A Book I'm reading

[Guest Juvydriver]

I picked up "Dante: The Divine Comedy" which, if I understood correctly is "Dante's Inferno."  I was just wondering what the opinion of those who have read the book is.

 

Juvy

[Guest J*ingus]

Inferno is just the first part of the trilogy which makes up the Divine Comedy.  The other two less-famous installments are Purgatory and Paradise.  As for having read it, well, it was a loooong time ago, and I don't remember a whole lot.

[Guest gthureson]

I've read parts of it, mainly for courses I took like 'Apocalyptism' and 'The Nature of Evil'.  (Hey, they were easy Religon and Culture courses that fit well into my History schedule.)

 

Interesting reading, and kind of fun.

[Guest Juvydriver]

Ok, the book I have is all three parts combined.  I finally figured that out.  LOL

 

I have heard that it is interesting and difficult to understand at the same time.

 

Juvy

[Guest gthureson]

Well, there will different phraseology and spellings used.   And words that are no longer in common usage will pop up.  But just like Shakespeare, you'll get used to that.

 

Divine Comedy is as much a commentary as anything else, so knowing something about the period it is written in helps.  Much like knowing something about Twain's time period helps you pick up alot of the commentary he was putting in about his times.   And the knowledge that religon was taken much more seriously than it is now when Dante was writing it, so suggesting that certain people are in hell means more.