The Divine Comedy by Dante AlighieriMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is in three parts; Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. It traces the progress of the soul through hell to understand the nature of sin, then travels through purgatory where restitution is made before ending up in Heaven. The story was inspired by other writers of epic poetry such as Homer and Horace and makes many references to classical mythology. It is filled with symbolism which, like much of the writing at the time, is struggling with the battle between good and evil. The chief inspiration was Virgil’s Aeneid and as a result is quite difficult for modern readers because much of the allusions are not recognised.
If you can find a copy illustrated by Salvador Dali it is worth buying although he reputedly never read the book- perhaps for the reason above? So he took individual topics and produced his inimitable style in a series of water colours which are in themselves a challenge to understanding. He summarised his work by saying “I wanted my illustrations for Dante to be like the faintest signs of moisture in some divine cheese. This explains why they have the variegated aspect of butterfly wings”.
Er, yes, quite so.
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