Divine Comedy 1 : Inferno

I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to rate Dante himself, nor Musa's translation; but I was so impressed with the packaging of the book and the delivery. Not a single scratch on it, bubble wrapped and perfectly protected. 10/10

It's a cool book , been searching for the damn thing . It's has a very good story and introduces to the concept of the inferno and its 9 levels. It's a spiritual journey that we go through along with the author/ protagonist Ie dante . A must read for all

Good translation.

Nice one ...very simple notes ...with extension s

The quality of the product does not seem right. The book seems to have absorbed moisture and feels damp.

Excellent translation for a novice reader.

Having wanted to read this book for a while but being put off by the seemingly endless number of translations available, after not much research I finally plumped for this version by almost picking it at random. Generally, I didn't have any problems with the translations and it all seemed to flow quite nicely. Admittedly, I haven't read any other versions so have nothing to compare it to, but suffice to say I didn't struggle with this book one bit. Onto the actual story that Dante tells, I actually really enjoyed it. Despite being hundreds of years old, the story seems very timeless. Although it does seem like a medieval way of name dropping; with a constant barrage of people who were then famous (or infamous, I suppose) but without the notes, I'd have had no idea who they were or their significance. There's so many layers to each Canto that you don't even realise are there until you read the notes. It's quite brilliant, in a way, and another reason why I enjoyed this version of the book. The "comedy" part of it is, as you would imagine, rather dark at times. For example, two blokes are stuck in a frozen lake in Hell with only their heads above the ice, with one guy eating the other guys brains. Turns out that the person eating the head was forced to eat his own children/grandchildren after the other guy locked them in a room and starved them to death. Hilarious stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. Although I did laugh out loud at one or two phrases, like the devils that were blowing raspberries at each other, with the other devil "saluting them with his bugle of an a--hole"! It's an easy to read book, considering how old it is, and it is really worth what little effort it takes to get through. A great book and a very nice translation.

Epic poetry at its finest!

The Divine Comedy has long been on my bucket list of books to read and I am very happy that I chose to buy Musa's translation of the first volume, The Inferno. In short, Mark Musa makes The Inferno very accessible to the everyday reader. His introduction before the text provides some historical background of the time and religious/political situation in which Dante lived and wrote and this helps the reader understand a bit about life in Renaissance Italy. He then follows up with his translator's notes, in which Musa spells out his intentions and methods in translating the text. Good stuff to know and very helpful for understanding the context of the story. The most helpful part of Musa's translation was that before each Canto, he would give a brief preview summary of what happens in that particular Canto. Then at the end of each Canto, he has a section of notes that explain things in the text that might not be clear to everyone, such as the backstories of the shades that he encounters and references to other texts and works of literature. Having the summary and notes bookending each Canto made them extremely easy to follow and understand. His translation abandons the rhyme of the original in favor of conveying the narrative. This might bother some purists but not having to force rhymes at the end of every line leaves the translator a lot of room to make sure that the reader can follow what is going on in the story. I couldn't believe it, but I read through this centuries old work of Medieval literature just as quickly and easily as I would any modern novel. Musa's translation made that possible.

Introduction to a great trilogy. Monumental literature, if your at all contemplative and interested.