Today we have reached the final chapter of The Divine Comedy, the first book of the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along. For the past 100 days we have accompanied Dante through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and it has been quite the journey. I have to admit that this was one of the most challenging chapter-a-day read-alongs for me. There is so much depth to Dante’s poetry and there were so many footnotes that I feel I just scratched the surface of the poem. A daily read-along is probably not the best way to read the poem in the way it deserves to be read, but still I feel like this read-along has given me a good sense of the poem’s overall organization and layout. I believe that a deep reading of a work of literature should always begin with an initial reading of the book all the way through, and I think I now have enough of an understanding of The Divine Comedy that I would be in good shape to study it more thoroughly. And even without understanding every single reference, it was still a wonderful read. I definitely liked the Ciardi translation, especially the quality of the notes, but if I read Dante again I think I will go back to the translation by Mark Musa.
What about you? This post is for you to leave your thoughts about your experience in reading this landmark of world literature. What did you gain from reading it? What challenged you? What uplifted you? What surprised you?
Leave your comments below and feel free to engage with others who leave their comments. Let me know if you post your reflections on your own blog and I will link to it here:
- 14 Weeks with Dante: Reflections on Reading the Divine Comedy – Liz at LeapingLife.com
Tomorrow, it’s on to Quo Vadis!
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I still have to finish my readings in Paradiso, since I got totally lost with all the symbolism and lack of plot. It’s a little frustrating that Hell is the most interesting (and easily understood) part of this three-volume series, when you’d think Heaven should be the most interesting thing by default. Instead, it feels like Dante made it into this difficult puzzle, which seems to suggest most of us will never be able to crack it and shouldn’t bother. That seems completely backwards, since I’d think a writer would want to nudge readers to do better and aim higher, so now I’m wondering what exactly his motive was – aside from naming the names of all the people who did him wrong in life!
As I wrote on my blog today, I will be finished with The Divine Comedy in just days, after reading on it every day for three and a half months. I will be glad to be done with it. All the levels of punishment for sinners and all the theology and all the names of various good guys and bad guys known to Dante…whew! Reading it was exhausting, honestly. Still, I’m glad to have read it. Just don’t ask me to read it again, and I’m not sure I really even remember enough to talk about it with you.
I enjoyed Purgatorio over the other 3 books. Paradiso was the most difficult. I really appreciate Dante’s voluminous references to so many things. I caught so many, but there were so many that I’ll never know. It really does feel like part of the Great Conversation. I also see how many things that came after him reference or draw inspiration from this work.