The Portable Dante (Penguin Classics)

I'm not really a poetry person, but took a class that studies this book and was shocked at the amazing writing. I was concerned that it might be hard to comprehend, however, the footnotes explain everything I could need to know about the history. Not only could I follow along well, I thoroughly enjoyed Dante's depiction of hell, purgatory, and heaven. It inspired much deep thinking and analysis, not only in class, but in my personal life. This will forever be one of my favorites on my bookshelf.

I'm reading this version for the third time. It is my first choice with the translation by Dr. Anthony Esolen a close second. Truly, any version of Dante is a great read!

Good translation with notes

The best feature about this translation is the meaty summary at the beginning of each canto. After I read that, I pretty much know what to look for in the dense verse that follows. I'm only giving it 4 stars because I crave more notes and explanations than are included.

I joined Dante on his fantastical jouney through the Three Worlds. What an imagination! The Musa translation is among the more readible - although at the expense of the poetics (Musa explains decision in book intro). Now the bad: the publisher, Penguin, desires to be placed in the lowest level of Hell. I have NEVER witnessed such a God-awful Kindle format (really lack there of). Penguin owes a polished version to both Dante and Dr Musa a polished Kindle.

I liked that it was in English because I understand this Dante chap wasn’t an English speaker and wrote originally in Italian. Luckily someone translated it otherwise it never would have made much of a splash. I mean, afterall, who actually can read Italian these days? An interesting story about a wag who travels through Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, not necessarily in that order, and gets an opportuinity to insult a tremendous number of his enemies from the old neighborhood, in this case Florence, Italy.

Love Dante! Highly recommend.

Mr. Musa's rendering of the Divine Comedy is just wonderful. And being published by Penguin Classics puts all of it in a convenient easy to carry volume. He captures the scope and fire of Dante's genius as thoroughly as any single volume can. You have complete verse translations of Dante's 2 masterworks, The Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova plus a bibliography, notes, and an introduction by Mark Musa.