The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 3: Paradiso - Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 3: Paradiso - Dante Alighieri (Author), Ronald L. Martinez (Contributor), Robert M. Durling (Contributor, Editor), Robert Turner (Illustrator)

Robert Durling's much-anticipated translation of the Paradiso, the third and final volume of Dante's Divine Comedy, is available at last. Durling's prose translations of the Inferno and the Purgatorio garnered high praise, and with this superb version of the Paradiso readers can now traverse the entirety of Dante's epic poem of spiritual ascent with the guidance of one of the greatest living Italian-to-English translators.

Reunited with his beloved Beatrice in the Paradiso, the poet-narrator journeys through the heavenly spheres and comes to know "the state of blessed souls after death," the joy that every man can attain with God's grace. As with the previous volumes, the original Italian and its English translation appear on facing pages for language mavens. But every reader will be drawn to Durling's precise and vivid prose, which is perfectly suited to capture Dante's extraordinary range of expression—from the high style of divine revelation to colloquial speech, lyrical interludes, and scornful diatribes against corrupt monks.

This edition boasts several unique features to aid readers. The notes by Durling and Ronald Martinez at the end of each canto not only illuminate the Paradiso, but stress the links among all three volumes of the Commedia, something seldom done in other editions. It also includes several drawings that illustrate Dante's medieval cosmology and a map of the poet's journey through Paradise. Durling's lucid, stage-setting introduction explores the Paradiso's unsurpassed imaginative richness and provides historical, political, biblical, and theological contexts that further enhance the reader's comprehension of the poem's major themes. Finally, the volume includes a unique set of indexes, including Proper Names in the Notes (with rich subheadings concerning themes and rhetorical devices), Passages Cited in the Notes, Words Discussed in the Notes, as well as the customary Index of Proper Names in the Text and Translation.

No reader will be disappointed by this reader-friendly, lovingly rendered new edition, a fitting capstone to Durling's remarkable achievement.

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 3: Paradiso - About the Author(s)

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.

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 3: Paradiso - Reviews

'This new edition of Inferno is distinctly user-friendly....Serious students--in or out of the classroom--who...examine the original poem alongside a readable and reliable prose translation will find this edition excellently suited to their needs.' -The Christian Science Monitor

'A useful volume for students and first-time visitors to Dante's cosmos.'- Publishers Weekly

'In this new translation, Durling tries to be as concrete as possible, producing a version that is more fluent and accurate than the versions of Mandelbaum and Musa.... Highly recommended.' -Library Journal

'Like the Inferno edition that preceded it, the Durling-Martinez Purgatorio, with its beautiful translation and superb apparatus of notes, is simply the best edition of Dante's second canticle in English. No other version offers anything close to what we find gathered here in one volume.' -Robert Harrison, Professor of Italian, Stanford University

"As Durling and Martinez complete their monumental three-volume presentation of Dante's masterpiece, we can sense their triumph and elation, despite their characteristic modesty. This, after all, is the volume with which they can demonstrate the fullness and consistency of Dante's great project, its final approach to what they describe in one footnote as 'a pitch of intensity unique in all literature.' The scholarship, as always, is graceful, comprehensive, and acute, and it surrounds a translation that is so carefully considered and fully realized as to be, at times, quite breathtaking." --David Young, translator of The Poetry of Petrarch