Dante Books

This review is for the unabridged Blackstone audio book narrated by Frederick Davidson. I have a rather long commute, so I pass the time listening to audio books and I have been working my way through several of the classics. I saw that the Decameron was available and that it had good reviews so I gave it a shot. It turned out to be a very enjoyable listening experience.

The reader has a very appropriate voice for this book. He does a good job changing his voice to match the different characters. The translation is somewhat archaic and was initially hard to follow until I got used to the terms. I actually got to enjoy some of the terms after awhile. For example, when addressing the women in the storytelling group, the men would call them `lovesome ladies'.

The 100 stories in the Decameron were delightful. They were told in groups of ten, with a theme for each. Some were very bawdy, and I'm hoping adultery wasn't as common of a practice in the 14th century as indicated. I recognized many of the storylines in movies I have seen or books I have read. It's amazing how much creativity one man can generate. The stories occurred mostly in Italy, but covered much of Europe and the Muslim world as well. Boccaccio clearly used his satire to skewer the hypocritical churchmen of his time. It was very interesting to see what the world was like in those days.

This is clearly a classic that deserves to be read. The audio book was also very good, but be aware that it may take the first hour or two to get used to the archaic language. After the adjustment, it turns out to be a gem.

Finally, a masterpiece that explicitly and thoroughly through its 100 stories explains what makes us humans and unique. As a sexologist I realize the importance of details in the book, and I recommend the penguin uncensored edition to anyone.
Boccaccio teaches us what the cosmopolitan does nowadays and more. And not to mention the realism in it, that is, all people have been into a situation as at least one of these stories.

'The Decameron' is a fascinating example of classic literature that remains fresh and entertaining today. Written in the mid-14th century, it concerns the first major outbreak of the black plague in Europe, which first emerged in Italy in approximately 1347. Boccaccio begins, in the prologue, by stating his purpose for writing the book - namely, to entertain literate women with nothing else to do with their time. The story itself concerns ten young Florentines (seven women - Pampinea, Filomena, Neifile, Fiammetta, Elissa, Lauretta, and Emilia; and three men - Panfilo, Dioneo, and Filostrato) who flee the city in hopes of escaping the plague. To occupy themselves during this time, they tell each other stories, with each person telling one story per day to make a total of 100 stories over the course of the entire book. At the beginning of the first day, Boccaccio provides an excellent and detailed description of the plague itself. The book ends with the refugees returning to their homes, and a closing epilogue from the author.

I very much enjoyed 'The Decameron.' It is interesting and easy to read. The characters in the various stories are ordinary people and this makes them seem very real. Many of them actually are based on real people. Some of the stories, too, are inspired by actual events, though not all. This particular edition is an excellent translation. It is very user-friendly while still retaining the 14th century 'feel' of it. I also liked the organization of the book, as it was always very easy to find a 'stopping place.' With some novels, it's hard to set them down, but since The Decameron is a collection of short stories, one can always stop at the end of any particular story and come back later.

Boccaccio claims that his goal in writing 'The Decameron' was to entertain and 'provide succour and diversion' (Prologue 3) to young women who are in love - presumably those whose love lives are not going well at the moment. He says he wishes to 'offer some solace' (Prologue 2) to these women, and also 'some useful advice' (Prologue 3). While this sounds like a noble aim on first glance, I have to wonder about his sincerity. A good many of the stories involve characters who go to rather immoral ends to achieve their aims, and I find it odd that such examples would be given in a book intended to instruct a young lady.

Nevertheless, the book is great fun to read. The stories are lively and colorful, and often quite humorous. It provides an excellent insight into the everyday lives of people during this time period. I will caution, however, that most of the stories involve sexuality in some way, and many revolved around it completely. If you are easily offended by bawdy humor, this may not be the book for you. Nearly all the characters of the various tales are sexually active, most with more than one partner. There are also homosexual and bisexual characters. Sexual infidelity is treated here as not only acceptable, but widely encouraged. Characters who cheat on their spouses regularly come out on top, while those that are cuckolded are laughed at and made to look like fools. The unfaithful partner is rewarded and the faithful one shamed and called a prude.

The one thing I do wish Boccaccio had talked more about is the ten people who were actually telling the stories. There are hints of Filostrato having a romantic interest in fellow-storyteller Filomena, but this is never followed up on, except to hint that Filomena is herself interested in someone else not of the company. I would like to know if anything more ever came of Filostrato's interest. I would also have liked to know more of what happened to the ten storytellers upon returning to Florence at the end of the book. Had the plague passed? What had happened to those they left behind? Did any of the ten themselves catch the plague? All of this is left out and I found the ending to be somewhat abrupt.

Perhaps most unclear to me, however, is how the ten were even able to flee the plague as they did. There is no talk of preparation, and it seems that they just dropped everything and left. The places they stayed were abandoned estates that they simply happened upon. Boccaccio says of the second place they stayed, 'she brought them [. . .] to a most beautiful and ornate palace. [. . .] They explored it from end to end and were filled with admiration for its spacious halls and well-kept, elegant rooms, which were equipped with everything they could possibly need, and they came to the conclusion that only a gentleman of the highest rank could have owned it' (Introduction, Third Day, 189). Why were places such as this abandoned? Had its owner/s died of plague? Or if the owners were not dead but had instead fled from the plague, why did they not take some of their things with them? Why was everything left in these places as if nothing was amiss? It all seems a bit unreal to me.

Overall the book is written very well for what it is - a collection of short stories. It is, however, lacking in character development. Most of the storytellers were very flat emotionally, and it would have been nice to see them fleshed out a little more. But in the context of a short story or group of short stories this lack of depth is more forgivable than it would be in a novel. With the exception of Dioneo, who seems to be the most creative and fun-loving of the ten, and Filostrato, who seems absorbed in moping and self-pity for much of the book (presumably over his unrequited interest in Filomena), I found it hard to distinguish one storyteller from another. But the focal point of the book is the stories themselves, and these are all highly entertaining. Though the frequent sexual references may make the book inappropriate for younger audiences, I would highly recommend it for any mature reader.

This is an easy to read book and, undoubtedly, has been well translated. I read the Canterbury Tales from the same series and enjoyed it more. These tales, like those in the Canterbury tales, are earthy and funny. But they tend to be variations on the same theme(marital infidelity) and, after the first 50 tales, you get tired.

...that is if you don't want to go to bed feeling extremely guilty every night. I had to read this over 6 weeks while studying in Tuscany. It is quite humorous and interesting, however it goes against everything that I learned in Catholic school. Ironically most of the dirty deeds being done are by those who've been chosen to "spread the good word."
It is fabulous however when reading it one must forget their background and dive in over the top to be able to move through the book.
Are the stories in the Decameron true? I hear the sequel is being relived right now all over the country.

