The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Volume 1: Inferno

by Durling, Robert M.; Durling, Robert M.; Martinez, Ronald L.

• ISBN13: 9780195087444
• ISBN10: 0195087445
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This new translation presents the Italian text of the Inferno, and, on facing pages, Robert Durling's new prose translation, which brings a new power and accuracy to the rendering of Dantes extraordinary vision of Hell, with all its terror, pathos, and sardonic humor, and its penetratinganalyses of the psychology of sin and the ills that plague society. Readers will prize the directness and clarity, the rich expressiveness, and the rigorous accuracy of this contemporary prose translation, which preserves to an unparalleled degree the order and emphases of Dante's syntax, unhamperedby any constraints of meter or rhyme. The Italian text has been newly edited with a view to the needs of American and English readers. Martinez' and Durling's Introduction and Notes are designed with the first-time reader of the poem in mind, but will be useful to others as well. The concise Introduction presents essential biographical and historical background and a discussion of the form of the poem. The Notes are moreextensive than those in most translations currently available, and they contain much new material. In addition, sixteen short essays explore the autobiographical dimension of the poem, the problematic body analogy, the question of Christ's presence in Hell, and individual cantos that have been thesubject of controversy, including those on homosexuality. There is an extensive bibliography, and the indexes (to foreign words, passages cited, proper names in the Notes, and proper names in the text) will make the volume particularly useful. Robert Turner's illustrations include detailed maps of Italy, clearly labeled diagrams of the cosmos and of the structure of Hell, and line drawings of objects and places mentioned in the poem.

Author Biography

Robert M. Durling is Professor Emeritus of Italian and English Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His translation of Petrarch's Lyric Poetry (1976) has been widely acclaimed.
Ronald L. Martinez is co-author, with Durling, of Time and the Crystal: Studies in Dante's 'Rime petrose' (1990) and has published articles on Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Ariosto.
Robert Turner has been a professional illustrator since 1979; he is employed as a graphic artist in archaeology at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Acknowledgments	p. vi
Introduction	p. 3
Suggested Readings	p. 23
	p. 26
	p. 40
	p. 54
	p. 70
	p. 86
	p. 100
	p. 112
	p. 126
	p. 140
	p. 154
	p. 170
	p. 184
	p. 198
	p. 218
	p. 230
	p. 246
	p. 260
	p. 274
	p. 288
	p. 304
	p. 318
	p. 332
	p. 346
	p. 362
	p. 380
	p. 398
	p. 416
	p. 432
	p. 450
	p. 464
	p. 482
	p. 498
	p. 514
	p. 534
Additional Notes	p. 551
Textual Variants	p. 585
Bibliogpaphy	p. 587
Index of Italian, Latin, and Other Words Discussed in the Notes	p. 611
Index of Passages Cited in the Notes	p. 614
Index of Proper Names in the Notes	p. 625
Index of Proper Names in the Text and Translation	p. 647
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