Superlative One-Volume Edition of Dante's Divine Comedy (Rating 4 of 5)
» William B. Jones
To come to C. H. Sisson's one-volume Divine Comedy after mining other editions of Dante's masterpiece on life and faith may predispose me to a false "aha!", or at least one I might not have should I have come to the Oxford World's Classic edition first. I have gained insight and challenge from each translation I've encountered, to be sure, but here, in one volume, with superlative notes by David Higgins, is a volume to be recommended to anyone seeking entry to the maze of Dante's cosmos. As to other Dante's, among the modern one-volume offerings are Mark Musa's judiciously annotated "Portable Dante", Allen Mandelbaum's poetic "Everyman's" cloth edition (with brief notes by Peter Armour and line drawings by Botticelli), and the recently released paperback edition of John Ciardi's quite readable translation (New American Library).
Publishers, of course, determine which translations of Dante's Divine Comedy to assemble in single-volume format, and which to leave as standalone versions of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. The advantage of a single-volume edition is that, though one may be assigned a single volume in a course (usually Inferno), with the other volumes included in the same binding one is more likely to read the rest of it later. To stop at Inferno is to be left at hell's gate with neither the lessons of Purgatorio available to those yet alive (that is, the reader!), nor the promise of Paradiso to come
Boring blank verse (Rating 3 of 5)
» Ryan Kouroukis
This translation was done in 1980 in free blank verse.
I find it incredibly bland, plain, un-visionary and extremely un-poetic.
The opposite of these are the qualities that make Dante's Divine Comedy immortal and entertaining...
It's as if Sisson is "trying" to make Dante's epic un-interesting!
I often recommend having at least 2 different translations, and as I am dissapointed by this one I stand by Ciarni's and Huse's beautiful and magisterial versions.
Good luck!
(Rating 4 of 5)
(Rating 3 of 5)