This translation was easy enough to understand although the work itself suffers from a major problem and that is a sharp contrast that exists between exciting moments to ones where the lack of action is utterly unbearable. I suggest you read this version which makes it easier to understand Dante's thinking. Which is something you will want to get a firm grasp on as you enter the later sections which can be laboriously slow.

...I finally finished this wonderful book (today)! To tell the truth, it was the kind of book I put away for a few weeks or months and then picked it up again, reading a few cantos at a time. As assumed by most, I believe the Inferno may be the best of the three Canticles if only for the descriptive passages, and my memories of first hearing about it in the tenth grade. In fact, that first canto/introduction was what got me to start reading the book. So, as for the story, the Inferno, I feel, was the only canticle that did not really have a dry spot, simply because most of us have heard about the circles of hell in popular culture, so it was nice to read about Dante's interpretation of it all. As for Purgatorio and Paradiso, I felt that they did have some slow sections. The Purgatorio Canticle picked up where the Inferno left off, and so those parts were nice, but as Dante started his journey up the mountain, it was a little dull until he started to observe the punishments of those who sinned, but were ultimately destined for Heaven. The same thing happens in Paradiso; it starts off well, then takes somewhat of a dive, until there are some interesting "guest appearances." I will not go into detail, but it was fun to learn about some of these historical figures. But that is the problem with writing about Heaven, is that there really should not be any spheres or levels, but Dante has done so to mirror the other Canticles, which seems like the most balanced way to do it. Aside from this, another high point for me was when he finally meets St Peter, St James, and St John, who, represent Faith, Hope, and Love, respectively. This is kind of like the Gates of Heaven passage, except there are no gates, but there are some very interesting questions that are answered. The cantos on Angels were essentially disappointing, but once they reached the Empyrean in the last four cantos, the Divine Comedy really ended on a high note.

Now, I saved my review of the guides for the end, because they are such a large part of the Comedy. Virgil was a simply amazing guide through both Hell and Purgatory, as he represented Human Reason, and really fit in perfectly, even shooting down Dante when he felt bad for a sinner, or practiced some other fault. That might not make sense as Virgil did not believe in God, but it still works. Beatrice, as Dante's guide in Heaven and representation of Divine Revelation, was also a great choice, if only for her role in his life. After all, I would have done the same if I were writing a similar story. In addition to these two, there is a third and forgotten guide of Dante's, which leads him through the Empyrean and represents the Contemplative Soul; St Bernard. This really came out of nowhere for me, because I thought it was only Virgil and Beatrice, but since he was only around for about four cantos, it is not like I can say I was surprised, in the sense that he is forgotten and that he is there, since Dante always uses the theme of the Trinity. Still, all three guides make the Divine Comedy an even more memorable piece of Literature that has deserved its place in history as a magnificent piece of literature.

***Notes on this Edition***
I really enjoyed all the effort that the translator John Ciardi put into this wonderful work. And I do not mean just putting this book into the English language, but actually maintaining the style in which Dante wrote the book, as this translation also follows the "tercet" pattern that Dante wrote it in. However, as assumed, it becomes a bit tedious, since he keeps the rhyming patterns, meaning that it is not a straight translation and that Ciardi had to take artistic freedoms to make it work. However, he more than compensates for this by writing a brief summary at the beginning of each canto and gives notes at the end to clear up any confusion or any changes. The notes, however was what also made it such a long read, as they take up more time than the actual text, but given that this book was written more than 600 years ago, it is also helpful in understanding everything, since it was sometimes hard to understand the original text, which all of its rhymes and poetry patterns. Still, I feel that this edition was perfect for myself in my first reading of this historical text, which has made me wonder whether I should learn how to read it in the vernacular! It was that great!

T.S. Eliot - "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them-there is no third."

Perhaps I'm one of the few people who didn't have to read this in high school / college. I'm not sure I would have liked to have been required to read it, but reading it now as an older adult I found it fascinating.

"Midway life's journey I was made aware/that I had strayed into a dark forest..."

Those eerie words open the first cantica of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," the legendary poem that takes its author through the eerie depths of hell, heaven and purgatory. It's a haunting, almost hallucinatory experience, full of the the metaphorical and supernatural horrors of the inferno, and joys of paradise.

The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, and Dante is lost in a creepy dark forest, being assaulted by a trio of beasts who symbolize his own sins. But suddenly he is rescued ("Not man; man I once was") by the legendary poet Virgil, who takes the despondent Dante under his wing -- and down into Hell.

But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames and dancing devils. Instead, it's a multi-tiered carnival of horrors, where different sins are punished with different means. Opportunists are forever stung by insects, the lustful are trapped in a storm, the greedy are forced to battle against each other, and the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, and are trapped on a volcanic desert.

Well, that was fun. But after passing through hell, Dante gets the guided tour of Purgatory, where the souls of the not-that-bad-but-not-pure-either get cleansed. He and Virgil emerge at the base of a vast mountain, and an angel orders him to "wash you those wounds within," then lets them in.

As Virgil and Dante climb the mountain, they observe the seven terraces that sinners stay on, representing the seven deadly sins -- the angry, the proud, the envious, the lazy, the greedy, the lustful and the gluttons. It's a one-way trip, and you don't even get to look back.

The road up the mountain leads to the gates of Heaven, and soon Dante has been purified to the point where he's allowed to go inside. Virgil doesn't get to enter Heaven, so he passes Dante on to the beautiful Beatrice, the woman he loved in his younger years.

She whisks him up to the spheres of those who are now pure of soul -- the wise, the loving, the people who fought for their religion, the just, the contemplative, the saints, and finally even the angels. And after passing through heaven's nine spheres, he passes out of the physical realm and human understanding -- and sees God, the incomprehensible, represented by three circles inside each other, but all the same size.

Needless to say, it's a pretty wild trip.And admittedly "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso" aren't quite on the writing level of "Inferno," which has the most visceral, skin-crawling imagery and lines ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen and wroth...'"), and a wicked sense of irony. It makes the angels and saints seem a bit tame.

But there's plenty of power in the second two books, particularly when Dante tries to comprehend God, and almost blows out his brain in the process -- "my desire and my will were turned like a wheel, all at one speed by the Love that turns the sun and all the other stars." It's haunting, and sticks with you long after the story has ended.

More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism and allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even at the start, Dante sees lion, a leopard and a wolf, which symbolize different sins, and a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. Not to mention Purgatory as a mountain that must be climbed, or Hell as a Hadesian underworld.

