Dante’s Divine Comedy: by Joseph Luzzi - Spectrum Culture

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Dante’s Divine Comedy: by Joseph Luzzi - Spectrum Culture

When Mad Men late in its run depicted Don Draper perusing Dante, he had his nose buried in John Ciardi’s rendition, ubiquitous in the sixties. Sidle into a used bookstore, online or in person, and you’ll likely pluck Ciardi’s Inferno, alongside a heap of competitors who’ve translated the first installment of the Commedia, anglicized as The Divine Comedy – a fitting name in the sense that it has a happier ending than the conclusion of Inferno — i…