Dante's Divine Comedy

A Guide for the Spiritual Journey

By: Mark Vernon

Narrated by: Mark Vernon

Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Dante Alighieri was early in recognizing that our age has a problem. His hometown, Florence, was at the epicenter of the move from the medieval world to the modern. He realized that awareness of divine reality was shifting, and that if it were lost, dire consequences would follow. The Divine Comedy was born in a time of troubling transition, which is why it still speaks today.

Dante’s masterpiece presents a cosmic vision of reality, which he invites his readers to traverse with him. In this narrative retelling and guide, from the gates of hell, up the mountain of purgatory, to the empyrean of paradise, Mark Vernon offers a vivid introduction and interpretation of a book that, 700 years on, continues to open minds and change lives.

“Just as Dante had Virgil, we have Mark Vernon: the perfect guide to Dante’s epic and fantastic journey. This is not just a description of what happens and who we meet, it’s an invitation to read The Divine Comedy as a way to change our own consciousness and embrace a more spacious reality: everything is bigger on the inside. I started highlighting sentences I wanted to think about, but ended up with yellow stripes everywhere: there are insights on every page. A marvelous book that blew away a lot of my assumptions about The Divine Comedy." (Susanna Clarke, author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell)

"There has long been need for a scholarly but deft guide to Dante’s masterpiece, not just as a literary curiosity but as a profound examination of the meaning of life in a world less material than ours. Here at last is one for which we can be grateful. Like Virgil guiding Dante, Vernon accompanies the reader on the fascinating journey from hell through purgatory to paradise; he is a delightful companion, and I for one learnt a great deal from the experience.” (Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary)

“As late modern readers and writers, we live at an unfortunate remove from much of the greatest literature of earlier epochs principally in thinking of it solely as literature, whose chief meaning and value can be exhaustively described in strictly critical categories. We scarcely remember how to see poetry—or any of the arts—as belonging to a fuller vision of reality, with spiritual as well as purely aesthetic dimensions. This is an unfortunate state of affairs in regard to any literary text of consequence, but in regard to a work of the magnitude and splendor of The Divine Comedy, it is tragic. An approach like Mark Vernon’s is precisely the remedy required if one wants truly to see the poem for what it is, and to see through the poem to what it adumbrates.” (David Bentley Hart, author of Roland in Moonlight)

“Dante’s spiritual pilgrimage through hell, purgatory, then up through the seven heavens to a vision of the Mystic Rose is one of the masterpieces of human imagination. Mark Vernon guides us through the great poem, giving light, gathering insights from other commentators, granting us a sensitive, fresh perspective. Whether the Comedy is a familiar favorite or forbiddingly foreign, readers will here find companionship, nourishment, and assistance as they traverse the Dantean soul-scape.” (Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis)

©2021 Angelico Press (P)2021 Mark Vernon

Excellent, compelling listen

The 700th Anniversary of Dante’s writing of the Divine Comedy has led to many new books and renewed interest in this masterful work. Mark Vernon’s book is highly recommended as a guide. I found Mark’s narration compelling and felt I was journeying alongside Dante and Virgil. This book is inspired and Mark Vernon has humbly offered a rich text for us to explore ourselves and our world.

"Beauty awakens the soul to act." - Dante

"Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge." ~ Dante Alighieri

I really enjoy Mark Vernon's commentaries about Dante's Divine Comedy. His analyses are refreshing, erudite, and non-judgmental, multi-dimensional (rather than a one-dimensional christian-focus), and full of compassion and insight. I always learn something new, even when (or especially when) I disagree with his comments. BRAVO, Mark!

Everything I ever wanted in an audiobook

Vernon's audiobook has served as a wonderful companion on evening walks. He offers a welcoming way into Dante's classic. It soothes and uplifts, and helps me feel more at home in the world. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Who knew Hell could be so illuminating

I am still not out of Hell in my reading/listening. It's slow going for me because I am reading the Divine Comedy and reading/listening to Mark Vernon's book and audiobook at the same time. Mark Vernon brings freshness to Dante's tale both in tone and descriptive examples. At the same time, his description and comments enhance the deep, spiritual message of the original. This is a story of discovering the purpose and pitfalls of being a human on the earth, still as relevant today as it was 700 years ago—and maybe needed more now than then. Wouldn't have gotten nearly as much out of reading Dante's original alone.

Mark's reading is excellent. I always enjoy listening to what Mark has to say, and listening to him read his book is great because his enthusiasm and understanding of the material shine through. The self-examination of Hell is personally revelatory. Can't wait to get to the transformative opportunities of Purgatory and the delight of Heaven.

A delight, and a must for spiritual seekers

This book is a gift. It’s like having a wise, generous, and endlessly insightful friend lead you through one of the greatest works of world literature--not just as literature, but as an incomparable guide for the spiritual path.

Vernon writes (and in the Audible version, narrates) beautifully, achieving an agile balance of summary, close reading, and context that brings the Divine Comedy alive canto by canto. Most importantly, he uncovers fresh psychological and spiritual insights in even the more obscure sections.

You'll come away staggered by the scale of Dante’s achievement, and invigorated by the timeliness and urgency of his vision as elucidated by Vernon. Brilliant work.

Wish I could get it for everyone I know

So enriching, one of the most enjoyable Audible books I’ve listened to yet—and will listen many more times I’m sure. What a mitzvah this book is!

Food for divine thought.

Loved it. What a journey to be one with God. Someone will be saved.
Amen.

An Inversion of Dante

This book is definitely interesting, and you will learn a lot about the Divine Comedy and appreciate new details & insights that probably haven’t stood out to you in past readings of the Comedy or in other commentary works. However, it is difficult to separate authentic new insights from the perversion of Dante wrought by Mr. Vernon repeatedly shoehorning in his own modern prejudices into the mouth of Dante.

Vernon’s thesis is that Dante is **really** saying that (1) everyone is saved, (2) sodomy is good actually, and (3) Christianity & the Catholic Church are actually bad & need to be destroyed (or completely “evolved” into something completely different). You can believe all these things without lying about what Dante says. What Vernon does is this book is a complete inversion of the truth and a perversion of something beautiful to cram it into the universalist modernist world view we should expect from a modern Anglican priest.

The most tragic part of this work is that, like all evil things, it comes from the perversion of something good and contains some truth. It wouldn’t be so insidious if it didn’t.