Dante's vivid writing and wildly imaginative journey makes the "Divine Comedy" a timeless, spellbinding read, and hauntingly powerful from inferno to paradiso.

. . .is the one that you'll actually read. For most of
us, that's the magnificent one by John Ciardi. It's also
the one that's most likely to lead the reader on to Purgatorio
and Paradiso. Hell, it turns out, is the most attractive of
the three canticles into which the Divine Comedy is divided.
Fleshy, graphic and personal it has a lurid appeal that the
other, more spiritual canticles lack. Many people have
well-thumbed copies of The Inferno and barely touched volumes
of the other two.

So translation is the key. Translators, according to the
Italian proverb are always traitors.

There is no way around it, something is always lost in the
leap from one language to another. You can consult a modern
'adaptation' of Shakespeare to get the feel of what has to
be surrendered.

John Ciardi decided to keep the original rhyme scheme: 'aba'
in which the poem is divided into groups of three lines of
which the first and third rhyme. In Italian, this is fairly
easy, in English a great deal more difficult.
So in order to keep the feel of the tercets (as they're called)
Ciardi sometimes had to stray a bit from the literal
meaning. Nothing vital is lost, but the specialist will
surely find some points to dispute.
For the rest of us, this is a first-rate view into a world
we can barely otherwise imagine. Ciardi's notes and glosses
on the cantos are breezy, illuminating and approachable.

There are other, more correct translations- Mandelbaum's
is first among them -that might be better for the specialist
or the student of the Italian Language. But Ciardi is
still irreplaceable.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and
bang BANG: A Novel ISBN 9781601640005

Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (before Purgatorio and Paradiso).

In this book, we follow Dante as he visits Hell, walking down its nine consecutive Circles accompanied by the poet Virgil, and meeting old acquaintances on the way.

This should not become a habit, but I intend to stop after the first volume and not finish the trilogy. First, I realize I'm simply not sensitive to poetry. Then, there are too many references to public or mythical figures of the Antiquity and 13th-century Florence, and I'm not sufficiently educated in History and Biblical Lore to enjoy this book.

Still, Sisson's modern English translation is good and reads easily. The notes at the end of the book are well-done and help understand what Dante is referring to, but I was too lazy to constantly check back and forth. I'm wondering if it would have been a better choice if they'd been placed in the margin.

A lovely, readable, blank verse translation. The notes are helpful, but not so overwhelming as to detract from the poetry of the text. I'd highly recommend to any reader.

Choosing which translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to read is a very subjective and personal question. Any translation involves balancing the meaning, feel, and artistry of the work, normally at the expense of at least one of these qualities. A major consideration is the topic of rhyme. The Divine Comedy has a complex rhyme scheme that suits itself well to the rhyme-rich language of Italian (where, unlike English, many words end in vowels). Translations that attempt to maintain any type of rhyme scheme often sound forced and usually compromise the meaning of the text.

At the other end of the spectrum are straight prose (spoken word) translations. Prose translations are great for communicating the story and it's nuances, however any poetical structure is lost. A third choice is a translation written in blank verse (iambic pentameter). This format allows freedom to communicate the work without rhyme, yet maintains a metrical structure. In addition, it's well suited for English (Shakespeare wrote much of his work in blank verse).

So, which version should you read? I have no vested interested in selling a particular author's work, my recommendations are just my personal opinion. My favorite version is by Mark Musa (written in blank verse). I also enjoy Anthony Esolen's translation (blank verse with some rhyme). They also both have good notes (a necessity). Ultimately, it's great to read a few and decide which version you like best, each has strengths and weaknesses.

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) "Devine Comedy" weaved together aspects of biblical and classical Greek literary traditions to produce one of the most important works of not only medieval literature, but also one of the great literary works of Western civilization. The full impact of this 14,000-line poem divided into 100 cantos and three books is not just literary. Dante's autobiographical poem Commedia, as he titled it, was his look into the individual psyche and human soul. He explored and reflected on such fundamental questions as political institutions and their problems, the nature of humankind's moral actions, and the possibility of spiritual transformation; these were all fundamental social and cultural concerns for people during the fourteenth-century. Dante wrote the Commedia not in Latin but in the Tuscan dialect of Italian so that it would reach a broader readership. The Commedia was a three-part journey undertaken by the pilgrim Dante to the realms of the Christian afterlife: Hell, (Inferno), Purgatory, (Purgatorio), and Paradise, (Paradisio).

The poem narrated in first person, began with Dante lost midlife. He was 35 years old in the year 1300 and in a dark wood. Being lost in the dark wood was certainly an allegorical device that Dante used to express the condition of his own life at the time he started writing the poem. Dante had been active in Florentine politics and a member of the White Guelph party who opposed the secular rule of Pope Boniface VIII over Florence. In 1302, The Black Guelphs who were allied with the Pope, were militarily victorious in gaining control of the city and Dante found himself an exile from his beloved city for the rest of his life. Thus, Dante started writing the Commedia in 1308 and used it to comment on his own tribulations of life, and to state his views on politics and religion, and heap scorn on his political enemies.

Dante's first leg of his journey out of the dark wood was through the nine concentric circles of Hell (Inferno), escorted by his favorite classical Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid. Dante borrowed heavily from Virgil's Aeneid. Much of Dante's description of hell had similarities to Virgil's description in his sixth book of the Aeneid. Dante's three major divisions of sin in hell where unrepentant sinners dwelled, had their sources in Aristotle and Augustinian philosophy. They were self-indulgence, violence, and fraud. Fraud was considered the worst of moral failures because it undermined family, trust, and religion; in essence, it tore at the moral fabric of civilized society. These divisions were inversions of the classical virtues of moderation, courage, and wisdom. The fourth classical virtue, justice, is what Dante came to believe after his journey through hell that all its inhabitants received for their unrepentant sins. There were nine concentric circles of hell inside the earth; each smaller than the previous one. For Dante the geography of hell was a moral geography as well as a physical one, reflecting the nature of the sin. Canto IV describes the first circle of hell, Limbo, which is where Dante met the shades, as souls where called, of the virtuous un-baptized such as Homer, Ovid, Caesar, Aristotle, and Plato.

In the four circles for the sin of self-indulgence Dante met shades who where lustful, gluttons, hoarders and wrathful. In the second circle of Hell, lustful souls were blown around in a violent storm. In Canto V, one of the great dramatic moments of the poem, Dante had his first lengthy encounter with an unrepentant sinner Francesca da Rimini, who committed adultery with her brother-in-law. Like all the sinners in hell, Francesca laid the blame for her sin elsewhere. She claimed to be seduced into committing adultery after reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. At the end of the scene, Dante fainted out of pity for Francesca.

