Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

The Portable Dante: Revised Edition (Viking Portable Library)

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Excellent translation, but some drawbacks to this edition
Good basic text
The All-In-One Dante
Dante - My admittedly poor review
A master's works

The Portable Dante: Revised Edition (Viking Portable Library)
Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140231145

Book Description

Dante Alighieri paved the way for modern literature, while creating verse and prose that remain unparalleled for formal elegance, intellectual depth, and emotional grandeur. The Portable Dante contains complete verse translations of Dante's two masterworks, The Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova, as well as a bibliography, notes, and an introduction by eminent scholar and translator Mark Musa.

Translated and edited by Mark Musa.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent translation, but some drawbacks to this edition.......2006-06-24

First, a word about Mark Musa's translation of Dante's works. His interpretations of the Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova are very beautiful, extremely readable, and as true to Dante as you can be in English. Musa's scholarship is excellent, and his introductory essays on Dante and his works are a pleasure to read, offering a broad understanding of what Dante is all about.

However, it is important that you keep in mind that a number of concessions had to be made for this book. Collecting the massive poems of the Divine Comedy, along with La Vita Nuova, is no mean task - I'm astounded Penguin Classics pulled it off in such a compact and readable volume. But this collection comes at the expense of some features that range from minor to outright baffling.

First, the minor stuff. This edition lacks the informative diagrams and illustrations of the standalone Divine Comedy volumes from Penguin Classics (Inferno, et al). Given the complexity of Dante's creation, it is very helpful to have maps to show you where the various parts of the afterlife are, and who inhabits them. Puzzlingly, /The Portable Dante/ includes a detailed map of Purgatory, but only a very vague and un-labeled map of Inferno, and NO map of Paradiso and the celestial spheres. Very strange and disappointing.

More unfortunate is the lack of a glossary. The Penguin Classics /Inferno/ has an excellent glossary of people and places that appear in the poem. This is a phenomenal resource for figuring out who is where in Hell, what they represent, and what Dante is doing with them.

However, the most (potentially) major issue with this volume is the sparse commentary. The individual books of The Divine Comedy have extensive endnotes, detailing broad sections and individual passages in great detail. The notes offer a better understanding of what Dante is doing, because virtually every line of poetry includes multi-faceted references to classical mythology, Christian scripture, and contemporary or historical Italian culture. For the majority of the Divine Comedy, well over 50% of the notes (as compared with the individual Penguin Classics books) have been removed.

The endnotes have been converted to non-intrusive footnotes, which is a welcome shift. But I can't help but feel that also including a detailed endnotes section would have added much, so that at the very least the reader could explore the more obscure references (passages from the Aeneid, the Bible, and so on) if they so desire. I also noticed some notes rather crucial to understanding have been removed completely, which is very unfortunate.

So how come, after all this whining and moaning, I still give /The Portable Dante/ a full five stars? Because Mark Musa's translation is so fluid and vital, and having such a beautiful collection in a compact volume is extremely valuable. There is enough supplementary material that casual readers can enjoy Dante's mastery and creativity, and they will perhaps be tantalized to explore the deeper meanings he plants throughout.

Here's the bottom line: /The Portable Dante/ is what I use when I wish to read Dante to others, or to simply read through for my own enjoyment. If you need extensive scholarly information, I recommend also buying the Penguin Classics editions of the individual parts of The Divine Comedy. But as a smooth and very readable base camp for your exploration of Dante, I can think of no better book than this.

Highly recommended, whatever your level of interest in this fascinating poet and his works.

Good basic text.......2006-02-26

good translation - not excellent, but good, and the footnotes are helpful. The translator also makes an attempt at explaining the contrapasso for each Canto of Inferno, which can be helpful to the independant reader.

The All-In-One Dante.......2005-02-26

"The Portable Dante" provides readers with the complete "Divine Comedy" (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), an excellent biography on the author, historical background, a great translation by one of the the best translators of the genre, and Dante's often forgotten work "La Vita Nuova". What more could you ask for? Essentially, this volume has it all. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to read the entire "Divine Comedy" from Hell to Heaven. It's better than having to buy each book separately. And nothing is lost from putting it all into one place. Each Canto is complete and excellently translated into verse form (as it should be). This edition makes the often difficult work easier to read by providing a summary at the beginning of each Canto (though I often skip over these because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but they're there if you need them) and notes at the bottom of each page (instead of in the back of the book like another edition I read), making them easy to refer to while reading.

There are a lot of editions of this timeless work out there, but this is the one to get. Great translation and excellent organization.

