n  n    "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate."
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."n  n

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy isn’t just a poem—it’s an eternal nightmare carved into literature. a journey through Hell’s horrors, Purgatory’s trials, and Heaven’s eternal glow. Sinners burn, the repentant climb, and the blessed shine—all under the weight of divine justice. Virgil guides, Beatrice saves, and Dante walks the path of every soul—lost, seeking, and finally found.This first part of The Divine Comedy is a journey through the nine circles of Hell, a twisted, poetic, and deeply personal exploration of sin, punishment, and divine justice. The first part of The Divine Comedy takes Dante (yes, the poet wrote himself as the main character—bold move) on a terrifying journey through the nine circles of Hell, with his personal guide, Virgil, leading the way.With the legendary Virgil as his guide, Dante descends deeper and deeper into a realm of fire, ice, and eternal despair, where sinners are tormented in grotesque yet eerily poetic ways. And yes—Dante literally put his real-life enemies in Hell, proving that petty is eternal.

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is a journey of the soul—through fire, repentance, and divine glory. A tale of justice, faith, and love, this epic masterpiece is not just a story—it is a reckoning, a reflection, and a path from darkness to eternal light

~The Journey Begins

Un referente para todo humano, un viaje épico a través del Infierno, el Purgatorio y el Paraíso. La narración es profunda y clara, repleta de simbolismo y filosofía. El protagonista es guiado hasta los círculos infernales. Mientras sigue su objetivo: el paraíso, encuentra almas condenadas que nos imbuyen en temas como la justicia, el destino y la naturaleza humana.

I first read this poem four years ago as part of a dare. And by “dare,” I mean a professor listed it on the syllabus and I had to read it and then write papers about it. The next summer, I wanted to read it again on account of the graphic imagery of Inferno and Purgatorio. The punishments/reparations are mindblowing, scary, and beautiful. Everyone should at the very least skim Inferno. Particularly in Inferno, the political references are funny and provocative, and the historical significance of this epic poem is right up there with the Bible and Paradise Lost for me. Paradiso is far more abstract and sappy than the other books.

I re-read all three last Fall because I’ve always felt attached to this work, and I figure you gotta read something at LEAST three times before you say its your favorite book. But yeah, this is my favorite book. It makes me want to learn Italian and read Dante’s Italian (and the whole part about him writing it in Italian instead of Latin pissed off so many people—again, the history of this piece is great). It makes me want to visit Italy. It makes me want to write something worth reading!

4.5 stars

This was my second attempt to read "The Divine Comedy". The first time, I did not care for the English translation of the book I had selected. I found Mandelbaum's translation in this book to be more readable. Another plus of reading this translation, is this book had wonderful Botticelli illustrations of Dante. I thought the illustrations really enhanced my reading experience as they helped me visualize several of the scenes in the book.

This was not a book that I could read fast, although there were parts were I wanted to keep reading and not put it down. I really struggled with the beginning but then found my pace. This journey through hell, purgatory and heaven was quite enjoyable once I found my footing with it.

I am definitely glad that I read it. It was not a fast read but once that endured and was well worth it.

Jesus jesus jesus this book was about jesus jesus jesus . yes it was. Inferno was pretty fuckin lit (literealy) . Ma boi dante kind of a pussy doe cuz he kept fainting like wtf. Purgatory was aight i guess
That one part with the naked ppl was kinda wierd but i guess it works. Also jesus christ beatrice what an entrance u made to purgatorys with that charriot and shit , but a bit extra.

1 star bcs old and dante is a pussy.

thunder disapproves

کمدی الهی دانته کتابی هست از شاعرو نویسنده دانته الیگیری که هروقت میخوانمش متوجه میشوم که ارزش تکرار را داشته که برای بارها خوانده شود و بازهم دوستداشتنی باشد , فیلم های زیادی را با ایده گرفتن ازاین کتاب و یا اشاره کردن به ان ساخته اند و کتاب فوق العلاده قوی ایست که به زبان خود دانته نوشته شده و از سفر خیالیش به دوزخ روایت میکند و جدا که دیوانه ی این کتابم

The Divine Comedy is so divine (I pass the redundancy) that we can bring some of Dante's narration to our day. Without necessarily dividing our moments into stages, we do not have to die to see the scenes we have passed. Nowadays, humanity, so sordid and unmasked, acts, treating one another personally, as if it had a particular Heaven of false power, knowing it lives in a real Hell. Worse still is not to reach out to the next, pushing them to innumerable Purgatory at once, offering no other choice. The owners of a power gaining millions and millions pretend to have mercy on suffering humanity. They continue with their shenanigans and lies, wanting the humiliated citizen to believe he is in Heaven because they are still alive. These greedy people, whom we know very well, live in an actual and particular Hell in the dispute of who can do more. People with low incomes and suffering workers are already in Purgatory. Until, occasionally, they feed a false hope that one day they will live in the Heaven of the mighty, causing paraphernalia among the many greedy miserable ones who are taking life. Pushing and trampling those who try to pass before them because many are in a hurry and believe they can get out of Purgatory and reach the Infernal Heaven of illusion and social inequality.