In Canto X, the sixth circle of hell reserved for heretics who are punished by being trapped in flaming tombs, Dante took the opportunity to use the circle to chastise political leaders for participating in political partisanship. A Florentine who was a leader in the rival Ghibbelline political party, Farinata degli Uberti, accosted Dante. Both men aggressively argued with each other, recreating in hell the bitterness of partisan politics in Florence. Farinata predicted Dante's exile. Dante used this Canto to show the dangerous tendencies of petty political partisanship that he harbored.

The seventh circle of hell was subdivided into three areas where sinners were punished for doing violence against themselves, their neighbors, or God. In Canto XIII Dante encountered Pier della Vigne in the wood of the suicides. The shades there were shrubs who had to speak through a broken branch. Pier spoke to Dante about how he had been an important advisor to Emperor Frederick II, and how he blamed his fall, and his suicide, on the envy of other court members. This Canto was especially important because Dante came to grips with his own "future" fall from political power and exile. Pier's behavior served as a strong example to Dante how not to act in exile. Whether he had been tempted to commit suicide is not clear; however, he certainly had been prone to the selfish and despairing attitude that Pier represented.

The last two circles of hell contained the sinners of fraud. In the eighth circle, there were ten ditches for the various types of fraud such as Simony, thievery, hypocrisy, etc. Canto XIX described the third ditch, which contained those guilty of Simony, the sin of church leaders perverting their spiritual office by buying and selling church offices. Simonists were buried upside down in a rock with their feet on fire. Pope Nicholas III mistakenly addressed Dante as Pope Boniface VIII who was the current Pope in 1300, and whose place in hell was thereby predicted. This is not surprising since Boniface was the person most responsible for Dante's exile. In an interesting literary twist, Nicholas "confessed" to Dante, as if he was a priest, his sin of greed and nepotism. He admitted that even after becoming Pope he cared more for his family's interests than the good of the whole Church. Dante responded to Nicholas' "confession" with a stinging condemnation of Simony drawn from the Book of Revelation. After this encounter, Dante came to understand that hell was a place of justice.

Canto XXXIV, the last one in the Inferno, depicted Satan with three heads. Each head was chewing the three worst sinners of humankind. The middle head was chewing on the head of Judas Iscariot, who was a disciple to Jesus and his betrayer. The other two heads were chewing Brutus and Cassius; the murderers of Julius Caesar, and the two men Dante faulted for the destruction of a unified Italy. Dante considered the two ultimate betrayals against God and against the empire as the worst betrayals perpetrated in the history of humankind.

Thus, Dante's intent in his Commedia was to teach fourteenth-century readers that if one wanted to ascend spiritually towards God then one needed to learn the nature of sin from the unrepentant. By doing this, one could learn to overcome the same tendencies found in themselves. He wanted people to realize what he had come to learn that political partisanship would only stand in the way of unifying Italy and keep it from regaining any of its former glory that it enjoyed during the time of the Roman Empire.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

"Midway life's journey I was made aware/that I had strayed into a dark forest..." Those eerie words open the first cantica of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," the most famous part of the legendary Divina Comedia. But the stuff going on here is anything but divine, as Dante explores the metaphorical and supernatural horrors of the inferno.

The date is Good Friday of the year 1300, and Dante is lost in a creepy dark forest, being assaulted by a trio of beasts who symbolize his own sins. But suddenly he is rescued ("Not man; man I once was") by the legendary poet Virgil, who takes the despondent Dante under his wing -- and down into Hell.

But this isn't a straightforward hell of flames and dancing devils. Instead, it's a multi-tiered carnival of horrors, where different sins are punished with different means. Opportunists are forever stung by insects, the lustful are trapped in a storm, the greedy are forced to battle against each other, and the violent lie in a river of boiling blood, are transformed into thorn bushes, and are trapped on a volcanic desert.

If nothing else makes you feel like being good, then "The Inferno" might change your mind. The author loads up his "Inferno" with every kind of disgusting, grotesque punishment that you can imagine -- and it's all wrapped up in an allegorical journey of humankind's redemption, not to mention dissing the politics of Italy and Florence.

Along with Virgil -- author of the "Aeneid" -- Dante peppered his Inferno with Greek myth and symbolism. Like the Greek underworld, different punishments await different sins; what's more, there are also appearances by harpies, centaurs, Cerberus and the god Pluto. But the sinners are mostly Dante's contemporaries, from corrupt popes to soldiers.

And Dante's skill as a writer can't be denied -- the grotesque punishments are enough to make your skin crawl ("Fixed in the slime, groan they, 'We were sullen and wroth...'"), and the grand finale is Satan himself, with legendary traitors Brutus, Cassius and Judas sitting in his mouths. (Yes, I said MOUTHS, not "mouth")

More impressive still is his ability to weave the poetry out of symbolism and allegory, without it ever seeming preachy or annoying. Even pre-hell, we have a lion, a leopard and a wolf, which symbolize different sins, and a dark forest that indicates suicidal thoughts. And the punishments themselves usually reflect the person's flaws, such as false prophets having their heads twisted around so they can only see what's behind them. Wicked sense of humor.

Dante's vivid writing and wildly imaginative "inferno" makes this the most fascinating, compelling volume of the Divine Comedy. Never fun, but always spellbinding and complicated.

Some would say it makes sense, others hmmm! Trouble is not one swing fits all!

If you follow this you will get back pain and risk ending up like Fred Couples.

This book is all you need. Don't believe the other reviews that talk about this swing needing timing, or hurting your back. It requires less timing than the traditional swing and, because the clubface is square throughout the swing, even mis-hits go straight. The biggest difference is the early wrist break under, not around, which feels weird at first. It does get you to the top nice and square, and with the neutral grip you return square as well. If you get a sore back you are doing something you're not supposed to.

If you've been a traditional golfer for a while it may take some time to learn this swing, but it's worth it.

There is a lot of rehashed material in this book and frankly its a little hard to read and not terribly insightful. I've read many many many golf books over the years and this one has some good information in it but it takes way too long to get to the point sometimes. Also, I think some of the wrist techniques are outdated and really have to be developed with perfect timing. A decent book for Novice and better golfers but NOT recommended for beginners. Their is no "magic" here folks.

