Product Description

Continuing the paperback edition of Charles S. Singleton's translation of The Divine Comedy, this work provides the English-speaking reader with everything he needs to read and understand the Paradiso. This volume consists of the prose translation of Giorgio Petrocchi's Italian text (which faces the translation on each page); its companion volume of commentary is a masterpiece of erudition, offering a wide range of information on such subjects as Dante's vocabulary, his characters, and the historical sources of incidents in the poem. Professor Singleton provides a clear and profound analysis of the poem's basic allegory, and the illustrations, diagrams, and map clarify points that have previously confused readers of The Divine Comedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #582600 in Books
• Published on: 1991-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 389 pages

Review
With the publication of Singleton's edition of The Divine Comedy, we have in English . . . A truly scholarly edition which can at last vie with ones in Italian and German. . . . This monumental work will be indispensable for all lovers of this masterpiece who wish to root it in its linguistic, historical and social reality.
(Speculum )

Customer Reviews

Faithful translation with facing-page Italian text
Charles Singleton has done a wonderful job with this prose translation of Dante's universally-acknowledged classic. While other translations seek to re-create the poetic effect of Dante's Italian in modern English, bravely challenging the dictum that poetry is what is lost in translation, Singleton's focus is instead on fidelity. The result is that the Italian, which is presented along with the English, can easily be matched to the translation even by those with little or no knowledge of the language

This is probably the best way to study Dante, though if you are after something with the force of the original you might like to consider Mark Musa's translation, available in Penguin Classics. (Musa's edition also includes a very helpful introduction and quite detailed notes on every single canto (section) of the Divine Comedy.)

Finally, note that Singleton's text-and-translation is completely devoid of introduction or commentary. For these, you will have to shell out for the separate volumes of commentary - search in Amazon for Inferno Commentary, Purgatorio Commentary and Paradiso Commentary.