Lectura Dantis: Inferno: A Canto-by-Canto Commentary (California Lectura Dantis, 1)

The California Lectura Dantis is the long-awaited companion to the three-volume verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum of Dante's __Divine Comedy__. Mandelbaum's translation, with facing original text and with illustrations by Barry Moser, has been praised by Robert Fagles as "exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths," and by the late James Merrill as "lucid and strong . . . with rich orchestration . . . overall sweep and felicity . . . and countless free, brilliant, utterly Dantesque strokes." Charles Simic called the work "a miracle. A lesson in the art of translation and a model (an encyclopedia) for poets. The full range and richness of American English is displayed as perhaps never before." This collection of commentaries on the first part of the __Comedy__ consists of commissioned essays, one for each canto, by a distinguished group of international scholar-critics. Readers of Dante will find this __Inferno__ volume an enlightening and indispensable guide, the kind of lucid commentary that is truly adapted to the general reader as well as the student and scholar. Dante In His Age / Allen Mandelbaum -- The Hard Begin / Letterio Cassata -- Dant's Authority / Robert Hollander -- The Gate Of Hell / Eugenio N. Frongia -- A Melancholy Elysium / Manlio Pastore Stocchi -- The Fierce Dove / Paolo Valesio -- Florence, Ciacco, And The Gluttons / Maria Picchio Simonelli -- The Weal Of Fortune / Philip R. Berk -- Fifth Circle: Wrathful And Sullen / Caron Ann Cioffi -- The Harrowing Of Dante From Upper Hell / Amilcare A. Iannucci -- Farinata And Cavalcante / Robert M. Durling -- Malice And Mad Bestiality / Alfred A. Triolo -- The Violent Against Their Neighbors / Vittorio Russo -- The Violent Against Themselves / Giorgio Petrocchi -- Capaneus And The Old Man Of Crete / John A. Scott -- The Canto Of Brunetto Latini / Dante Della Terza -- From Other Sodomites To Fraud / Susan Noakes -- Geryon's Downward Flight; The Usurers / Paolo Cherchi -- Introduction To Malebolge / James Nohrnberg -- Simoniacs / Charles T. Davis -- True And False See-ers / Teodolinda Barolini -- Controversial Comedy / Steve Ellis -- Poets As Scoundrels / Giuliana Carugati -- The Painted People / Tibor Wlassics -- Thieves And Metamorphoses / Joan M. Ferrante -- The Perverse Image/ Anthony Oldcorn -- Ulysses: Persuasion Versus Prophecy / Giuseppe Mazzotta -- (cont.) False Counselors: Guido Da Montefeltro / Jennifer Petrie -- Scandal And Schism / Thomas Peterson -- Such Outlandish Wounds / Lino Pertile -- Dante Among The Falsifiers / Robert M. Durling -- The Giants: Majesty And Terror / Massimo Mandolini Pesaresi -- Amphion And The Poetics Of Retaliation / John Ahern -- Count Ugolino And Others / Edoardo Sanguineti -- Lucifer / Remo Ceserani. Edited By Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, Charles Ross. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 441-448) And Index. The "possessive of human solidarity" (Spitzer)-"our life's way"-links the particularity of Dante the wayfarer to the universality of humanity.