Dante - The Divine Comedy: Inferno BOOK REVIEW 

Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/BETTERTHANFOOD

In high school here in Italy we read and analyzed the Divina Commedia in its entirety during the last three years. Just amazing, one of the greatest masterpieces in human literature. The plot, the themes, the structure itself, the scary punishments, the somewhat funny segments, the holiness feeling that permeates the Paradiso. The episode you refer to is Count Ugolino della Gherardesca. Pretty often it's the most discussed episode among students.

It's also worth mentioning that the Divine Comedy is attributed as the first ever book written in Italian. I mean, Dante literally "created" Italian for that. You can read his own article on his method in "de vulgari eloquentia" (search in Wikipedia). Basically people would speak already in Italian, but keep writing in Latin. So I guess that in order to make a point of some sort he decided to write in Italian instead. I heard that the standard Italian learned nowadays is based on his Italian, even. He basically took regional variants from all over Italy (but focusing on his own) and created a "common tongue" from the many Italians available at the time.

I read all 3 parts last month and loved it. It’s difficult with the 13th century Italian references but definitely worth it. Don’t be afraid of looking for supplementary notes!

Hells are so personal I remember sitting around in the staff room at the equivalent of a High School and discussing what our versions of hell were. Mine was being on School Bus on a trip a long long trip on a turnpike with no exits on a grey Novemberish day rain, dark clouds and endlessly travelling and to missquote Rowan Atkinson playing Toby the Devil "The are no toilets in Hell as it is torment without relief"

Will you do purgatory and paradiso? Would be interesting, especially since those are almost never discussed.

I too was disappointed by the final Canto at first, all this build up and Satan is simply described but never talked too. But on re reading I thought it was a good end, Dante never gives the Devil the time of day, he just says 'there he is, chewing on Brutus, crying tears of blood, distraught and humiliated by being cast down into hell'. A fitting end.

Ya love to see it! Thanks, Cliff. Saw it on Patreon. Happy Spring!

My absolute favorite work! So glad to see it reviewed on your channel 💕

Yes! Been waiting for this one.

Dude, you are amazing. Even your advertisement was killer. Thank you so much for what you're doing. Got me at the bookstore looking for Faulkner.

Another sign I have to read Dante this year. Thanks for the review :)))

Dude I've found your channel out at the beginning of 2020 and you've made me company for almost 2 years now. The way you immerse in what you read it's what gets me, great great really great analysis. And me being Italian I need to say I had to clap at your "lasciate ogni Esperanza o voi che entrate". Dude, chaepau! You need to check out Roberto Benigni's commentary on the Comedy, if it has subs. He's one of the many that knows it aaaaall by heart here. damn nuts. You have free wine & food whenever you come

Excellent review as always! You have me excited to give this poem a go.

Your timing on this review was spot on. I just started reading Inferno!

Best book reviewer on RU-vid by lightyears. Thank you.

Vita Nuova is also a hell of a book. Really original and poetic.

Life feels sadder when you read and understand a lot of Dante’s Inferno.

Fantastic review Cliff!

“This is one to reread for a lifetime”. Very well said! I’ve been rereading the Comedy for the last 14 years, and every time I find new interesting details and angles. As for the charges of ‘grafting’ against Dante : in those times, especially in Florence, it was common for the winning party to exile the leaders of the opposition by concocting false accusations against them, on both sides. In fact, Dante’s faction had done the same to Cavalcanti shortly before (we meet him in the circle of heretics). I am Italian and I do talk a LOT about the Divine Comedy on my channel, if anyone wants to pass by.

Got the notification while listening to Highway to Hell... here we go

I just finished watching Good Omens and thought I should give this a re-read. I read it in college. Inferno was definitely the most iconic and accessible section. Hard to make it through Paradiso without a teacher though

i tackled inferno as an ornery antisocial highschool kid, on family vacation in florida. refused to leave the hotel room and barreled through it tethered to my discman spinning hell awaits and reign in blood. way better time than universal studios ever would have been.

