# Updated Divine Comedy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/updated-divine-comedy/582285>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 18, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/updated-divine-comedy/582285 "2011-05-18T04:22:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/updated-divine-comedy/582285/21 "2011-05-23T21:31:55Z")

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This reminds me of one of my favorite anecdotes. I wish I could remember the names of the two critics and the exact quotes, but the exchange went something like this. First Critic: The **Inferno** is totally unrealistic. For example, about three-fourths of the people Dante meets in Hell are Italian!" Second Critic: “That seems about right.” In any case, I imagine a modern retelling would have to be much more ethnicly diverse.

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/updated-divine-comedy/582285/22 "2011-05-24T01:09:21Z")

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> [@raspberry\_hunter](#):
>
> Heh. Did you not read the Sayers intro, where she talks about how any sane person would love Purgatorio best? (And I do too, so there 🙂 )
> 
> I’m thrilled to find someone else who’s read the Sayers. I knew her first for her Dante, before I knew she’d written mysteries. I do find Ciardi a bit more readable (Sayers kind of has to contort sometimes to get the terza rima going), but the terza rima really adds something to the experience, and I do kind of think that of all the translations I know the Sayers gets across some of the wonder of it the best. Also, she has the best notes! I’m totally bummed that she died before she could work out Paradiso – the quality is noticeably worse.

The Purgatorio is certainly interesting - but I’m not convinced that the lesser quality of the Paradiso is due to Sayer’s death, as much as the work itself. Even Dante had to be getting tired of it by that point! Sayer’s collaborator, Barbara Reynolds, had to complete, if I recall correctly, only the last thirteen cantos. They rest is Sayers. Declining Sayers, but Sayers.

The Ciardi is good, and comprehensible, where Sayers is sometimes a bit obscure, but, just as a read, the Sayers is much more enjoyable.

As a total aside, have you read the Jill Paton Walsh Peter Wimsey novels? Not Sayers (who on Earth could be?) but not bad.

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