Approaching sixty, for some godforsaken reason I have determined to construct a serviceable golf swing. It appears that no one book will satisfy that intention, rather one must sort through and experiment with what the literature provides. That said, the one constant during my erratic golf career, other than high scores, has been a wicked, wicked slice. It is a big reason I have only played the game some ten times in the past twenty five years, the greens fees here in Japan being another. Joe Dante's Magic Move #1 has cured me of it. Whether the 'backward wrist break' has driven a stake through Banana's evil heart remains to be seen, but each trip down to Hanazato Golf confirms that MY SLICE IS DEAD. Anyway, I think so. Joe seems to revel in the pain inducing awkwardness of the Magic Moves and the 'wrist break' has indeed caused a dull ache in my hands and forearms. One hopes it will go away. In the meantime I'm enjoying sliceless golf shots and even the occasional draw. The rest of the 'magic moves' are yours for the taking; I'm not so sure about them. I suppose any book which cures someone of a slice should get five stars but it's all so relative. What worked for me may not for you. But don't forget Fred Shoemaker's book. Or Jim McLellan's video! And good luck!

Brilliant literature!
I recommend all books by this author.
I also love the fact that the publisher, 1stWorld Library has made the text slightly larger which is a blessing for my thirty-something eyes. Great job. I have dozens of books by this publisher.

I also recommend EVERY DAY A MIRACLE HAPPENS or MIRACLES OF THE SAINTS by Rodney Charles or Rodney N Charles. Both Published by 1stWorld Library or 1stWorld Publishing.
The Second Declaration
Every Day A Miracle Happens
The Secret Meaning of Names
Lighter Than Air
The Devil's Disciple
Les Miserables, Volume I & II
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO Vol II
PUBLISH IT NOW
Book Marketing Basics - The New Model For Promoting Your Book
Illumination: A Gnostic Handbook for the Post Modern World

How hard would it be to include the poem's lines? Without lines it's impossible to cite. They should know better than to omit the numbers. They also seem to write in huge print and are incapable of fitting an original line as one line. Terrible quality.

This is a sequel to Paradise Lost. It also is written as classic literature.

This book is about when Jesus was baptized and the temptation in the wilderness.

Recommend reading at several sittings.

This is what illegal drugs will get you "Paradise Lost," even if it is regained!

The star rating is given purely for the edition of Paradise Regained published by First World Library. This book is every bit as fascinating as its predecesor Paradise Lost, however I highy dissuade you from buying this particular edition because the words are in size 14 Times New Roman, thus extremely difficult to read, and it is much too expensive for an edition of its quality.

I really recommend this particular translation of the Inferno by the Hollanders. I looked for a long time for one that I could not only understand but was as close to Dante's original text as possible. If I ever learn Italian, I will have the original in this same book! I have just ordered the Hollander's translation of Purgatory and Paradise because I liked their translation so well. Also, their notes are very helpful.

This is a very satisfying translation. It does not attempt rhyme so it can reproduce the rhythms of the original without distorting the meaning for the sake of English rhymes. The notes are breathtaking in their scope and thoroughness. It would probably be a good idea for readers new to Inferno to go through it once without the notes soas to be carried along by the poem, and then a second time reading the notes to examine closely the building blocks of Dante's genius.

For all its scholarship, this book is pleasant to deal with physically -- nice typeface, well laid-out pages, not too heavy in the hand. You can actually read it in bed without crushing your abdomen.

I'm pretty sure this is what anyone that doesn't speak Italian wants out of an Inferno translation.

1. There's facing page Italian so you can do the Milton thing. You really can understand what the Italian is saying, and when you read it, you can get some idea of what an incredible achievement the Comedy really was. The poetry itself is astounding, but you have to read the Italian to get it - and to understand why it's untranslatable.

2. The translation is fairly literal. This time, the translation is there to tell you what the Italian actually says instead of serving as a clever solution to the poetic problems posed by translation. Nobody is going to pull off a translation into a Germanic language that conveys Dante's vowel heavy Italian rhyming. We would not translate Palestrina into Bach, please give up on this.

3. The notes are written to interpret the poem. Instead of merely providing historical background to the obscure personages, the notes provide readings across the past 700 years on difficult lines. That's one heck of a resource. I wish I had that for poets in English; I might actually read the stuff.

4. There's actually literary criticism. One of the revelations from the critical work here is how much Dante is making fun of the Virgil character. You see him get mad, plot and scheme, become boastful. It's really pretty hilarious. I never got a sense of that before, but it's pretty obvious once you start looking for it. That adds a completely different flavor to the poem. Like most great works, part of the reason it's great is because it's funny. Maybe not Milton. Screw Milton.

I've always liked the Inferno, but I feel like I must have been missing huge themes. Not even really sure why I liked it. Read this, you'll have a whole new take on the poem. I'm waiting on the next two volumes.

Hollander's translations is one of my top 3 favorites. It's a nice blend of structure, meaning, and clarity. This edition also has the Italian on the facing page, a very nice addition. What really sets this version apart for me is the commentary. The notes are very comprehensive (for a smaller volume), well written, and just really interesting. After Singleton, this version has my favorite commentary. All in all, the translation, notes, and Italian make this a very strong edition.The Inferno

This version was my first encounter with Dante. I read the book as required reading for my Senior English class and was highly impressed at how the Hollanders made a readable translation while maintaining detail and accuracy.

I compared my version to several of my friend's versions and found that the notes in this version were beyond sufficient. The chapter summaries preceding each canto were gratefully welcomed and the notes after each canto were detailed and informative. Essentially, the book was 'self-contained' meaning that no external sources (i.e. sparknotes, cliffnotes, etc) were needed to fully appreciate the book.

Book arrived in promised condition, and in a timely fashion. I would buy from this seller again.

This guy is pretty much in the same league as Jack Kirby. Whereas Kirby's all soft lines and images pancaked on the page, Dore looks like he's carving his cartoons into a tree. And all these scary demons and things look tired, like they've been running marathons all day. The victims kind of look like they're enjoying it, so I guess if you're into S&M, I could recommend it. Me, I prefer "Spawn" by Todd McFarlane. The Violator? Now that's a monster you can sink your eyeballs into. And I know it's like super-uber hip, but I don't know why these illustrators feel they are so special when they work exclusively in shades of black. Like my momma used to say, "A little rouge really accents the cheekbones."

The quality of this book - along with an amazingly affordable price tag - quickly persuaded me to pick up a copy. Its really everything you could ask for in an art book;

The pictures are all very big, but not overwhelming; Its easy to see minute detail, and the overall scope of the image. I actually blew up some of the prints in photoshop and printed them on huge poster paper for my room, while not sacrificing a drop of detail.

Also, I had to put quite a good deal of pressure onto the spine of the book in order to get a good scan from them, and im happy to say that doing so didn't even leave an annoying "bookmark" crease in the book, and the spine didn't even crease. Dover books really did produce a fine quality book, and the note on the back really is true: This book IS permanent.