I definitely recommend getting a hardback edition with the illustrations of Gustave Doré - just a stunning addition to any library. He also illustrated Paradise Lost. I find myself revisiting my favourite bits of The Divine Comedy every now and then, I agree it's one of those ones books that stay with you forever.

Cliff is better than Virgil at guiding you through the circles of Hell 🤘

A must read is 'Ugolino' by Seamus Heaney if you like/love 'Inferno'.

Thanks for the reminder on books I should get. Great review.

This is a good analysis here. Reading passages aloud tugged on my heartstrings... how can you not?! I have been reading along with a much poorer translation than yours, but I am trained well and am just writing great insights for the next reader in the margians. Thanks for your take and insights!

I just bought "Hard to be a god" the book, didn't know there was a movie! Thanks for the info :)

Thanks for the recommendation in regards to which translation to look for. I'll seek it out specifically.

I love your review of this epic work and understand that medieval references plus Greek myth can throw first time readers for a loop. Once you get pass that you begin to find the Beautiful poetry sinking in. Dante takes everyone to task in the Inferno even himself. In other words he not afraid to call a spade a spade or just admit how lost we can become in the scheme of God plans. My favorite part takes place in the Paradiso when Dante sees the Trojan priest and ask Beatrice how he could possibly be saved and she just Basically shakes her head, it was beyond her as well!

We briefly studied it at university in a subject called comparative literature when we had to compare between two works of literature. We focused on The Divine Comedy and Alfarabi's (it's actually by Al Maari) Letter for Forgiveness (the work is written in Arabic). The teacher explained how Dante might have been by Alfarabi for his epic poem.

many thanks, dude ! I am lucky enough to have been taught to read Dante in italian, and I can tell you one thing, the language is incredibly incredibly dramatic and modern, in a way. His verses are super satisfying to read and hear, very baroque sort of... You should read again Journey to the End of the Night, now that you have Dante's Inferno in mind, your perspective will change ;-)

Thank you for the recommending the Ciardi translation. I was doing okay with the Princeton online, but Ciardi's translation and notes are much better in helping me understand.

Awesome review! Now I really want to read it.. I really hope that the Portuguese ( Brazilian Portuguese) version is going to have a good translation since Portuguese is a really close language to Italian haha

Fantastic video man

5 days ago I received my copy of the divine comedy, quite happily surprise to see the review :D keep it up

Dante's inferno has been and probably always will be my favorite book, almost like a muse. I've never seen such a detailed description of hell, punishments all created specifically for their sins. And aha my man dante really just be dropping names like that he doesnt care I like it. but yeah man, he created a working, living society of hell, I think that's why there's so many adaptation to it, humans are morbidly interested in this kinda of realm and he manage to visualize it.

I've read the Hollander translation, which is also excellent. Has the Italian text on the facing page and a line by line analysis following each Canto.

Was just listening to an audiobook of this. Nice🙏

You finally did it. Nice

Loved this review! Great book 👌

I am from India and these videos help me understand great western literature thanks man .

My favorite fan fiction

Sometimes I imagine what Cliff's review of my currently unfinished book would sound like. Well, maybe some day...

I love the Ciardi translation of Dante's Commedia!

I was planning to read Dante's Divine Comedy this September, 700th anniversary of the poet's death. Now you're reviewing it, one more reason to read it. 👍📚

thanks for your video! I'm looking for years now on my bookshelf where "Divine Comedy" in Italian waits till I learn Italian. Maybe it's about a time. if you liked the movie "Hard to be a God", you may also be interested in the original novel by brothers Strugatsky. It's way much better that the movie itself.

talking about glutony, la grande bouffe is a fantastic film that portraits this sin as well as opulence and deprivation

I have the 15 oz mug now. Love It!!

Nice this is perfect timing, I just finished the Commedia for the first time

Hey Clifford, great interview as always. Do you know where I can find Borges’ essays on Dante? Been searching online and haven’t been able to track them.

Puns are on point in this video! 👌

I read the whole thing recently, the three parts, I thought they were amazing, so rich and detailed, its really something else. I thought Paradiso was kind of the most boring part of the three, but still worth reading, I'll have to read it again another time, one really cannot get all that Dante put into this book with just one read. Great video too

I'm currently reading the Longfellow translation of The Divine Comedy and understanding very little. Maybe I'll switch to the Ciardi translation. Love your channel, regards from Sydney Australia.

