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Dante's Divine Comedy
- Narrated by: Ronald B. Herzman, William R. Cook
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
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Dante's Divine Comedy
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Summary
Professors Cook and Herzman provide you with an illuminating introduction to one of the greatest works ever written. One of the most profound and satisfying of all poems, The Divine Comedy (or Commedia) of Dante Alighieri is a book for life. In a brilliantly constructed narrative of his imaginary guided pilgrimage through the three realms of the Christian afterlife, Dante accomplished a literary task of astonishing complexity.
But the full achievement of the Commedia goes beyond anything merely literary. In these twenty-four lectures, as you follow Dante on his journey, you'll learn how medieval literature offers insights into fundamental questions: What is the quality of our moral actions? How does spiritual transformation come about? What is the nature of good and evil, virtue and vice, sin and sanctity? Why is the world so full of strife? How do we go on when we lose the things we love? You'll discover why, in the centuries since the Commedia was written, not one of these questions has lost its force. Moreover, you'll hear Dante address them in a demanding and innovative Italian verse form (terza rima) that makes the Commedia one of the great virtuoso pieces of world literature.
With the guidance of these two master professors, you'll learn invaluable background information on Dante's life and times; why Dante wrote the Commedia; how to approach the various English editions available; and how each part of the poem is connected to what has come before. But above all, you'll understand why the Commedia is not a puzzle to be solved or a book to be read and put aside-but a mystery whose beauty and richness is to be constantly savored.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Dante's Divine Comedy
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-05-19
Just Do This
Excellent, accessible, meaningful, often funny series on one of the world's greatest works of art.
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- markj
- 05-03-23
Excelllent
If you have read the Divine Comedy once or twice it’s wonderful to learn more about the text and reflect on it. This audio course is fantastic for that and extremely accessible.
It took me a little while to become accustomed to two presenters but, by the end, I was really enjoying their complementary contributions.
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- Andrew Whittaker
- 30-11-21
Excellent course
A fascinating course created by very knowledgeable and enthusiastic professors. I really enjoyed it, glad I got it.
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- Ian
- 18-02-16
Long Journey
This lecture series gives you exactly what it says. The tag-team lecturers take a few minutes to get used to, but its unnoticeable once you get going. It helps if you've read at least a synopsis of the poem and have a cursory understanding of Italian history, but they go pretty thoroughly into everything, so you could probably survive without any background read.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- M. R. Albert
- 09-06-22
In other words... bravo!
Deep knowledge, impressive insights, some bad jokes (but I laughed)... good introduction to the Comedy. You end up wishing to read it. The bad reviews are preposterous.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Karen
- 31-03-15
A wonderful way to understand this masterpiece
Excellent teaching. Easy on the ear and a wonderful way in to this classic text. Full of interesting explanations and new thoughts for me on Dante
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8 people found this helpful
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- Anthony
- 21-02-19
Excellent teaching on a fantastic book
The professors are excellent and they make a difficult (but fascinating book) easy to understand and well worth spending the time and effort
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Martin Mckee
- 08-05-18
fairly thorough
The poem itself is a huge undertaking and thus so are these lectures. I had no idea what the poem was at all before getting these lectures. I come from a Christian background but I am also a man of science. if your background differs or you're very devout then your opinion may differ but here is mine.
As these lectures explain the background of the poem in great detail, characters etc. this is very useful and no doubt vital. But as they never actually read the whole poem in English I found myself lacking in ability to follow what was happening. I think it may be better to listen to the first couple of lecturers which introduce the poem, then get yourself a translated copy to your own language (preferably one with English and Italian text so you can compare), read the entire poem, then listen to the rest of the lecturers. Then perhaps read the poem again. it really is so large and complex that it would require this effort.
I didn't do this, I just listened to the lectures and I perhaps would have preferred the prior approach. nevertheless, what I wanted to obtain was an understanding of what the poem was about to see if I could relate, find meaning and look forward in my understanding of theology and philosophy. I'm not sure that it really does all that for me so I don't know if I will study the poem more myself in future.
Aside from my own personal experience and interpretation these lectures are extremely informative, I dare say vital if you want to learn about the poem. Audio quality and performance are OK.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Martin beck
- 24-11-20
Average joe
I’m currently reading string theory and quantum field theory , and on listening to these lectures I now believe there are many parallels with Dante and string theology as the subject constantly refers to the limit to what can be known with any precision , and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle .
Was Dante foreseeing quantum field theory ? 🤔
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- TGrayson
- 21-09-21
Excellent, insightful. A perfect companion.
I was lucky enough to use a credit for this, but it would have been worth every penny. Excellent, insightful. A perfect companion to the Comedy.
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