through the spheres.

Re: the Sayers / Reynolds translation, Sayers died before completing this, and the last third of the translation and all the commentary were written by Reynolds, who was a distinguished Italian scholar (I still use her Italian dictionary, which I find superior to recent publications for historical texts). The translation feels seamless, but the commentary and notes are much less lively and engaging than in the previous two volumes, and there were several occasions when very obscure passages in the poem had no explanatory note at all.

okaybuddy's review against another edition

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ENGL 337

hakkun1's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

noahtato's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

While not a consistently stronger work than Purgatorio, the final 5-10 cantos are by far the most exquisite of the Comedy's, the crown jewel being the final ascent to the Empyrean. Dante pulls heavily from Boethius's Lady Philosophy through a lens of specifically ecclesiastical imagery, which sacrifices purity of message for vividness of metaphor (from the modern perspective). The earlier cantos seem like an extension of Purgatorio but without the narrative stakes, though the moral obviously transcends the narrative functions that would have made those cantos more engaging to read. I will be exploring the references and intricacies further over many years, I am sure.