You are good with sales! I need that shit now!

Oh yeah the John Ciardi (sp?) translation is my favorite

Cliff have you read 1001 Nights? Check out the versions by Husain Haddawy, and the one by Malcolm C. Lyons

Congrats from Brazil!

Hiya Clifford, just wanted to reccomend Death is the martyr of beauty by Death in June. In particular with the provided clip of a Mishima movie, thought you might appreciate that. Cheers.

If you want something similiar - another masterpiece - you should read “The Lusiads” by Luiz Vaz Camões. It is an epic poem, the greatest piece of literature ever written in the portuguese language. You have many translations to english. It would be amazing to see a review of that book.

Reading suggestion : Curzio Malaparte, Kaputt. A must read ;-)

"very metal." Lmao. That's great Cliff xD!!

So weird you haven't done László Krasznahorkai yet - especially Sátántangó and The Melancholy of Resistance. Fits the mould for your channel perfectly. Talking of Hungarian literature Agota Kristof is amazing too.

Finally! La grande bellezza!

If you liked this book, you should watch the movie "The house that Jack built" by Lars Von tier. I dont know if you tall about movies here, but sill i will love to hear your opinion

Originally I planned to read this before I turned 40. Getting close to that now... I might need to change it to before 60.

Hannibal, the sort of sequel to Silence of the Lambs, is actually structured based on Dante’s Inferno. You can follow all the types of sin in the movie.

Hey Clifford I recommend you check out the Ernest Hemingway documentary by Ken Burns! Its six hours broken into three parts, but I think you'll really like it.

Hey Cliff! you should read The Epistle of Forgiveness! It is the ironic reply to a letter that was written by Ibn al-Qari to the writer. The Epistle mocks the former's hypocrisy and sycophancy by imagining he has died and arrived with some difficulty in Heaven, where he meets famous poets and philologists from the past. In al-Ma'arri's imaginative telling, Ibn al-Qari also glimpses Hell and converses with the Devil and various heretics. A true tour-de-force.

Oh Man... i miss the longer reviews

I can sort of imagine Satan as eternally being in a Homer Simpson mood: “Can’t talk. Eating.”

Didn't know we were reviewing Under the Volcano again.

Dante's the _shite!_ Were doing a readalong of the _Comedy,_ currently.

I enjoyed the review. I chose the DC as my university dissertation. Inferno is the best bit though..

great video

Good review but I'll add a minor correction: that soul eating the head of a bishop's soul isn't a king and he did not starved his sons to death. That man is Count Ugolino of Pisa which was accused by the archbishop Ruggieri of treachery toward his city and imprisoned in a tower with two sons and two nephews and with them left to starve to death. Thinking that Ugolino was biting his hands out of hunger, the children even offered themselves as food to him but he resisted...one by one the sons and nephews died before him who in the last day looked upon them and then... "poscia più che 'l dolor poté 'l digiuno" This is an ambiguous verse that is interpreted in two ways: 1) hunger overcame grief and he ate the flesh of his own dead kin 2) hunger killed him faster than his own greif could (so he died without eating his own kin) In hell Ugolino is trapped in the ice of the lake Cocito in the zone called Antenora (where are punished Traitors of their country) and he can finally have revenge over the archbishop that lead him and his family to death by feasting upon his head, to satiate his never-ending hunger.

Where did he get the black jacket?? Does anybody know

I Have a dual language version of the Divine Comedy (Brazilian portuguese on a page and the original Italian(?) on the other) with tons of translator and editor notes. And you are right, for books like this is essential to understand everything

I can't read this without seeing Hieronymus Bosch's garden...in the shade

If you like epic poetry then you should check out Omeros by Derek Walcott. It's a great combination of Dante and Homer set in the Caribbean.

To get the most out of it, read it with a reader (notes by a literary critic).