Dante - My admittedly poor review .......2005-01-17

Dante has always been a difficult writer for me. His long established greatness and unquestioned place in the pantheon of man's great literary creators is not something I question or doubt. I understand that he is the major writer of the Christian Middle Ages, and for many along with Shakespeare at the very pinnacle of the world's literary creators. My own difficulty with Dante may in part relate to the fact that he is presenting a Christian vision of life on earth, hell, purgatory and heaven. And that this vision is something I as a Jew have difficulty giving full emotional sympathy to. But there is another difficulty which I found in reading even the most colorful portrayals of those suffering in the Inferno. I found it all to be cruel. And I was repelled by the idea that God would so delight in the tremendous sufferings inflicted on sinners, who are after all too God's creatures. In other words the whole emotional landscape of Dante's lower world, and the great imaginative effort made to portray various strange and unusual sufferings repelled me. I found it in so many way petty and wrong and outside my sense of what God who made all creatures great and small , would condone. Could God who is Good really take delight in all these unending torments? I prefer to think of God as One who rather would seek a way to help save others even those who have sinned, rather than condemn them.
Thus the very premise of this great work seems to put it outside my own particular grasp or emotional comprehension.
Moreover as Dante moved to Purgatory and then later to Paradise I found myself somehow sleeping and not interested. These ' spiritual landscapes ' were too outside my own sense as a Jew of what the world is truly about . Of course God wants our penitence but there does not have to be some special realm in order for God to get it.We can repent and change everyday where we are in our own life.
I realize that what I am providing the review reader here is a very poor review indeed. It shows no knowledge or appreciation of the beauties of the language and other strengths of Dante's writing.
It is however one poor reader's honest impression however little it be worth.

A master's works.......2004-10-28

Okay, everyone has heard of the "Divine Comedy," the medieval masterwork of legendary poet Dante Alighieri. Heaven, hell, purgatory and so on. In "The Portable Dante," that sprawling supernatural epic is paired with his exquisite love ode, "La Vita Nuova."

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of Dante's guided tour through the three parts of the afterlife: Hell, where he is shown (by the poet Virgil) how the sinners are tormented in all sorts of inventive ways, depending on their sins. Purgatory, "the second kingdom," where Dante sees the suffering that people undergo to be purified of their wrongs. And finally paradise, where his beloved muse Beatrice shows him heaven, encountering his ancestors, angels, saints, and finally God himself.

"La Vita Nuova" (The New Life) is only loosely connected with the "Comedy." It tells of how Dante met Beatrice when they were both children, and he fell in love with her. Many years passed, and Dante's quiet adoration of Beatrice grew stronger, even though they married other people. The story follows his emotional ups and downs, and the writings that resulted... even when Beatrice died.

The main similarity between these two books is that they both feature (and adore) Beatrice. "La Vita Nuova" is an intimate little book, but the "Divine Comedy" sprawls all over Earth, the solar system (within the bounds of "paradiso"), and the three parts of the supernatural realm. You can't get much more epic than that.

Dante's writing remains rich and detailed, even translated into English. The descriptions of heaven and hell are mind-blowing, and sometimes the "Inferno" sections are even funny. Yes, hell is funny. But he also excels in describing his inner highs and lows in "La Vita Nuova," as he struggles with doubts, sorrow, anguish and joy.

But don't think that Dante's journeys are merely supernatural. While "La Vita Nuova" doesn't describe much beyond art and love, "Divine Comedy" also tackles religion and politics. It's a bit uncomfortable when Dante describes various people he disliked in hell. And he also takes the opportunity to criticize the Catholic chuch of his time, which had quite a few problems. However, his fervour for his religion, Beatrice and his art shine through.

"The Portable Dante" is an excellent way to check out Dante's most prominent works. Whether checking out an unrequited love, or journeying through the circles of hell, this is a spellbinding collection.

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Collected Poetry and Prose
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Poems and Ballads and Atalanta in Calydon
Major Poems and Selected Prose
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ASIN: 0300098014

Book Description

A major poet, writer, and painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was seen as the dominating cultural presence in the second half of the nineteenth century. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite movement, revised and reimagined Blake's project of marrying images and texts, and was a shaping influence on Modernist aesthetic ideas and practices. His translations are original poetical works in their own right. Jerome McGann, a leading figure in nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship, presents a generous selection of Rossetti's poetry, prose, and original translations. The collection, which includes important writings unavailable in any edition of Rossetti ever printed, is accompanied by McGann's learned and critically incisive commentaries and notes.

English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)

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English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)
Alfred Lord Tennyson , Robert Browning , Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Arthur Hugh Clough , Edward FitzGerald , Matthew Arnold , Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Christina Rossetti , and Coventry Patmore
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486404250

Book Description

This anthology presents over 170 poems by the major poets of the 19th century, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough, Edward FitzGerald, Matthew Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Rudyard Kipling, and many others. An introduction and brief biographical notes on the poets are included.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters: Edited with a memoir by William Michael Rossetti. Volume 1

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Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters: Edited with a memoir by William Michael Rossetti. Volume 1
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0543966976
Release Date: 2001-02-07

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1895 edition by Ellis and Elvey, London.

The New Life (New York Review Books Classics)

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A mythic love
What has never been written of any other woman

The New Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Dante Alighieri , and Dante Alighieri
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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My Secret Book (Hesperus Classics)
The Life of Dante (Hesperus Classics)
The Cambridge Companion to Dante (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
Vita Nuova (Oxford World's Classics)
Dante: Poet of the Secular World (New York Review Books Classics)

ASIN: 1590170113
Release Date: 2002-07-31

Book Description

The New Life is the masterpiece of Dante's youth, an account of his love for Beatrice, the girl who was to become his lifelong muse, and of her tragic early death. An allegory of the soul's crisis and growth, combining prose and poetry, narrative and meditation, dreams and songs and prayers, this work of crystalline beauty and fascinating complexity has long taken its place as one of the supreme revelations in the literature of love.

