Review: The 13th Century Speaks
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
How does one review the Great Dante? He is one of those pivotal authors in western history who influenced everything that followed him. Not only was he the greatest author his day, he also is responsible for the literary coming of age for the Italian language. Any major work before him was written in Latin. Dante changed that, he set authors free to speak in their own tongues, and this is the book in which he did it. The greatest challenge in reading him in English translation is that he cannot be done proper justice outside of Italian. His original text is exquisite in both sound and substance, and the best editions are those in which his prose is offered in both languages. You may be pleasantly surprised to read the Italian, only checking the English for comprehension. I know this happened with me. With that caveat in mind, the text offered here is adequate to the story, if not the substance. (I cannot recommend Dante's original prose highly enough.) The story is amazing, Dante finds himself lost in the middle of his life and finds that he cannot find his way back through the symbolic challenges that confront him. He is met by his literary mentor, Virgil, who informs him that he must face the path which leads through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. This book deals with the first leg of the journey; which takes him to the very depths of Hell Itself. As he goes, he is exposed to the various punishments doled out against sinners, based on the severity and content of their sins. His imagination is amazing. I won't attempt to describe the nature of his Divine Justice, but the journey is one of the strangest and most memorable in literature. In the course of this story you will also get a real sense of the 13th Century mind. Do not expect to enjoy or agree with it's attitudes, but you can learn a lot about how Western Culture got to where it is, and isn't today by experiencing it. Truly a book for the ages, this is a must-read for any student of History, Culture, Religion, and, most of all, Literature. Dante is truly one of those authors who dwells in the Pantheon with Shakespeare, Cervantes, Voltaire and Dostoyevsky, and he is oldest of them all.