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A review by emmaisnotavampire
La Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
It makes me so sad that most Italian youngsters grow to hate the Comedy solely because of the way it is taught in school, when it is genuinely such an interesting work, or at least it is considering the time of its creation. In the context of the 1300s, Dante was undoubtedly a visionary, and it surely took quite a bit of courage to treat God, Mary and all the Saints, as well as the Devil and the worst of sinners, as characters of his own fantasy poem. Sure, many passages could be viewed as heavily biased and petty, but if you ask me, that's nothing but an added bonus! It makes it so much more varied and fun!
Inferno is a little gem, a heterogeneous mix of irreverence, vice, laughter, disgust, violence, tragedy, rage, lots of complex characters mainly outlined by their flaws instead of their virtues, of entertaining backstories and moral dilemmas. Paolo and Francesca, Ulysses, Count Ugolino... these figures and related chapters alone are enough to make this poem great, even greater than it is in its entirety. Purgatorio is of course not as brilliant, but it's still pretty enjoyable, some chapters more than others; but Paradiso, that is the real disgrace which brings my rating down so much: it's soooooo boring! Not nearly as multifaceted as the other two books, and the characters are incredibly flat, suffering from what I call the Lucia syndrome (straight out of my nemesis of a book, Manzoni's The Betrothed), a total absence of negative attributes to balance out the positive ones and make them human and relatable, instead of utterly insufferable.
Were I to read this again for my mere entertainment, I would probably never go past Inferno again, but for my first autonomous read of the poem it felt right to power through it all.
Inferno is a little gem, a heterogeneous mix of irreverence, vice, laughter, disgust, violence, tragedy, rage, lots of complex characters mainly outlined by their flaws instead of their virtues, of entertaining backstories and moral dilemmas. Paolo and Francesca, Ulysses, Count Ugolino... these figures and related chapters alone are enough to make this poem great, even greater than it is in its entirety. Purgatorio is of course not as brilliant, but it's still pretty enjoyable, some chapters more than others; but Paradiso, that is the real disgrace which brings my rating down so much: it's soooooo boring! Not nearly as multifaceted as the other two books, and the characters are incredibly flat, suffering from what I call the Lucia syndrome (straight out of my nemesis of a book, Manzoni's The Betrothed), a total absence of negative attributes to balance out the positive ones and make them human and relatable, instead of utterly insufferable.
Were I to read this again for my mere entertainment, I would probably never go past Inferno again, but for my first autonomous read of the poem it felt right to power through it all.