Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy 1: Hell by Dante Alighieri (trans Dorothy L Sayers). Oh my. Okay. This is where the former English major realizes just how rusty she is at all this classic literature jazz. Where she realizes that she really needs to get off her literary duff and read more heavy duty tomes and just maybe find herself a reading group to discuss these things with. 'Cuz, man, am I finding this heavy going and trying to make myself digest all the allegorical wisdom is giving me a mental tummy ache.

Am I enjoying it? Sure thing. Am I glad I'm doing it? You betcha. Am I going to be able to write an intelligent review when I finish my journey through hell? Um.....we'll just have to see. I'm a little over half-way finished and I'm still not sure what I'm going to be saying. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Suzanne said...

For what it's worth -- I'm impressed.

Emily said...

Just the fact that you're reading this at all gives you some serious kudos in my book.

bibliophiliac said...

I absolutely love the Inferno. Which translation are you reading? There is a really cool website that has a "virtual tour" of Dante's Inferno, and I use it in the classroom. The kids love it, and by the time I'm done talking about this book, they all want to read it! PS The ninth circle is where things really get good!

Bev Hankins said...

@Suzanne & Emily: Thanks.

@bibliophiliac: I'm reading the translation by Dorothy L Sayers. Remarkable lucid and she gives terrific notes to help with understanding, but I still feel like I need to do some serious rust-scraping to do The Divine Comedy justice.