Deciphering Dante’s Divine Comedy

Love, Redemption, and Our Human Condition

De: Alan R. Perry

Narrado por: Alan R. Perry

Duración: 8 h y 58 m

Resumen del Editor

Can Dante’s masterwork change your life today?

Written over 700 years ago, Dante’s Divine Comedy remains a classic of the Western literary canon and one of the most masterful poems ever written. Join Italian literature expert Alan Perry to discover why its commentary on the human condition still resonates strongly today.

In this powerful audio course, you’ll learn why The Divine Comedy is profoundly meaningful not only to Christians but to anyone grappling with the big questions of existence and morality. Through 21 compelling audio lectures, you will experience Dante’s encounters with significant characters in each realm, asking questions such as What does it mean to be a good person? Why do bad things happen to good people? and What is so troubling about moral failure and sin?

Throughout the course, you’ll witness Dante’s skillful weaving of classical and biblical literary traditions and learn how the events of his own life informed the text. Through his memorable exchanges with different souls who teach him about the struggles of sin, the call to forgiveness, and the joy of heavenly bliss, you’ll see why this poem retains such timeless appeal.

This course is part of the Learn25 Collection.

©2020 Now You Know Media, Inc. (P)2020 Now You Know Media, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Alan Perry is quite simply one of the greatest college professors teaching in America today. His knowledge of Italian language, literature, and culture is exhaustive, but he wears his learning lightly, so his lectures are much more like enthusiastic conversations with a wise old friend than a dry recitation of facts. Listen at length to Alan Perry and you will learn a great deal about Dante and Petrarch and Boccaccio, to be sure, but you will gain much more than that: you will learn to understand and to appreciate how these figures have much to teach us about our own lives today, how the Italian Renaissance shaped the modern world, and how it provides us with a valuable vantage point from which to peer back further into antiquity.” (Christopher R. Fee, professor of English, Gettysburg College)

“It is hard to speak of Professor Perry in anything but superlatives. As well as having top-level research strengths, Professor Perry has proven to be an excellent teacher, mentor, curriculum developer, and leader in the field of Italian studies. His list of professional achievements points to an active researcher who is able to turn research expertise into engaging lectures in the classroom. He cares passionately about his work, his students, and his classes.” (Michael Lettieri, professor of Italian and vice dean, University of Toronto, Mississauga)

“Alan R. Perry is known at Gettysburg College for his outstanding teaching. Because of this strength as an effective teacher and communicator, he has also taught on several occasions at Middlebury College’s Scuola Italiana, a summer full-immersion experience in learning Italian language and culture. He brings a passion to his teaching that matches up with in-depth preparation. As a well-rounded and genuine humanist, he teaches Dante; his seminars on the Italian poet are very popular. In all these areas of scholarship he has made important and lasting contributions.” (Dino S. Cervigni, professor emeritus of Italian, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill)

Instructive Dante Course

A good companion to the Divine Comedy. Instructor is not boring and does a good job taking specific encounters in the Divine Comedy and using them to help appreciate the poem over all.
That being said The Great Courses “Dante’s Divine Comedy with William Cook and Ronald Herzman is a superior course. Both in content and in entertainment. If you are like me and want to hear good discussions of Dante as much as possible. Then this is a good addition, but I would only suggest after you have listened to The Great Courses version and also A 3 Part Study on the Divine Comedy by Anthony Esolen. That would be my 2nd choice. After those 2 then The Modern Scholar with Timothy Shutt is very good. This course and the Modern Scholar I would put about equal. Very good but just not as good as those other courses. But definitely worth getting.

Explore one of the most prolific classics

Alan Perry provide s an extremely in-depth exploration and analysis of Dante's Divine Comedy. Whether your first read or your 50th, this companion piece will provide you some additional context and a new perspective on Dante's original work.

Extremely Comprehensive

Wow, this was more than I was expecting. The presenter (Perry) knows the Divine Comedy inside and out. There is 9 hours of content contained in this audiobook, and it's all well delivered. If you want to learn more about what some consider the greatest work of Western literature, Perry's course is the ideal place to start. Also, one note is it's not a traditional audiobook; it's more like a series of recorded lectures, which works well in this medium. 5 stars.

Great way to reconnect with a classic text

I haven't read the Divine Comedy since high school, and this course helped remind me why Dante's epic poem remains so beloved 700 years on. Perry masterfully brings to light the universally resonant themes of the poem, showing why it maintains such a strong foothold in literature studies and popular culture today.