Publisher's summary
Now of that second kingdom I shall sing where human souls are purified of sin and made worthy to ascend to Heaven’ Purgatory is the second part of Dante’s The Divine Comedy ascending the terraces of the Mount of Purgatory inhabited by those doing penance to expiate their sins on earth. There are the proud – forced to circle their terrace for aeons bent double in humility; the slothful – running around crying out examples of zeal and sloth; while the lustful are purged by fire. Though less well-known than Inferno, Purgatory has inspired many writers including, in our century, Samuel Beckett, and has played a key role in literature.
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"Abandon all hope you who enter here." ( "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate.") Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.
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Led by his guide, Beatrice, Dante leaves the Earth behind and soars through the heavenly spheres of Paradise. In this third and final part of The Divine Comedy, he encounters the just rulers and holy saints of the Church. The horrors of Inferno and the trials of Purgatory are left far behind. Ultimately, in Paradise, Dante is granted a vision of God’s Heavenly court: the angels, the Blessed Virgin, and God Himself.
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Outstanding
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Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dante's epic poem. Inferno: Thirty-five year old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil, now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife, beginning in the terrifying depths of Hell.
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The epic grandeur of Dante's masterpiece has inspired readers and listeners for 700 years and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance.
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Solid, read with gusto
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Brilliant!
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"Abandon all hope you who enter here." ( "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate.") Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.
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- By Laurel on 12-19-12
By: Dante Alighieri, and others
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Paradise: From The Divine Comedy
- By: Dante Alighieri
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- Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins
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-
Overall
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Performance
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Led by his guide, Beatrice, Dante leaves the Earth behind and soars through the heavenly spheres of Paradise. In this third and final part of The Divine Comedy, he encounters the just rulers and holy saints of the Church. The horrors of Inferno and the trials of Purgatory are left far behind. Ultimately, in Paradise, Dante is granted a vision of God’s Heavenly court: the angels, the Blessed Virgin, and God Himself.
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-
-
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- By Adeliese Baumann on 10-21-16
By: Dante Alighieri, and others
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The Inferno
- By: Dante, Robert Hollander - translator, Jean Hollander - translator
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The epic grandeur of Dante's masterpiece has inspired readers and listeners for 700 years and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance.
-
-
Into Hell
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By: Dante, and others
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The Divine Comedy
- Penguin Classics
- By: Robin Kirkpatrick - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Jot Davies, Robin Kirkpatrick, Kristin Atherton
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, his ascent of Mount Purgatory and his encounter with his dead love Beatrice, and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption. This major translation is published here for the first time in a single volume.
-
-
Solid, read with gusto
- By Tad Davis on 11-15-20
By: Robin Kirkpatrick - translator, and others
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- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
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Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.
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Brilliant!
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One of the greatest works in literature, Dante's story-poem is an allegory that represents mankind as it exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice. A single listen will reveal Dante's visual imagination and uncanny power to make the spiritual visible.
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Almost Divine
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By: Dante Alighieri
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Overall
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Dante's Divine Comedy is considered to be not only the most important epic poem in Italian literature, but also one of the greatest poems ever written. It consists of 100 cantos, and (after an introductory canto) they are divided into three sections. Each section is 33 cantos in length, and they describe how Dante and a guide travel through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
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Not for listening.
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By: Dante Alighieri, and others
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- Unabridged
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Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise-the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation. One of the greatest works in literature, Dantes story-poem is an allegory that represents mankind as it exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice.
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OK
- By Tad Davis on 05-22-09
By: Dante Alighieri
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Dante's Inferno
- A Study on Part I of The Divine Comedy
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- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
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Overall
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Story
With Professor Esolen you will enter the terrible gates of Hell and progress level by infernal level to its diabolical depths. Professor Esolen places a special emphasis on the drama of the poem, leading you through each canto in succession. Professor Esolen will more than satisfy your curiosity about Hell and the fate of the damned. He will reveal in all its starkness the horror of sin and awaken in your heart a longing for divine love.
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THIS IS A LECTURER
- By Amazon Customer on 05-22-21
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Faust: Parts I & II
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- Unabridged
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Goethe’s two-part dramatic work, Faust, based on a traditional theme, and finally completed in 1831, is an exploration of that restless intellectual and emotional urge which found its fullest expression in the European Romantic movement, to which Goethe was an early and major contributor. Part I of the work outlines a pact Faust makes with the devil, Mephistopheles, and encompasses the tragedy of Gretchen, whom Faust seduces.
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Great great book
- By John A. on 09-15-21
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The Divine Comedy
- By: Dante Alighieri
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The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts.
By: Dante Alighieri
What listeners say about Purgatory: From The Divine Comedy
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- Tad Davis
- 12-22-11
Clear translation, excellent music
The pace is a little "stately," to put it politely. But of the many versions of The Divine Comedy available on Audible, the Naxos version has the clearest translation and the best music. (Short musical segments bridge each canto.) I don't know anything about Benedict Flynn as a translator - his work appears to have been done specifically for this recording and is not available anywhere in print, as far as I know - but it is a lucid narrative, and Heathcote Williams gives each line time to sink in.
Purgatory doesn't have the dramatic scenes of torture that fill Inferno, although some of the punishments are enough to make a tender-hearted listener squirm. It's a lighter place to visit than Hell: although there IS suffering to be endured, everyone who reaches its shores is assured of salvation, and Dante's relief as he encounters some of his friends there is palpable. People smile here. They sing songs and they make jokes.
There is poignancy here as well. Near the end, Dante turns to speak to Virgil, only to discover that Virgil is gone: he has returned to Limbo. He is the instrument of Dante's salvation but will never experience it himself. It's impossible for me to get through this part of the story without a sense of profound injustice; but it's Dante's world and it has to be taken as it comes, at least for the duration of the poem.
While the story is lucid and the images vivid, the problem anyone will have coming to this for the first time will be the thousands of allusions to classical mythology and medieval European politics. An audiobook is particularly difficult to get through in this respect: best to have some notes handy while listening (Guy Raffa's "The Complete Danteworlds" is a useful companion, but any annotated translation will do). My advice would be to take the notes lightly, though. Use them sparingly; focus on the words and emotions first. It's a dramatic poem with a spectacular conclusion.
An alternative to this is the Audiobook Contractors production, with Grover Gardner reading. That uses an unusual approach to the annotation problem, weaving short glosses into the text itself. If you do that, though, come back to this one later: the mood, atmosphere, and music of this version make for a great listen.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Shannon
- 09-17-24
Great read
Yet again another classic read and enjoyed to the fullest! I’m more inclined to paradise than this but,nevertheless a true masterpiece
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- Christy Continued
- 05-10-16
The walk with Dante will be SO Much easier!
Many have told me with all the footnotes etc. Dante was not an easy read. Well, have it told to you by THIS Narrator. He is fantastic!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-04-21
Superb narration
Beautiful job of reciting Dante's poem... Williams was amongst the best and I enjoyed him immensely...
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- Faith
- 04-16-16
Nicely done...
Latin pronounced incorrectly is the only minor detail. Very enjoyable to listen to, and it feels like an accomplishment to have done so.
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2 people found this helpful
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- J. Grablowski
- 07-10-21
Excellent 2nd Act
First time reading this classic and genuinely couldn’t be happier with the Naxos audiobook. Wonderful narration and a relaxing, transportive edition all around.
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1 person found this helpful