I know this was a year ago. But when you mentioned that you thought Satan should have had something to say. I got me thinking. What could ultimate evil frozen in the basement of Hell possibly have to say? Don't do what I did? Thanks for another excellent review!

I love how you compared Berghain to going down to inferno 😂 you get a like from me

I like this guy

... and for those who don’t want to read? Peter Greenaway’s treatment is an excellent beginning... I’m sure that’s is a copy somewhere in RU-vid... another amazing review 👍🏼

Great review, as always. Just two comments: Virgil is portrayed as an ultimate badass, but the actual Virgil was very different, a very quiet and shy person, overwhelmed by the fame he gained in life. On the "Why satan does not speak", I think that it is a mirroring to the later portrayal of god in the book: god is like an ineffable entity whose mere contemplation is compared to the famous problem of squaring the circle (solved in 1882, btw). Both are representations of absolute values: god is surrounded by saints and angels, praised as perfect goodness, untouchable by anyone, and satan is just a weird giant alone in his hole, described, touched (and even used as a ladder) because he is the opposite of perfection, he is just flesh and bones. I think Dante made the right choice from a literary perspective: any words in their mouths would have diminished the archetypes to mere characters; like those movies where god is a funny and wise guy and satan is a charming and ironic guy. The same idea, I think, is behind the movie Ben-hur (the good one, the original) where the director never shows the face of jesus, showing his importance through the impact he have in other characters, like the roman guard. In this way, we are forced to imagine something incredible, something that reality cannot grasp. Like Pessoa said, "The grass is always greener in our minds".

Yup, Ciardi's version is the best. I started with Mandelbaum but it was ...not easy. Sissons version wasn't that bad either. Longfellow is almost as good as Ciardi. What are the other versions that you've?

Look up Mark Vernon for the goods on Dante and the inferno, he has an inspired video series on the subject

I have seen that you liked a lot Bruno Schulz works. You should definitelly try to read Ferdydurke by Gombrowicz his is the second greatest polish writer of the XX century. You will be suprised how insane, grotesque and meanigfull that book is.

Well, Oscar Wilde reverted to Catholicism before he died, and even got blessed by the pope, and he was pretty cool.

Dante had the craziest DMT trip 😂

Ain't got nuthin' on the video game.

I read The Inferno twice, once in college and then again a decade later. Purgatory was next and I ran aground on Paradise. Just couldn't "believe" in the theology Dante was selling. A possible reason for no speech from Satan was that Dante being tempted was not what the poet wanted. Virgil leaves Dante when the poet reaches Paradise. "Reason" (Virgil) can get you through the bad situations. But you need "faith" (Beatrice) to attain heaven.

a bowl of cups in a monsters bonnet

I read it first When I did not believe That I had a soul and that heaven and hell were only fiction -an infinite see saw in an eternal park Ridden by all for giggles. I grew older Childhood friends fell like leaves from trees I thought of them in autumn time as the river readied for winters ice And skating At the 9th bell of life One may pause and watch the golden leaves disappearing beneath the water and wonder if The giggles will resound as loudly as the bells By the 10th hour. I read the Divine Comedy again As 11 bells rang Watching leaves fall and listening to the sleet ticking at my window While the frost crept. Dante resounds much more loudly and thoroughly If you Believe ...that you have a soul ...that winter is real and that midnight will swallow us all Giggling or not. Where we will lay at the end of the day is determined by belief in the soul And our cooperation with the sun. Only dead fish go with the tide It is every man's choice to swim Or drown. There is no mirth In the decaying muck On the bottom Beneath the ice. You are warned. - . Now A recommendation *A Letter from Hell.* Catholic Audiobooks 27 minutes of your time if you can spare it. (away from the see saw that is) Listen before midnight please.

7:05 this book scared 18 year old me into behaving badly and I loved it!!

Hola señor Sargento le recomiendo woman of the ashes by Mia Couto. De lo mejor de la literatura africana

Idk I'd like to think that Paradise Lost is a prequel to Dante's Satan. If all sinners tell their story, then Lucy gets a full poem.

First they came for fantano, then they can for sargent. The ridgewallet plague is inescapable