If you have read or are reading the divine comedy this book is a great reference to glance at every now and again to truly suck you into Dante's epic poem, and bring you to the Heights of Heaven, The Depths of Hell, or the pain of purgatory in a way you could never have imagened.

The woodcuts done here by dore are so elaborate and vivid you could spend a good portion of a day just gazing into the faces of cursed souls writhing in hell, or the beauty of millions of angels soaring in the highest heaven. Dore illustrates every picture so full of movement and depth its the next best thing to a movie.

I have looked at a variety of Dante artists. Some well known and some are not. Suloni Robertson, John Flaxman, Willam Blake, Sandro Botticelli, Sandow Birk, Herb Roe. Do a google search to look at the works of some of these like Sandow Birk. There are some that are more obscure which in a way documents the Comedy, more specifically the Inferno. I'm not going to say who I don't like but Dore is the best. I am rather specific about artists. Dore makes the grade. He is good, really good and when you look at this book, you feel like you are in the terrible depths of hell. I like purgatorio too. I feel the religious prayer songs in my head as I see Beatrice's entrance. There is so much symbolism in these pictures, especially in Paradiso. Though I do disagree with the depiction of Muhammad in hell, the rest is fantastic. I mean that he looks more like he's British then Middle Eastern. I imagine him with blonde hair in the plate. The tortured look on Dante's face in the plate with Betrand de Born, (The cover pic) is extraordinary. I felt how he felt. That is why Dore is so good. I had also hoped for more detail with Ugolino because his story is fantastically horrifying.

The book is a must for any Dante fan. I look at it a lot, even if I have seen the pictures hundreds of times. I really don't think that you can get bored with this. There is always something new to look at. Some detail you looked over. Buy this book because the scans online don't give the justice that this book has. Buy it, look it over, get inspired by it. Maybe we will see your work on Amazon in the near future.

The Illustrations from the 1st canto in the Inferno to the last of Paradiso are great because they help as a visual aid when reading the Divina Commedia. One can really see how and in which ways Dore, when he design the illustrations, followed the text very closely.

good translation - not excellent, but good, and the footnotes are helpful. The translator also makes an attempt at explaining the contrapasso for each Canto of Inferno, which can be helpful to the independant reader.

Okay, everyone has heard of the "Divine Comedy," the medieval masterwork of legendary poet Dante Alighieri. Heaven, hell, purgatory and so on. In "The Portable Dante," that sprawling supernatural epic is paired with his exquisite love ode, "La Vita Nuova."

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of Dante's guided tour through the three parts of the afterlife: Hell, where he is shown (by the poet Virgil) how the sinners are tormented in all sorts of inventive ways, depending on their sins. Purgatory, "the second kingdom," where Dante sees the suffering that people undergo to be purified of their wrongs. And finally paradise, where his beloved muse Beatrice shows him heaven, encountering his ancestors, angels, saints, and finally God himself.

"La Vita Nuova" (The New Life) is only loosely connected with the "Comedy." It tells of how Dante met Beatrice when they were both children, and he fell in love with her. Many years passed, and Dante's quiet adoration of Beatrice grew stronger, even though they married other people. The story follows his emotional ups and downs, and the writings that resulted... even when Beatrice died.

The main similarity between these two books is that they both feature (and adore) Beatrice. "La Vita Nuova" is an intimate little book, but the "Divine Comedy" sprawls all over Earth, the solar system (within the bounds of "paradiso"), and the three parts of the supernatural realm. You can't get much more epic than that.

Dante's writing remains rich and detailed, even translated into English. The descriptions of heaven and hell are mind-blowing, and sometimes the "Inferno" sections are even funny. Yes, hell is funny. But he also excels in describing his inner highs and lows in "La Vita Nuova," as he struggles with doubts, sorrow, anguish and joy.

But don't think that Dante's journeys are merely supernatural. While "La Vita Nuova" doesn't describe much beyond art and love, "Divine Comedy" also tackles religion and politics. It's a bit uncomfortable when Dante describes various people he disliked in hell. And he also takes the opportunity to criticize the Catholic chuch of his time, which had quite a few problems. However, his fervour for his religion, Beatrice and his art shine through.

"The Portable Dante" is an excellent way to check out Dante's most prominent works. Whether checking out an unrequited love, or journeying through the circles of hell, this is a spellbinding collection.

First, a word about Mark Musa's translation of Dante's works. His interpretations of the Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova are very beautiful, extremely readable, and as true to Dante as you can be in English. Musa's scholarship is excellent, and his introductory essays on Dante and his works are a pleasure to read, offering a broad understanding of what Dante is all about.

However, it is important that you keep in mind that a number of concessions had to be made for this book. Collecting the massive poems of the Divine Comedy, along with La Vita Nuova, is no mean task - I'm astounded Penguin Classics pulled it off in such a compact and readable volume. But this collection comes at the expense of some features that range from minor to outright baffling.

First, the minor stuff. This edition lacks the informative diagrams and illustrations of the standalone Divine Comedy volumes from Penguin Classics (Inferno, et al). Given the complexity of Dante's creation, it is very helpful to have maps to show you where the various parts of the afterlife are, and who inhabits them. Puzzlingly, /The Portable Dante/ includes a detailed map of Purgatory, but only a very vague and un-labeled map of Inferno, and NO map of Paradiso and the celestial spheres. Very strange and disappointing.

More unfortunate is the lack of a glossary. The Penguin Classics /Inferno/ has an excellent glossary of people and places that appear in the poem. This is a phenomenal resource for figuring out who is where in Hell, what they represent, and what Dante is doing with them.

However, the most (potentially) major issue with this volume is the sparse commentary. The individual books of The Divine Comedy have extensive endnotes, detailing broad sections and individual passages in great detail. The notes offer a better understanding of what Dante is doing, because virtually every line of poetry includes multi-faceted references to classical mythology, Christian scripture, and contemporary or historical Italian culture. For the majority of the Divine Comedy, well over 50% of the notes (as compared with the individual Penguin Classics books) have been removed.

The endnotes have been converted to non-intrusive footnotes, which is a welcome shift. But I can't help but feel that also including a detailed endnotes section would have added much, so that at the very least the reader could explore the more obscure references (passages from the Aeneid, the Bible, and so on) if they so desire. I also noticed some notes rather crucial to understanding have been removed completely, which is very unfortunate.

So how come, after all this whining and moaning, I still give /The Portable Dante/ a full five stars? Because Mark Musa's translation is so fluid and vital, and having such a beautiful collection in a compact volume is extremely valuable. There is enough supplementary material that casual readers can enjoy Dante's mastery and creativity, and they will perhaps be tantalized to explore the deeper meanings he plants throughout.

