h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there Anhaga -

So you think that Paradise Lost is better than the Divine Comedy? I thought they were both pretty fantastic to be honest. But I prefer Dante because of how complex and inclusive it is, and because it's properly medieval (i.e. bonkers).

I suppose the main problem with Dante in English is still the Dorothy Sayers rhymed Penguin translation.

And one shameless plug. If you enjoy quasi-erudite literary discussion, you could do a lot worse than the discussion area of the Penguin Classics website.

Cheers

BB

Did I say Paradise Lost was better than the Divine Comedy?



No. I didn't think so. I said it was "perhaps" the greatest in a modern language and that it compared "favourably" with the Divine Comedy. Personally I like Dante much much better than Milton, but I do think that Paradise Lost compares favourably with it, and many prefer Paradise Lost, so, I don't think I made any misrepresentation.




(I generally use Singleton's Bollingen prose translation with its facing Italian text so that I'm actually looking at what Dante wrote. Sometimes I look at Ciardi's translation)