ISBN0385496974

This translation of The Inferno, the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, by Robert and Jean Hollander, is one of the best that I've read. Their English version of the Comedy is fast and straightforward, sticking close to the original text but adding vigor to what can sometimes be very bland in English. Having read the Comedy numerous times in many different translations, I didn't expect to be swept up in it again as I was. The Hollanders have done us a great favor with this translation.

The notes are copious and excellent, presenting numerous perspectives on textual, symbolic, narrative, and historical issues in the Comedy. A line-by-line breakdown of each canto is at the beginning of each, and charts detailing the layout of Dante's Hell help organize a narrative that can be infinitely confusing to the beginner.

Highly recommended for beginners and seasoned fans of Dante alike.

This version was my first encounter with Dante. I read the book as required reading for my Senior English class and was highly impressed at how the Hollanders made a readable translation while maintaining detail and accuracy.

I compared my version to several of my friend's versions and found that the notes in this version were beyond sufficient. The chapter summaries preceding each canto were gratefully welcomed and the notes after each canto were detailed and informative. Essentially, the book was 'self-contained' meaning that no external sources (i.e. sparknotes, cliffnotes, etc) were needed to fully appreciate the book.

I'm pretty sure this is what anyone that doesn't speak Italian wants out of an Inferno translation.

1. There's facing page Italian so you can do the Milton thing. You really can understand what the Italian is saying, and when you read it, you can get some idea of what an incredible achievement the Comedy really was. The poetry itself is astounding, but you have to read the Italian to get it - and to understand why it's untranslatable.

2. The translation is fairly literal. This time, the translation is there to tell you what the Italian actually says instead of serving as a clever solution to the poetic problems posed by translation. Nobody is going to pull off a translation into a Germanic language that conveys Dante's vowel heavy Italian rhyming. We would not translate Palestrina into Bach, please give up on this.

3. The notes are written to interpret the poem. Instead of merely providing historical background to the obscure personages, the notes provide readings across the past 700 years on difficult lines. That's one heck of a resource. I wish I had that for poets in English; I might actually read the stuff.

4. There's actually literary criticism. One of the revelations from the critical work here is how much Dante is making fun of the Virgil character. You see him get mad, plot and scheme, become boastful. It's really pretty hilarious. I never got a sense of that before, but it's pretty obvious once you start looking for it. That adds a completely different flavor to the poem. Like most great works, part of the reason it's great is because it's funny. Maybe not Milton. Screw Milton.

I've always liked the Inferno, but I feel like I must have been missing huge themes. Not even really sure why I liked it. Read this, you'll have a whole new take on the poem. I'm waiting on the next two volumes.

This is a very satisfying translation. It does not attempt rhyme so it can reproduce the rhythms of the original without distorting the meaning for the sake of English rhymes. The notes are breathtaking in their scope and thoroughness. It would probably be a good idea for readers new to Inferno to go through it once without the notes soas to be carried along by the poem, and then a second time reading the notes to examine closely the building blocks of Dante's genius.

For all its scholarship, this book is pleasant to deal with physically -- nice typeface, well laid-out pages, not too heavy in the hand. You can actually read it in bed without crushing your abdomen.

I really recommend this particular translation of the Inferno by the Hollanders. I looked for a long time for one that I could not only understand but was as close to Dante's original text as possible. If I ever learn Italian, I will have the original in this same book! I have just ordered the Hollander's translation of Purgatory and Paradise because I liked their translation so well. Also, their notes are very helpful.