Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful but slightly dated classic
Review: This is an undisputed classic, which I'm sure is even more poetic and lovely in the original Middle Italian, but it's not as accessible to the modern reader or as well-aged as other Medieval classics like the Decameron or El Cid. The average modern reader isn't going to know who all of these people being referred to are; some of them were people that were very well-known to a person of Dante's time, but unless you're a scholar of Medieval history, chances are you're not going to be too familiar with most of them. And most people also no longer study the ancient Greeks and Romans as thoroughly as students did in Dante's day; the average person won't know who all of these figures are, from either mythology or actual history, since most schools no longer have an emphasis on Greek, Latin, and the ancient world. If you constantly look down at the footnotes, the flow of the story is interrupted, but if you don't, you won't have much idea about what's going on.This book isn't just about presenting a work of beautiful poetry, which was inspired by Dante's great unrequited love Beatrice, in an attempt to immortalise this woman, this great love, for all time. It's also a not-so-subtle way of getting back at his enemies, by putting them in Hell or Purgatory, or having people "prophesise" what will happen to those enemies in the future. His supporters and the people whom he loves and admires are mostly in Purgatory and Paradise. It also really tows the Church line, with all of these different circles and rings of Hell for specific crimes (some of which, like suicide, homosexuality, and fortune-telling, are no longer considered sins or worthy of Hell today), and makes apologies for these horrible punishments. However, at least Dante is evolved enough to actually question the reason for why so and so is in Hell, or some point about Christian doctrine he doesn't understand, and he only comes to believe it is true and valid after he's had it explained to him (albeit by someone who has an agenda to get that pov across). At least he's questioning this stuff instead of accepting it blindly. Another dated thing about this book is that, what with the constant barrage of carnage on the news today, and whole generations who are familiar with images from concentration camps, war zones, suicide bombings, genocides, and school shootings, the average modern reader probably won't be too fazed by descriptions of people frozen in ice, people turning into monsters and then back into people, or Satan himself. But above all, despite the Church propaganda, plethora of references which mean nothing to the average modern reader, and Dante's way of getting revenge on his enemies by putting them in Hell, the overall themes are timeless. This is a story about rising from hopelessness and despair, to a place where people are miserable but have hope of getting better, and finally to more and more enlightened and beautiful places of joy, love, and peace. Dante's story begins when he wakes up in the Wood of Error, not sure how he got there or how he lost the true way, and the remedy for getting his life back on the right track is this both physical and symbolic journey from despair to hope.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best There Ever Was
Review: This is, simply, the best translation of the greatest piece of literature ever written. Not even the works of Shakespeare can surpass Dante's towering epic and its multi-layered, symphonic grandeur. Ciardi's translation, as one other reviewer here has already stated, almost sounds Italian. It is fluid, accessible, and beautiful and doesn't attempt to painstakingly preserve Dante's terza rima, a rhyme scheme that is beyond the scope of the English language (in Italian, everything seems to rhyme with everything else). This work moved me unlike any other--Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven is told with shocking genius and flawless detail. Every word is golden, every line contains a whole universe beneath its simple facade. The love, the effort, the genius, and the authenticity that went into this gloriously panoramic poem are without rival--nothing can compete with The Divine Comedy.
Rating:
Summary: The Best There Ever Was
Review: This is, simply, the best translation of the greatest piece of literature ever written. Not even the works of Shakespeare can surpass Dante's towering epic and its multi-layered, symphonic grandeur. Ciardi's translation, as one other reviewer here has already stated, almost sounds Italian. It is fluid, accessible, and beautiful and doesn't attempt to painstakingly preserve Dante's terza rima, a rhyme scheme that is beyond the scope of the English language (in Italian, everything seems to rhyme with everything else). This work moved me unlike any other--Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven is told with shocking genius and flawless detail. Every word is golden, every line contains a whole universe beneath its simple facade. The love, the effort, the genius, and the authenticity that went into this gloriously panoramic poem are without rival--nothing can compete with The Divine Comedy.
Rating:
Summary: Tradutore, traditore
Review: Which in Italian means, roughly, "To translate is to betray." This review speaks entirely to translations, not to Dante, who is for God to review.
John Ciardi's translation is wonderful. To my taste it is the best verse translation we have. Its notes are just adequate. The Italian text is not supplied.
Now, Dante translations come in various schools: original metre, English metre, prose divided as verse, straight prose. Dante's original metre (terza rima) does not work in English in spite of heroic efforts (Dorothy Sayers, whose Dantean scholarship is superb, attempted it and it is to my mind a waste of time). Nor, to me, does pure prose (such as the magnificent Singleton, work). The Divine Comedy is a poem, and prose does not follow the climaxes, hesitations, and rythms faithfully enough. So we are left with English metre, and with prose structured as verses (cantos). For readers who know some Italian, or Latin, or even French or Spanish, the latter would be my choice, so long as the Italian is supplied on the facing page--you can then hear Dante's own voice while understanding it. For this I would recommend the Durling translation (Oxford). It is wonderfully done and superbly annotated (though Singleton's notes are even more majestic)--which will deal with the common Dante complaint, "Who are all these people?". If you want to read directly in English verse, Ciardi is your man. Additional reading would be Dorothy Sayers' "Further Readings on Dante" (Harper). Or, buy Ciardi for his verse and Singleton for his notes and Italian text. AND, PLEASE don't read JUST the Inferno. Read Purgatorio and Paradiso too. You must! Inferno is just a part. If you dedicate your life's leisure to this poem you will have made a perfectly sound choice.
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