To Heaven with Dante

Many English-speaking people who want to be educated try to read Dante, the 'best known, least read' of all the classical poets, and find him impossible. In my thirties I did just that: 'Where do I begin?' The library yielded a translation of 'The Divine Comedy' – a great fat epic in three volumes. Wading into the Inferno, I struggled through a couple of sections and decided this wasn't for me. Too gloomy, too stilted, too difficult to grasp – and above all – too many words. I gave up almost at once. I cannot be the only one who as a result of that kind of experience thinks the work of this great Master is exclusively about Hell. 'Dante? – oh, you mean Dante's Inferno!' they say. NO! That's not it. There's far, far more… in this book Hazel Marshall has created a uniquely accessible adaptation of Dante's epic journey that will bring it within reach of many who might otherwise not set forth at all.