The Divine Comedy

Title: The Divine Comedy Volume 1: Inferno

Author: Dante Alighieri

Published: 1971 (written sometime between 1308 and 1321)

Read: September 2004

Number of pages: 387

Fiction

Where I got the book: student bookstore

How I discovered it: read it for a class

My grade: A

What do I remember about my Western Civ Lit class? Absolutely nothing! I do, however, remember we had to read Dante's The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Of course I had heard of this piece of work before, but had never read it as I don't do much reading of novels that were written past the twentieth century. (And this was written waaaaay past the twentieth century). And I probably would have never read it if it wasn't assigned reading for a class.

I am glad that it was assigned reading because it turned out to be one of the most interesting and thought provoking books that I've ever read. The main character, Dante, is being led through Hell by Virgil. Think of it as a tour guide of the seven layers of Hell. Its' the first book in a trilogy. The other two are called Purgatori and Paradiso where he travels through Purgatory and Heaven. I've been meaning to get around to them, but I haven't read read them yet. Probably because Purgatory and Heaven just don't seem as interesting as Hell.

Thankfully each of the cantos are translated by Mark Musa and that helped a lot. Without those little Cliff Notes, I would have no idea what was going on during Dante's and Virgil's journey through Hell and might as well just be reading a book in a different language. Dante's words may have been translated into English, but obviously the English language was a little different back then than what it is today. Musa even gives a little synopsis before each chapter to describe what the reader will be reading about. 

If you've ever taken a Western Civ Lit class as well, you've probably read this book, but if you haven't, I highly recommend it - just make sure to get one that has a translation!