Here's the bottom line: /The Portable Dante/ is what I use when I wish to read Dante to others, or to simply read through for my own enjoyment. If you need extensive scholarly information, I recommend also buying the Penguin Classics editions of the individual parts of The Divine Comedy. But as a smooth and very readable base camp for your exploration of Dante, I can think of no better book than this.

Highly recommended, whatever your level of interest in this fascinating poet and his works.

"The Portable Dante" provides readers with the complete "Divine Comedy" (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), an excellent biography on the author, historical background, a great translation by one of the the best translators of the genre, and Dante's often forgotten work "La Vita Nuova". What more could you ask for? Essentially, this volume has it all. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to read the entire "Divine Comedy" from Hell to Heaven. It's better than having to buy each book separately. And nothing is lost from putting it all into one place. Each Canto is complete and excellently translated into verse form (as it should be). This edition makes the often difficult work easier to read by providing a summary at the beginning of each Canto (though I often skip over these because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but they're there if you need them) and notes at the bottom of each page (instead of in the back of the book like another edition I read), making them easy to refer to while reading.

There are a lot of editions of this timeless work out there, but this is the one to get. Great translation and excellent organization.

Dante has always been a difficult writer for me. His long established greatness and unquestioned place in the pantheon of man's great literary creators is not something I question or doubt. I understand that he is the major writer of the Christian Middle Ages, and for many along with Shakespeare at the very pinnacle of the world's literary creators. My own difficulty with Dante may in part relate to the fact that he is presenting a Christian vision of life on earth, hell, purgatory and heaven. And that this vision is something I as a Jew have difficulty giving full emotional sympathy to. But there is another difficulty which I found in reading even the most colorful portrayals of those suffering in the Inferno. I found it all to be cruel. And I was repelled by the idea that God would so delight in the tremendous sufferings inflicted on sinners, who are after all too God's creatures. In other words the whole emotional landscape of Dante's lower world, and the great imaginative effort made to portray various strange and unusual sufferings repelled me. I found it in so many way petty and wrong and outside my sense of what God who made all creatures great and small , would condone. Could God who is Good really take delight in all these unending torments? I prefer to think of God as One who rather would seek a way to help save others even those who have sinned, rather than condemn them.
Thus the very premise of this great work seems to put it outside my own particular grasp or emotional comprehension.
Moreover as Dante moved to Purgatory and then later to Paradise I found myself somehow sleeping and not interested. These ' spiritual landscapes ' were too outside my own sense as a Jew of what the world is truly about . Of course God wants our penitence but there does not have to be some special realm in order for God to get it.We can repent and change everyday where we are in our own life.
I realize that what I am providing the review reader here is a very poor review indeed. It shows no knowledge or appreciation of the beauties of the language and other strengths of Dante's writing.
It is however one poor reader's honest impression however little it be worth.

In depth about his life, but fortunately was only about 200 pages.

Dante was the poet-historian of Florence. He associated himself with his native city. He was an ardent personality. In Florence there was a surging economy and seven guilds. City walls were extended to form a new circuit completed in 1333.

Virgil's AENEID was the poem Dante admired most. Dante died in 1321 in Ravenna and is buried there. In 1373 Boccaccio offered a series of lectures on Dante's life and work. Dante's father died in the early 1280's. Brunetto Latini became a role model. Dante provides a portrait of the old master in his COMEDY.

Dante had divergent impulses. Love and death are counter themes in VITA NUOVA. Following Beatrice's death, Dante became immersed in THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY by Boethius describing a soul finding comfort in the vision of God. Dante was gifted in discourse. He led a private and family life during the years he held public office.

Florentine discord began in family feuding between the Donatis and the Cerchis. Dante became a literary man, exalting the welfare of the commune over the warfare of the two sides. Around 1301 Dante incurred the Pope's displeasure. Subsequently the poet suffered banishment and the threat of the imposition of the death sentence. First he lived in Verona, like Florence a daughter of Rome.

Next Dante went to Padua, briefly, and then to Bologna. He was on his own. He identified fourteen separate Italian dialects in one of his books. He wrote much of the INFERNO on the run. He settled in Verona from 1312 to 1318. The PURGATORIO was written there and the PARADISIO begun. There is a tone in the former work of hope refreshed.

In 1318 Dante moved to Ravenna. The Christian humanism of Thomas Aquinas appealed to him. Both men hold the idea that grace perfects nature. Examination of what he truly believed found Dante a changed man. Peter, James, and John represent faith, hope, and love. The PARADISIO was completed in 1320.

T.S. Eliot's mind was infested with Dante.

The Peguin Lives series thrives on its clever and sometimes surprising pairings of subjects and writers, often non-specialists with a more personal take on the life. Giving Dante to a Yale English professor isn't the most inspired choice, though Lewis's expertise is mainly American lit. The book shows the marks of several pleasant vacations in Tuscany, with brief pen portraits of the various sites and geographical features that shaped Dante's world providing most of the color in an otherwise dry march through the facts of his life. Lewis often circles back to people or scenes described earlier in the work, which is either a tribute to Dante's own narrative style or a sign of slack editing. If you don't know something about Dante already, this isn't the book to convince you he's one of the world's great writers, or to help explain why. But for a quick tourist map of a complex place and time, it's a short, effective read.

Prior to this biography on Dante, R. W. B. Lewis had established himself as one of the leading authorities on Edith Wharton and had also written a book about Florence. Although he is not widely acknowledged as a Dante scholar, this brief volume is testimony to his obvious love for Florence's greatest poet. Unlike many brief biographies of great literary figures, this is a remarkably balanced account of Dante's life and career. Given the strictures on what can be covered in a small number of pages, other biographers of other writers often focus on an individual's life to the near exclusion of all else, or on the greater cultural context of their work, or on a discussion of the writings, ignoring the writer's world and life. Lewis strikes a marvelous balance between explaining the historical-especially the political-context for Dante's life, in detailing the significant biographical moments that informed his career (including most of what we know about his limited encounters with Beatrice), and the development of his art. Lewis's skill in refusing to neglect any significant aspect of Dante's life and work is laudable.

Lewis's narrative progresses chronologically on a number of parallel levels. He reverts on several occasions to Dante's genealogy, on the political situation in Florence in the conflict between the Ghibellines (who favored the claims of the Holy Roman Emperor in Europe) and the Guelphs (who favored the Pope and later split into the Black and White Guelphs, Dante being associated with the latter), Dante's platonic adoration of Beatrice, the development of Dante's poetry, Dante's role in the government of Florence, his eventual banishment from Florence, and the composition and content of his COMEDY. I was especially encouraged by the number of theological figures who were crucial to Dante and essential for understanding the theological structure of the COMEDY.

