Book Review: Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

It's been awhile since I have picked up a classic title. And somehow, this was on my list, though I don't really remember why exactly. Perhaps it was because I spent some time in Florence recently, and therefore that was the trigger to pick this title up. In any case, it was a very educational read, and while I am not religious, I took the book as an anthropological experience, as a reflection of how people back during the days of Dante believed how the afterlife looked like.

To some extent, one could look at the Divine Comedy as science fiction, or fantasy. After all, it's a travelogue. Dante, together with his guides, travel through hell, purgatory, and finally, to heaven. It is a bizarre concept, but the travel descriptions are very precise such that one can create a travel map of these areas of the afterlife. And yes, there's suffering in hell, there's penitence in purgatory, and there's the good life in heaven.

I don't want to dwell too much on the religious notion here, after all, I have had enough writing against religion at this point. So I only want to reflect on this book as a manifestation of people's beliefs back a few centuries ago, and while these beliefs are stupid, at least it was an important cultural contribution. Heck, this work even became a significant contributor to the development of the Italian language.

Overall, the content didn't impress me, but the cultural significance of this piece is definitely not to be neglected. Unfortunately I do not speak Italian, otherwise I would have loved to experience the poetry of Dante with the language he wrote with. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. Scholars of Italian might value this more than me, I assume.

See my other book reviews here.