The New Life is published here in the beautiful translation by the English poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an inspired poetic re-creation comparable to Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a classic in its own right.

Customer Reviews:

A mythic love .......2005-03-01

The 'Vita Nuova' is more than anything else a prelude to 'The Divine Comedy'. The Beatrice Dante falls in love with and longs for is on the one hand a figure unattainable, the love- goddess of courtly love. On the other hand she is to become the very essence of the spiritual and to guide Dante later through the Paradiso of the Comedy. The real figure and her life who he falls in love with truly is transformed in myth and mind to a kind of image and essence of Divine Beauty.
As with Petrarch and his Laura the love Dante writes of ' La Vita Nuova' does not somehow strike me and move me in the deepest way, and seems somehow too literary and artificial. Lines of love of Rilke and Kafka sound more authentic to me, but perhaps this is because I am a poor reader and no medievalist.
In any case this is a small classic which is prelude to a far greater one. And the real Beatrice is a small figure beside the mythic one Dante will transform into a literary immortal.

What has never been written of any other woman.......2003-03-25

Genuine romance and passion is missing from most books, either fiction or nonfiction, and I don't think I've ever come across both in such quantity as there is in "La Vita Nuova" (translation: The New Life), the unsung masterpiece of poet Dante Alighieri (who wrote the classic Divina Comedia).

It is a series of poems centering around the life-changing love of Dante for a young woman named Beatrice. The two first met when they were young children, of about eight. Dante instantly fell in love with her, but didn't really interact with her for several years. Over the years, Dante's almost supernatural love only increased in intensity, and he poured out his feelings (grief, adoration, fear) into several poems and sonnets. During an illness, he has a vision about mortality, himself, and his beloved Beatrice ("One day, inevitably, even your most gracious Beatrice must die"). Beatrice died at the age of twenty-four, and Dante committed himself to the memory of his muse.

I have never in my life read a book overflowing with such incredible love and passion as "La Vita Nuova"; it's probably the most romantic book I have ever seen. It's only a little over a hundred pages long, but it's a truly unique love story. Dante and Beatrice were never romantically involved. In fact, both of them married other people.

But Dante's love for Beatrice shows itself to be more than infatuation or crush, because it never wanes -- in fact, it grows even stronger, including Love manifested as a nobleman in one of Dante's dreams. There is no element of physicality to the passion in "La Vita Nuova"; Dante talks about how beautiful Beatrice is, but that's only a sidenote. (We don't hear of any real details about her) And Dante's grief-stricken state when Beatrice dies (of what, we're never told) leads him to deep changes in his soul, and eventually peace. (And though Beatrice died, because of Dante's love for her and her placement in the "Comedia," she has achieved a kind of immortality)

One of the noticeable things about this book is that whenever something significant happens to Dante (good, bad, or neither), he immediately writes a poem about it. Some readers may be tempted to skip over the carefully constructed poems, but they shouldn't. Even if these intrude on the story, they show what Dante was feeling more clearly than his prose.

It's impossible to read this book and come out of it jaded about love or true passion. Not the sort of stuff in pulp romance novels, but love and passion that come straight from the heart and soul, in a unique and unusual love story. Every true romantic should read this book.

Ballads and sonnets (Collection of British authors. Tauchnitz ed)
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Ballads and sonnets (Collection of British authors. Tauchnitz ed)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Manufacturer: B. Tauchnitz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000855X18

The Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft, Jr. and Related Pre-Raphaelite Collections
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The Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft, Jr. and Related Pre-Raphaelite Collections
Rowland, ed.; Priscilla Thompson, et al. Delaware Art Museum Elzea
Manufacturer: Delaware Art Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I2DRS2

The Complete Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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The Complete Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Manufacturer: University Press of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Rossetti, Dante Gabriel | ( R ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1410210448

Book Description

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (1828-1882), who at an early stage of his professional career modified his name into Dante Gabriel Rosetti, was born in London. He was a cofounder of the pre-Raphaelites, a group of English painters and poets who hoped to bring to their art the richness and purity of the Medieval period. Romantic love was Rossetti's main theme in both poetry and painting.

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The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s
Paul Spencer-Longhurst , and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Manufacturer: Scala Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1857592603

Pre-Raphaelite Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Pre-Raphaelite Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Christina Rossetti , Algernon Charles Swinburne , and George Meredith
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486424480

Book Description

Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti crowns this outstanding collection: highlights include "The Blessed Damozel," "My Sister's Sleep," and selections from The House of Life. Christina Rossetti is represented by "Remember," "Cousin Kate," and "Song"; Swinburne's "The Garden of Proserpine," Morris' "The Haystack in the Floods," and Meredith's "Lucifer by Starlight."

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