The Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Heaven - Softcover

Dante Alighieri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0856462802 ISBN 13: 9780856462801

Publisher: Anvil Press Poetry, 2004

Synopsis

Dante's masterpiece is a foundation stone of European poetry. It was a profound influence on T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and in our own day has inspired Seamus Heaney. It is simple in style yet complex in its layers of meaning, episodic in manner yet architectonic in its over-arching vision. It is simultaneously a journey through life and a spiritual biography, a portrait of the internecine Italy of Dante's time and a pilgrim's progress through the tripartite afterworld of Catholic mythology. Paradoxically, it is also a devotional work and one of the strangest love poems ever written. It is without doubt one of the supreme works of world literature. Peter Dale has established a reputation as one of this country's leading translators for his François Villon: Selected Poems, and more recently for his witty and accurate versions of Jules Laforgue. His great achievement here has been to produce a version of The Divine Comedy in modern English that echoes Dante's sweet new style', while keeping to the poet's demanding terza rima verse pattern. It is a reader's edition - accurate, clear and compelling. It is also Peter Dale's crowning achievement as a translator. Peter Dale was educated at Strode's School, Egham, Surrey and St Peter's College, Oxford. He was head of English at Hinchley Wood Comprehensive School for 21 years, and is now a full-time poet, editor and translator. He was co-editor of the poetry journal Agenda for many years. His New and Selected Poems, Edge to Edge, is also published by Anvil, as are his collection Under the Breath and his facing-text verse translations, Poems of Jules Laforgue and Poems of François Villon.

About this title

About the Author:

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into the lesser nobility of Florence. Between 1315 and 1321 he worked on his masterpiece, La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). He died in Ravenna on September 14, 1321. Peter Dale, born in Surrey, England, worked as a school teacher until 1993, when he became a freelance writer and translator. Anvil publish his own poems, as well as his translations from Jules Laforgue and Francois Villon, and of Dante's Divine Comedy.

From Library Journal:

Dante's Divine Comedy remains a favorite for translators. This new version by English poet and translator Dale, whose work includes translations of French poets Francois Villon and Jules Laforgue, joins the recent translations by Robert Pinskey (LJ 11/1/94), Mark Musa (LJ 3/1/95), and Robert Durling (LJ 3/15/96). Dale's version is accurate, though it flattens Dante's diction. It differs from others in its attempt to capture Dante's terza rima, an intertwining triple rhyme. The effect is disappointing. The short rhymed lines are frequently jangling, and, in order to achieve the rhyme, Dale must frequently invert phrases, making his verse sound deliberately anachronistic, thus losing Dante's vitality. The edition is illustrated with a selection of William Blake's watercolors for his engravings of the Divine Comedy. Only for comprehensive literature collections.?T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Anvil Press Poetry
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0856462802
• ISBN 13: 9780856462801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448