Thank you Annalucia! Besides the wonderful Dorothy Sayers version, John Ciardi's is not bad. I usually assign that one, although he is weak on Catholic theology - still, the notes are fairly good. Then there is the Charles Singleton version - Italian on one side, English on the other, for a more word-for-word translation.

I also confess to not having read Dante.
*blush*
I have seen the Godfather films, though, Kara. ;)

Jamie, the Divine Comedy translation by Dorothy L. Sayers is extensively annotated, with a long Introduction to each section, and is available in Penguin paperback. It's also my favorite translation. Go thou and buy it immediately :)

I've never read any Dante (to my discredit), so are there any suggestions of good guides or a "Dante's companion"?
Please post and email to me.

``If Dante is so entertaining, why in 30 years of college teaching have I NEVER run across anyone who read either the Purgatory or the Paradise parts of the Divine Comedy for fun?''
::raises hand::
OK, Paradiso can be slow going in places, but Purgatorio is my favorite section of the poem and the one I've had to replace twice because my Penguin paperbacks fell apart from the heavy use. The humanity of its characters is so vivid and the love displayed by them is so manifest it brings tears to the eyes. Buonconte da Montefeltro, who died unabsolved but saved by his faith nonetheless; Virgil, no longer guide but fellow pilgrim and as bewildered as Dante in places; Guido Cavalcanti (and Dante's, ``What, are you here ALREADY?'' which speaks volumes) and of course Beatrice, who immediately begins to scold like an exasperated older sister.
And yes Kevin, some of Dante's political works were on the Index for a while. That's because he backed the losing side in the Guelph civil war in Florence, and that political pontiff Boniface VIII backed the winners. It was pretty much all politics.

We studied Dante last year and it can be read on sooo many different levels. You can read it as a novel (and a fairly good one) or a theological work. Etc. It's just awesome.

Oops, I guess y'all are right that Dante wasn't excommunicated. I'm pretty sure he was on the Index for some time, especially for his political writings. But then I seem to be a reservoir of bad information on this subject.

Well, I disagree with Maureen. If Dante is so entertaining, why in 30 years of college teaching have I NEVER run across anyone who read either the Purgatory or the Paradise parts of the Divine Comedy for fun? The vast majority of people who read Dante read only the Inferno, because it has lots of gross scenes. I have yet to come across any student who can read it and day anything remotely clearheaded about the connection between the circles of hell, or a thousand other topics. In fact, they look at it like they look at the Godfather movies - hey #1 was great, but what the hell happened to #3?
BTW, I DO read the Purgatory and Paradise for - well, not entertainment or fun, but for the sheer joy, for what it reveals about myself, for what it reveals about God, and much, much more. It's astonishingly beautiful, astonishingly insightful, astonishingly enjoyable. But to act like it's "entertainment" on par with a novel is just silly, to use your words. Believe me - Oprah is NEVER going to pick the Purgatory or Paradise for her book club!
The opposition between "scholarly" and "unscholarly" people isn't necessary."Unscholarly" people aren't morons, and they should not be afraid to bring something to a book besides their desire to kill an evening.
Finally, I would be hard-pressed to call The Divine Comedy merely an "epic" poem like the Odyssey. It is unique in literary history, and it deserves to be seen as such, not summarily reduced.

Maureen, I apologize for the way I worded that. I should have known better, having taught Dante for many years. It was a really, really poor choice of words. OF COURSE Dante is the consummate "entertainer" and OF COURSE it is eminently readable! I meant something different.
I got SO TIRED of really, really BAD readings of Dante. I have read DOZENS of papers that say things like, "Dante would have been an even greater poet had he not been stuck in the 13th century with all that Catholic baggage." I have also read Protestant interpretations that completely misread the Beatific vision (saying that Dante "failed" at the end of the Paradiso, and simply collapsed backwards). Then I have read people who read the Divine Comedy and somehow come away with the idea that there is a vague "ineffable" religious experience out there, and Dante is simply doing the best he can to express it in his very limited language - but hey, we all know that in reality, all religions are the same, lead to the same place, etc. I could give you a dozen more misunderstandings.
So when I say "study," I really mean that people who have a good grasp of Catholic theology, some understanding of Aquinas (even if at second hand), etc., will see most fully what Dante is saying. I also mean that, after the enjoyment of reading the world's most beautiful poetry, one can easily slip into the same kind of thing that happens when people with unformed consciences and a lack of knowledge of Tradition and the Magisterium read Scripture: whacko interpretations!
I have never - in many years of teaching - ever taught that good literature is "spinach." I believe it is something that is so compelling that it draws you in by its beauty, and from the splendor of beauty follows the splendor of the truth (in fact, von Balthasar - one of both JPII and Benedict XVI's favorite theologian, and a great writer on beauty and the imagination) would also be a great background.
So forgive me for not explaining what I meant "study," and I'll forgive you for your straw man attack on my position (smile!).

So maybe one should read the encyclical first and then Dante?

Now, that's just silly.
Obviously, studying Dante closely will give a deeper understanding. But Dante did in fact intend his poems to be read, by ordinary people, with an ordinary amount of attention. Exactly like novels. Epic poems were the bestsellers of their day, read by (or read to) scholars and unscholarly people alike.
Honestly, I get sick of this kind of thing. It scares people off. It makes great literature sound like "eat your spinach" instead of really good entertainment. And it's really not supposed to be work.
If it were that much work, Dante would obviously not be very skilled at entertaining, and the work would never have become a bestseller even in his own time. (Much less be copied over and over.) After you get people's attention with entertainment, you can slip in all the deep meanings you want. But the entertainment level has to be valid, or it just won't work.

T.S. Eliot said, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world. Between them is no third." I couldn't agree more.
It is unfortunate that most people read only the Inferno, which only shows the consequences of love gone wrong. Perhaps more people will now read the Purgatorio and Paradiso. Like Scripture, however, they need to be *studied* - they can't be read like novels. The effort pays off immensely, however. Dante is the love of my life - I've read everything he has written many times, and the Divine Comedy every year - and he was much loved by C.S. Lewis and Tolkien as well.

Lily, he was a POLITICAL exile, not a religious one. He was NOT excommunicated.

I know that Dante was exiled; but no biography I have on hand indicates he was excommunicated. Perhaps someone else could weigh in on this.

We'll know the answer to that question when the encyclical is released . . . just a few hours from now!
YEE-HAW!
Yeah, and I thought it was bad that my wife made me stay up with her to get Lord of the Rings every year at its midnight release party (then made me watch it with her when we got home...even for the extended versions...even though I had work the next day...)
So Jimmy, are you going to have people over at your house when it happens? You know, coke, popcorn, chips, Catholic nerds...

And to think Dante was once excommunicated...

A papal encyclical on Dante...
Wow. That's just more Catholic nerd than I can stare at...
Fr. Philip