So /lit/ what's the best edition of the Divine Comedy or

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Pic related, New American Library Edition.

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It's the "stock version" I suppose, but I genuinely like Longfellow's best

>>8602380
Son of a bitch, my phone's never rotated the pic before like that, dunno why it's doing it now or how to fix it. Sorry.

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Mandelbaum, but read several. Multiple translations are a useful policy if you don't know the original language. Each one offers new insight.Here's my Dante-related.

>>8602380
>>8602384
Also just noticed how the pic is kinda blurry, the translator is John Ciardi.

Sorry for my shitty posting, also watching the presidential debate, so I'm kind of distracted by the shitshow that is this race between two absolutely horrific candidates.

>>8602388
I didn't know Dorothy L Sayers was a translator. Hmm

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Would this one be any good, I was looking for leather bound. Is it by default the longfellow?

https://www.eastonpress.com/prod/E92/2720021/Dante-Alighieri-s-THE-DIVINE-COMEDY?EditItemKey=c0cb6fbc-cfb8-4b03-bd22-3a6d3ca07de0

>>8602398
Just curious, why are you worried more about the physical aspects of the book rather than the quality of the content?

>>8602398
Sadly, no. The EP is translated into verse by Melville Best Anderson, whose work is fairly lackluster (his final poetry isn't great). Instead of the Dore illustrations, you get 32 by Blake, which are interesting, but again not the best choice for your first/only Dante.

>>8602398

I have this book. It's translated by someone named Melville Best Anderson. Throughout the book the translator has put a lot of little notes in the relevant corners of the pages. For example, during Inferno it will tell you what Canto you're on, what lines the page covers, and if you've transitioned to a different circle, what that circle is and represents. Canto XV starts, and next to it (in smaller text) is "Seventh Circle: Ring 3. Dante Meets a Great Teacher". There's an introduction that's about 15 pages long. The entirety of the Divine Comedy is 410 pages. There are "notes and elucidations" at the end, with the notes of Inferno being 22 pages, Purgatoria 24, and Paradiso 25. The font is large with about 35 lines of poetry per page. There are 32 drawings by Blake.

>>8602410
>why are you worried more about the physical aspects of the book rather than the quality of the content?

Great conjecture

>>8602417
Ok, let me ask it this way so maybe you'll actually answer me: why are you "looking for leatherbound"? Why does that matter to you?

Bloom recommends Binyon for poetry (out of print) and Sinclair for prose.

>>8602415

thanks m8, would you recommend it?

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>>8602633

>>8602388
i'm glad i picked up the mandelbaum.

>>8602633
nice, i just oicked up a mint copy of morgante. mirin that orlando.

Durling/Martinez is pretty good.
Binyon is a fine terza rima.
Bickersteth is another terrific rhyme translation.

>>8602636
good guide. you gonna finish this some day?

>>8602716
not mine idk where original anon went. maybe email him.

Anybody know if there's a single volume version of the Hollander translation?

I heard the original one is pretty good.

>>8602829
Is there anything more pleb than reading books in the original language?

>jealous monoglots can only read books in the original language
>patrician polyglots like myself can read the works of Goethe in French, the masterpieces of Proust in the superior Russian, Chinese and Japanese works in the opposite language, etc., opening up new vistas of interpretation and understanding

I tried reading a book in the original language once, just to see what it's like being a pleb, and it was a suffocating and nauseous experience. I pity those for whom there is no other option.

Hollander is seriously impressive. No complaints.

Best way to get into it if you're a pleb? What to read before this? Should I get a version with lots of annotations/commentary or even a completely seperate book for that purpose?

>>8603105

Maybe it's simpler than I think and it's fine just to start reading.

>>8602388
>Not putting Auerbach's analysis in the same pile

>>8602636
Where's Oxford?

>>8603105
Read Vita Nuova first, but an edition like Mandelbaum's has tons of decent explanatory notes and info, so jump right in. Before the second or third reading, you might want to start doing some research.

I'm reading Mark Musa's translation currently and for someone with little scholarly background for it, the canto summaries and notes have been invaluable.

Cook and Herzman's lectures from The Great Courses are also very good if you're approaching it without the requisite knowledge of 13/14th century Florentine politics.

Pretty much can't go wrong with Mandelbaum/Hollander/Ciardi