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The Divine Comedy

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The Divine Comedy

By: Dante Alighieri, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - translator
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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About this listen

 Dante's Divine Comedy is considered to be not only the most important epic poem in Italian literature, but also one of the greatest poems ever written. It consists of 100 cantos, and (after an introductory canto) they are divided into three sections. Each section is 33 cantos in length, and they describe how Dante and a guide travel through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

Expertly translated here by the famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dante's masterpiece leaps vividly to life in this production.

Philosophically, the poem is based on the theological works of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Divine Comedy is essentially an allegory of the progress of the human soul toward God and the progress of mankind toward peace on earth. Many of the characters involved are drawn from ancient Roman history and from Dante's contemporaries, making the work a realistic picture of Italian life in the early 14th century. As well, it is an intensely developed analysis of human affairs. In structure the poem appears to be a description of the afterlife. But it is in essence, a compassionate, oral evaluation of humanity and a mystical vision of the Absolute toward which mankind struggles. The Divine Comedy endures today because of the universality of its drama and the lyric quality of the poetry, and not as the result of any doctrinal content.

Public Domain (P)2009 Audio Connoisseur Classics Epic European Fantasy Fiction Poetry Themes & Styles World Literature Italy Epic Fantasy Comedy Funny

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All stars
Most relevant  
maybe it was the translation, but I found the poem exceedingly boring - the summary was more informative

maybe it is the translation...

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Divine Comedy to be better than the print version?

I like to think of it as a different experience. It's one of those masterpieces where you should definitely try both versions!

Beautifully done!

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The translation is obnoxiously Archaic. I’m not just talking about a few thous here and there. It reaches pre-shakespearean levels which actually makes an already difficult (if rewarding) text inaccessible and ruins the read. Listen to the translation by Robert Kirkpatrick instead.

Impenetrable translation

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I'm not sure why this translation was done in this way, it would benefit from a modern language translation. Much of the imagery was lost in trying to follow the sentence structure. Getting through this was a real slog, really not enjoyable. The narrator seemed to be putting on a faux English accent but not quite hitting some of the words quite right which jarred. avoid.

Impenetrable translation

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I've given this two stars because it's famous, but that's it. I actually couldn't finish it. The imagery in inferno is interesting, but well known, but I was losing the will to live a few hours into the Paradiso. No wonder most people only read the first book! Nothing wrong with it as an audio book, I just blame Dante! So much of it is parochial politics, people Dante knew at the time which might be quite interesting if you knew who they were but without a lifetime of study, which I'm not prepared to do, I just couldn't get into it. Read the York notes instead!

Dull!

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The poem consists of no conversations, no descriptions and essentially no details whatsoever. It is a series of very brief summaries such as: “then Dante met Vergil who guided him through hell” (not an actual line but is the kind in this poem). So we have no details about why Dante decided to follow Virgil, what kind of person Virgil is and whether they got on well or not.
This was a complete waste of money.

I have no idea why anyone is impressed by this

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Not audibles fault but i hadn't a clue what was going on in the story

I was completely lost

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this is not worth its cost, you get a woefully long start of what dante was doing before the poem with no explanation and it tells of things only a historian would know, and then be annoyed at how fast its recounted. it's drags on for what seems like an age. then you get a brief explanation of each part if the poem, this is good if you're a student.

meh, disappointing.

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This is a truly terrible translation of the divine comedy. yes its unabridged but it's pretty much the bullet points of each canto. dont buy it!!

york notes version of the divine comedy

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Charlton Griffin tries his very best to sound "Shakespearean". I'm afraid he isn't very good.

An American trying to sound English.

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