The Inferno
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The Inferno
Narrated by:
Dominic Hoffman
Buy Now for £7.99
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
About this listen
“The Hollanders … act as latter-day Virgils, guiding us through the Italian text that is printed on the facing page.” —The Economist
The epic grandeur of Dante’s masterpiece has inspired readers for 700 years, and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander have written a beautifully accurate and clear verse translation of the first volume of Dante’s epic poem, the Divine Comedy. Featuring the original Italian text opposite the translation, this edition also offers an extensive and accessible introduction and generous commentaries that draw on centuries of scholarship as well as Robert Hollander’s own decades of teaching and research. The Hollander translation is the new standard in English of this essential work.
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Critic reviews
"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
--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
The book itself presents humanity at its most vulnerable, highlighting the unsavoury aspects of our condition that lead us astray and into the depths of depravity, melancholy and eternal remorse. Dante examines these facets of our being via conversations with the poet Virgil and the numerous wretched souls as they traverse the 9 circles of hell. It is an uncanny portrayal of people's propensity for regret - the souls he speak to seem to comprehend their misdeeds, but only after the fact; each encounter a lesson for Dante as he is led out of the Inferno - after having become lost himself.
I would argue that this book should be read by any interested reader, even those who don't particularly enjoy poetry, as it provides some important reflection on our own actions and gives poise to human behaviour. Enjoy!
Uncanny and thoroughly engaging
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A must read (or listen)
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Always Topical
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needs a new narrator
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Meh
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