Non riesco nemmeno a trovare le parole giuste per rendere giustizia a quest'opera monumentale. CAPOLAVORO.

Gli anniversari sono dei motori di attenzione, di stimoli di solito fatui, ma a volte anche potenti.
Questo anniversario dantesco ha messo in moto un sacco di meccanismi editoriali. E così mi sono trovato, impigliato in uno di questi, a dovermi leggere finalmente in modo sistematico, radiografico, la Divina Commedia per tirarne fuori cose strane che non è qui il caso di dire.
(“Dovermi” parla di una rogna, “finalmente” di un desiderio. Vere tutte e due le cose.)

Scrivo due righe solo per lo scrupolo che magari l’esperienza possa attrarre o magari persino essere tecnicamente utile.
Il piano iniziale (frutto di una mediazione. Al ribasso!) era da scappare.
Introduzione al singolo canto (testo base per questa fase 1, proprio il Sermonti, in tre preziosi volumi, ma su RaiPlay ci sono anche i filmati di tutte le sue letture dal vivo: meglio di qualsiasi serie tv). Poi prima lettura, perifrasi (testo base, la versione digitale UTET: agile, rigorosa, efficace); infine seconda lettura. Rilettura complessiva delle tre cantiche alla fine della lettura di tutti i canti di ciascuna. Rilettura finale generale.
Tempo impiegato: cinque mesi. Per fare una cosa seria, farsi sconti significa rimetterci.
Soprattutto perché, nel durante, dalla prima terzina e per tutte le tre cantiche, scopri e ti ritrovi a godere di una splendida vacanza di lettura, un libro-mondo, come dice Sermonti (se l’aldilà esiste Dante lo ha assunto, sicuro).

Un viaggio avventurosissimo, una serie di incontri altrimenti inimmaginabili, un gioco enigmistico da professionisti, un ripasso enciclopedico, un continuo aprirsi di scorci mentali abissali, di visuali imprevedibili, di panorami mentali e geospaziali mozzafiato, di una folla di personaggi uno più strano e fascinoso dell'altro, di rimandi labirintici, di invettive implacabili, di spudorate confessioni. Ci si trova davanti ad una bellezza espressiva sovrumana (è possibile fare di più con le cose semplicemente nominandole?), di architettura dei versi in simmetrie perfette, frutto di lucidissima ed autentica follia.
E poi ti fai una amicizia vera con un compagno di viaggio capace di ire e dolcezze esagerate, affidabile e premuroso, intollerante e malinconico, severissimo e compassionevole.
Con un finale apertissimo, sorprendente, insondabile, frutto di una delle sensibilità estetiche, mistiche e poetiche più estreme che si siano mai manifestate al mondo.

Bene. Il mio dovere di lettore social io l'ho assolto.
Se a questo punto, a qualcuno fosse balenata la tentazione di imbarcarsi, ecco quel che Dante mette sulla carta di imbarco della tappa più perigliosa e abbacinante, il Paradiso (ma vale per tutto il viaggio)

“O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,
desiderosi d’ascoltar, seguìti
dietro al mio legno che cantando varca,

tornate a riveder li vostri liti:
non vi mettete in pelago, ché, forse,
perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.

L’acqua ch’io prendo già mai non si corse”

When he wrote The Divine Comedy, Dante was already a well known writer.  He had been exiled from Florence for political reasons.  In the poem, he is the poet pilgrim and Virgil, a poet who inspired Dante, is his guide.  He will protect Dante and guide him physically and spiritually through Hell and Purgatory.  He has been sent by Beatrice, Dante’s idealised childhood love to whom he dedicated much poetry and who, in this poem, symbolises Heavenly Wisdom.  The story is of Dante’s journey, in the middle of his life (nel mezzo), through life to salvation.  He must descend into Hell to eventually ascend to Paradise. 

Inferno / Hell is a series of circles, often with sub levels, each containing sinners in different categories, worsening as we go deeper into Hell.  On the gates of Hell are written the words, ‘Lasciate ogne speranza, voi chi intrate’ - ‘Abandon all hope, you who enter here’ - as, once you are in, you can never leave.  Dante is not dead so he is able to pass all the way through.  Minos, ex ruler of Crete, acts as judge and indicates to which circle of Hell each sinner must go.  Before entering the first circle of Hell, we pass through Limbo which contains those who are unbaptised and includes those who were born before the Christian Era, such as the Virtuous Pagans, which includes Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan.  The group acknowledges Dante’s status as one of them - bearing in mind he is writing this, what an ego!  As he descends through the circles of Hell, he meets many famous and infamous people, some from history, some his contemporaries, and some from myth.  The vast majority are men.  Many are Dante’s political enemies and much of the poem is a diatribe against Florence and those who exiled him.  Dante sometimes feels compassion for the sinners he meets but Virgil generally chides him for that.  The punishments meted out to the sinners become more extreme, more imaginative and more vile the deeper into Hell we go.

