The Divine Comedy

By: Clive James - translator, Dante Alighieri

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Divided into three books - Hell, Purgatory and Heaven - the poem’s allegorical vision of the afterlife portrays the poet’s spiritual crisis in terms of his own contemporary history, in a text of such vivid life and variety that modern readers will find themselves astounded in a hundred different ways. And indeed the structure of this massive single song is divided into a hundred songs, or cantos, each of which is a separate poetic miracle. But unifying them all is the impetus of the Italian verse: a verbal energy that Clive James has now brought into English.

For its range of emotion alone, Clive James’s poetic rendering of The Divine Comedy would be without precedent. But it is also singled out by its sheer readability. The result is the epic as a page-turner, a work that will influence the way we read Dante in English for generations to come.

The Divine Comedy is performed by Edoardo Ballerini (2013 Audie Award winner, Best Solo Narration - Male), who had this to say about the book and his experience narrating it: "There are literary classics, and then then are those few books that serve as the cultural foundation for all of western civilization. Dante's Divine Comedy is one of those rarified titles. Being asked to narrate such a monumental work was an honor, and one of the highlights of my career, across film, TV, stage and audio. It was a humbling experience, and I only hope this recording inspires listeners to experience this profoundly beautiful work of art in a new, accessible and playful way."

©2013 Clive James (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Edoardo Ballerini takes Clive James's translation of Dante's classic and breathes fresh life into it.... One particular benefit of Ballerini's performance is that his pronunciation of the very little untranslated Italian vocabulary is spot-on, giving listeners the feeling that their experience is both authentic and impressive." ( AudioFile)

Masterful

What an excellent translation and what an eloquent, elegant, sensual performance. The journey through hell and paradise is stunning because of the fine and rich adaptation into English, and because of the deeply felt reading by Edoardo Ballerinj. Thank you Clive James and Grazie Edoardo!

Extrodinary Recitation

Most people know of Dante’s Inferno and have no clue what it is. Because I am devout I consider the full comedy essential spiritual reading. But since print is difficult I listen
This is poetry and so magnificently recited. Thank you, great sirs

what a trip!!

read this in 1990, pre-internet. now it is so easy to cross reference all those celebrities. excellent journey, ends abruptly as it should in paradise

Narrator

Best narrator of all times for the Divine comedy he narrate the art of war.

Simply amazing!

This was wonderfully narrated. I was immersed from the very beginning. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to hear a literary masterpiece narrated perfectly. The writing was superb and undoubtedly to remain a timeless classic.

Surprisingly approachable for such an old work

This is the only version of the divine comedy that I have read so I have nothing with which to compare how accurate or representative of the original this one is, but I definitely enjoyed it. The narrator was emotive and has a very pleasing voice that seemed well matched to the subject matter. I would definitely recommend to anyone interested, as I was, in glimpsing the work without being able to read the original.

the divine comedy

narrator was great. for me it will require a re-read. it is very thought provoking.

Very easy to listen to and understand

The narration of this book was incredible. Very poetic, made the words come to life. I enjoyed listening to much more than reading it, because of the narrater.

Wondrous and superbly performed

Wondrous and superbly performed. This translation does justice to the poetry of the original. Highly recommend

a little slow

it flows kind of slow for me even with sped up dialog, but a good story overall