In which Meghan discovers that most of what she thought happened in The Inferno was actually from 1998’s What Dreams May Come.
So, yeah. I pretty much have a big, gaping lack of knowledge about The Classics, which was why I requested The Inferno on Netgalley. It’s a Dover edition, so pretty bare bones. I used Lit Charts after each Canto to get an idea of what was going on. I think, without the Lit Charts’ explanation, I’d likely have only gotten about half of what was going on, but if I’d attempted reading this without the Lit Charts’ explanation, maybe I would have concentrated more to understand. My mind wandered a lot and so my first attempt at reading translated 14th century Italian poetry was sort of a bust, as I had to force myself to read five Cantos a day until I was done.
I could see the whole thing being made into a really creepy Anime or European movie, if they could somehow account for the lack of plot. Dante wanders about with Virgil and sees all the poetic punishments for a variety of sins, while calling out some 14th century Italian “celebrities” for the transgressions that condemned them to Hell (like cannibalism or enjoying sex). I guess at the time, these punishments were more shocking, but in the age of Saw and Martyrs and extreme anti-gay violence, some of the impact was lost.
As for Doré’s woodcuts, my four-year old Kobo didn’t do them justice. I looked at some online afterwards, where one could see the detail better. I did appreciate that people in the illustrations, some, like me, had paunches or flabby arms or meaty thighs. Actually, that’s probably what I enjoyed most about this copy of The Inferno: a reminder that our current obsession with the correct form of body is just that: current.
So I read A Classic. Yay me. Now to return to my modern novels that I understand, and enjoy, much better.
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Dover Edition translated by Longfellow and with woodcut illustrations by Doré) went on sale July 20, 2016.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
(And, as always with dead authors, I checked yes on the Netgalley for being interested in connecting with the author so that my interest in Netgalley‘s necromancy program is again noted.)