What kind of mind did Dante have to think up all these cruel and unusual punishments?  What sin has he committed that he feels he has to embark, through the poet pilgrim, on such a journey, examining his own identity with reference to each category of sinner?  Some of the punishments can be linked to passages in the Bible but not all.

Purgatory - As in Hell, the punishments inflicted upon the penitents are grotesque.  I read this with something approaching morbid fascination!

Paradise - Dante recounts the poet’s journey through an eternal world, navigated through a hierarchy of light and by way of the nine planets. He eventually sees God.

I struggled most with Paradise. Inferno and Purgatory were interesting on so many levels but Paradise, if this doesn’t sound too absurd, was just too religious for me! Nevertheless, there was a definite feeling of joy - or perhaps relief on my part! - at the end of the journey.

Countless academics have dedicated their lives to studying this work. I don’t know of any other that has such depth or that has so many levels on which it can be studied, i.e. religion, the Bible, Christian, Church and papal history; Greek and Roman myth and history; Florentine and wider Italian history and politics (Guelph & Ghibelline); European history; philosophy; scientific investigation; music; literature / poetry. I read it on the Georgetown University My Dante website which provides a guided reading that I found very helpful and informative. It has taken me two full months to read and study it and yet I know I’ve only scratched the surface of its meanings. I’ve written out many beautiful passages that I’m sure I’ll return to but it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever read the full poem again.

I must confess that so much was beyond my comprehension; but I think that is the mark of a great work of art...it allows you to take what you can from it from where you are. I can see why there are scholars who study this book for years; it is so complete, almost a universe itself. I was so happy when I finished this book - both exhilarated and humbled by the genius of Dante.

الجزء الأول من الكوميديا الالهية:دانتي انطلق من مفهوم الجحيم في الميثولوجيا الاغريقية و التصور المسيحي بمعنى ان الجحيم يوجد في العالم السفلي تحت الأرض....تبدأ الرحلة بدخول دانتي غابة سوداء قادته الى مدخل الجحيم ليبدأ رحله تستمر عبر تسع دوائر و اربعة و ثلاثون نشيدا يقوده فيها ملهمه الأول فرجيل صاحب الانياذة..فيبدأ دانتي رحلة تشبه لحد كبير الأساطير و المعتقدات المسيحية هناك مزج غريب بين ماهو ديني ووثني في الشخصيات و انواع العذابات..تصنيف المعذبين تأثر فيه دانتي بكتاب ارسطو في الأخلاق فنجد اغلب المعذبون لأسباب أخلاقية فنجد الكذابين و المرتشين و المسرفين و المسيئين للجار في حين افرد عدة دوائر للهراطقة..المثير للجدل ايضا ذكره لثلاث شخصيات مسلمة في الدائرة الأولى الليمبو المخصص للفضلاء الوثنيين و هؤلاء لا يعذبون لكن لا يدخلون الفردوس ايضا "عذاب بلا ألم "...جزء مثير و ممتع ذكرني كثيرا بمعجزة الرسول الاسراء و المعراج و هناك للأشارة الكثير من الدراسات التي أكدت ان دانتي تأثر بشكل كبير بأخبار هذه المعجزة في كتابه الكوميديا الى جانب
بطبيعة الحال رسالة الغفران للمعري..قراءة ممتعة
اختار دانتي للجزء الثاني لمؤلفه المثير اسم المطَهر فكرة نجد لها اصولا في الديانة الوثنية و قدماء المصريين و على خلاف الجحيم الذي ينزل على المخطئين عقابا جازما و ابديا نجد في المطهر ارواحا لا كافرة و لا مؤمنةارواحا ضائعة لم تؤذ احدا سوى ذواتها فاستوجب ان تطهرها مما شابها من آثام فنجد المتكبرين و الشرهين و غيرهم..اعترف اني احسست بملل و صعوبة في اكمال هذا الجزء لتركيزه على شخصيات ايطالية و بعض الرموز التي لم
افهمها و تستدعي البحث لكنها تبقى تجربة ممتعة تستحق القراءة ايضا ..
الجزء الثالث و الأخير الفردوس عند دانتي يوجد في السماء استحقه القادة الشرفاء و المحبين و القديسين و الفلاسفة الى ان نصل الى مريم العذراء و رؤية الله اعترف اني في هذا القسم شعرت بالملل ربما لأني احسست بالغربة في الفردوس دون ان اجد ذكرا لرسولنا الكريم و لا الصحابة الكرام و لا المسلمين الذين اعتبرهم دانتي يمثلون شريعة الشر كما هو مذكور في هذا الجزء على لسان جده كاشياغيدا..اغرق دانتي هذا الجزء بملوك و قديسيين وجدت صعوبة في المام بكل هذا التاريخ المسيحي الايطالي..بالرغم من كل هذا التعقيد اجدها مغامرة تستحق القراءة..
مع محبتي