I do have a couple of minor criticisms. One is that Lewis isn't always as sharp in his exposition as he clearly is capable of being. There are also some curiosities, such as his comments near the end identifying Robert Penn Warren as "the most complete man of letters of our time," a good if not great writer whom I believe will be largely forgotten in as little as twenty-five years (one wonders if Warren and Lewis were close friends). There is an annotated biography, but most of the secondary works Lewis discusses are either out of print or not readily available, while many key contemporary texts dealing with Dante are omitted, such as Freccero's THE POETICS OF CONVERSION. And how could any discussion of translations omit Singleton's, which is easily one of the highpoints of Dante scholarship in the past half century? Two other small complaints: no index and no chronology of Dante's life. My own feeling is that there is never justification for not including an index in an academic book; the omission sharply reduces the book's usability. Even in a short biography a chronology is useful, allowing one to make rapid comparisons between the various events in a writer's life and their work.

Nonetheless, for most readers of Dante in English, this brief biography will serve as a superb introduction to both Dante's life and his work.

This is one of several volumes in the Penguin Lives Series, each of which written by a distinguished author in her or his own right. Each provides a concise but remarkably comprehensive biography of its subject in combination with a penetrating analysis of the significance of that subject's life and career. I think this is a brilliant concept. My only regret is that even an abbreviated index is not provided. Those who wish to learn more about the given subject are directed to other sources.

When preparing to review various volumes in this series, I have struggled with determining what would be of greatest interest and assistance to those who read my reviews. Finally I decided that a few brief excerpts and then some concluding comments of my own would be appropriate.

On Dante's masterpiece: "The Commedia, to which the adjective Divina was affixed two centuries afterward, is, all things considered, the greatest single poem ever written; and in one perspective, as has been said, it is autobiographical: the journey of a man to find himself and make himself after having been cruelly mistreated in his homeland. It is also a rhythmic exploration of the entire cultural world Dante had inherited: classical, pre-Christian, Christian, medieval, Tuscan, and emphatically Florentine. And it is the long poetic tribute to Beatrice Portinari which Dante promised, at the end of the Vita Nuova." (pages 12 and 13)

On Dante's response to Beatrice's death: He "did more than write an occasional poem of memorial grief; he put together the work to which he gave the title La Vita Nuova di Dante Alighieri. It was essentially an act of compilation, probably begun in 1293 and finished two years later. Dante drew up[ a narrative account of his relationship with Beatrice Portinari, from his first sight of her at the May Day party in 1274 to her death sixteen years later, sprinkling through it the poems -- canzones, sonnets, a ballad -- written to enshrine each successive moment." (page 59)

On progression in the Paradiso: In it, "Dante ascends; he does not climb, as in the Purgatorio, but, as he is constantly remarking, is propelled upward with the speed of an arrow. He is swept up through the lower planets -- the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn; into the Fixed Stars; then upwards to the Primum Mobile, when come all distinctions of space and time, of 'where' and 'when,' through itself beyond space and time; to the Empyrean, the actual and eternal dwelling-place of the Three-in-One God, of the angels and the saints, of the community of the blessed." (page 170)

In the concluding portion of his biography, Lewis briefly but eloquently suggests the ubiquitous and energizing presence of Dante in English and American literature, notably in the works of Shelley, Byron, Robert Browning, Rossetti, Emerson, Pound, Eliot, and Warren. According to Lewis, that presence "sparkles and sings and smiles like one of the spirits in Paradise." The same can be said of Lewis' writing style which, in combination with his erudition, enables the modern reader to gain a greater appreciation of someone who lived more than 600 years ago but whose Comedy is as contemporary as tomorrow's sunrise.

As is also true of the other volumes in the "Penguin Lives" series, this one provides all of the essential historical and biographical information but its greatest strength lies in the extended commentary, in this instance by R.W.B. Lewis. He also includes a brief but sufficient "Bibliographical Notes" section for those who wish to learn more about Dante. I hope these brief excerpts encourage those who read this review to read Lewis' biography. It is indeed a brilliant achievement.

This book is just images from the show, written up as basically a comic book just like you would expect. That being said, the books are good quality, sturdy paper, and nicely colored ink. The text is a little hard to read but cool. My 6 year old is able to read them with minimal help. All in all, if you are a fan of the show, you will probably enjoy the graphic novels.

My 8 year old son read these graphic novels before he saw an episode of the show.
He simply loves them and now I get them as soon as they are released. Anything that can keep my son reading is a plus for me. I've read them as well and the stories are good and present challenging themes.

My son loves Avatar. He finished off this book in one sitting.

Its the whole first episode "The Boy In The IceBerg" Its all the action but in a book! Its a must buy and thats why I Bought it!

If you are not familiar with the world of the Avatar there are four different realms of 'bending' or mastery of the elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Aang, the principle character, is the last Airbender and the one who is destined to be the Avatar, or person who is to master all four bending traditions in order to save the world from the dominance plans of the Fire Nation.

As for the book itself, you should know that it is a graphic novel. If you are not familiar with what a graphic novel is, think of it as an upgraded comic book. The paper used in this series, for example, is glossy and sturdy and the color runs from edge to edge. And in this particular volume the adventure begins with two siblings, Katara and Soko, who rediscover the frozen Aang in the far north. It then follows the three young people and their animal friends to the point where they find the northern water bending tribe as well as an abandoned Fire Nation ship where two of them get trapped.

Now we purchased this book as part of our never ending search to find material that will be both interesting and challenging for our soon to be 7 y.o. daughter. If you are in the same boat you know there are a great many 'readers' that are not suited to children who read at, or above, age level. Either the word level is right but the plot is too babyish (even for a first grader), or else, the plot is interesting but you'd have to have a fifth grade vocabulary to deal with the text.

Well, this book almost fixes those problems. The Avatar story is extremely good. However it turns out, in our case, to be a little bit too challenging. [Note: that might not be the case for your child. But read on.]

The problem we faced was not the vocabulary per se -though it was challenging -- but rather the font. The one the publisher/artist/someone chose is small, slants and places the words close together - at least for a first grader. A more advanced reader probably wouldn't have these problems.

Five Stars. Outstanding storyline. Good Read-aloud: both my 5 and 7 y.o.'s enjoyed it. (Okay my husband and I did too.) The artwork is fun and expressive and humorous. I would say the reading level is fairly advanced with words such as: paranoid, penguin, sequence, ruptured, and revealing. In addition, for younger readers, there could be a problem with the font and word spacing.

My advice would be to buy it, try it as a reader, and if it's too much for your youngster(s) read it to them.