I’ve own hardbound copies of The Harvard Classics and after reading Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club, I discovered The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri in The Harvard Classics is not the translation translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882), but the translation translated by Henry Francis Cary (1805-1814).
The first American translation of The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri was by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and still widely read.
I recommend reading Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club. I’ll keep my opinions to myself and let you discover your own – There is plenty to discover!
I have read most of Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club, but decided to read it again – only this time I am going to follow along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s translation of The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri.
Who in the world is Dante?
Dante degli Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet wrote The Divine Comedy (1309-1320) an epic poem that describes his spiritual journey through Hell and Purgatory and finally to Paradise. (What’s love have to do with it?)
You may enjoy discovering facts about – Dante degli Alighieri…
Note:
Comedy – ORIGIN late Middle English (as a genre of drama, also denoting a narrative poem with a happy ending, as in Dante’s Divine Comedy)
Two more novels of a great writer. I picked up Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow to read next. I also plan to read Matthew Pearl’s The Last Dickens real soon. I’ll let you know what I discovered in both of these novel after reading them.
For Your Info:
The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot that was first published in 1909.
Eliot, then President of Harvard University, had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. (Originally he had said a three-foot shelf.)
I think those who are interested in these volumes will read every word and spend hour after hour enjoying the journey through them.
