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The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Vol. 3: Paradiso

by Dante Alighieri
Oxford Univ. 2013. 873p. ed. & tr. from Italian by Robert M. Durling. ISBN 9780195087468. pap. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780199752690. LIT
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Durling (English & Italian literature, emeritus, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) completes his Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri verse translation with this volume (after Inferno, 1996, and Purgatorio, 2003), which joins the modern editions of John Ciardi, Allen Mandelbaum, Mark Musa, Jean and Robert Hollander, Burton Raffel, and C.H. Sisson, as well the idiosyncratic rendition by Clive James. Paradiso is the most challenging of the canticles, both because it contains some of Dante's most sublime poetry and embodies his most abstract theology, the heavenly cosmology lacking the visceral physicality of Inferno and Purgatorio. The Italian appears on the volume's facing page, and there are contextual illustrations by Robert Turner, with an informative introduction by Durling and extended notes by Comedy collaborator Ronald L. Martinez (Italian studies; Brown Univ.).
VERDICT Durling's rendering is serviceable, capturing Dante's rhythm and vigor but not his rhyme scheme and structure. Overall, it does not live up to the poetic power of the versions by Ciardi, Musa, and Hollander; Durling's lines are at times oddly literal, missing the idiomatic. Still, this accessible version of Paradiso might appeal to the serious general reader.
Reviewed by Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah , Jan 10, 2014
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