Teaser Tuesday: Dante’s Divine Comedy

Like an ever-winding stair, the Wheel of Time has turned once more to Teaser Tuesday.

 

Just in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share a few sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

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Every year around Easter I read John Ciardi’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. This will be my eighth consecutive re-read.

The Goodreads Blurb for Comedy

Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri’s poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise; the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.

This week, I’m going to give you a three-for-one teaser; that’s right, I’m giving you a glimpse of all three books!

As always, the quotes are chosen at random using the Truly Random Number Generator.

Inferno (p.159)

And everywhere along that hideous track
  I saw horned demons with enormous lashes
  move through those souls, scourging them on the back.

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Purgatorio (p.98)

And he: "Go now, for the Sun shall not complete
  its seventh rest in that great bed the Ram
  bestrides and covers with its four spread feet

before this testimony you have given
  shall be nailed to the center of your head
  with stouter nails, and more securely driven,

than ever hearsay was. And this shall be
  certain as fate is in its fixed decree."

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Paradiso (p.228)

"Who would believe in the erring world down there
  that Ripheus the Trojan would be sixth
  among the sacred lusters of this sphere?

Now he knows grace divine to depths of bliss
  the world's poor understanding cannot grasp.
  Even his eye cannot plumb that abyss."

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In Retrospect:

I have not yet finished You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day, mainly because Krystal isn’t finished with it yet and the last time I borrowed it I lost her place.

However, I did discover that Felicia Day will be doing a book signing (relatively) close to us. Tickets are $20 each, and include entry to the event, Q&A, and a softcover book.

If you want to contribute towards the $60 needed (2 people @ $20 + gas), let me know in the comments and I’ll set something up.

We won’t need both books; maybe we’ll pick a random winner from contributors?

I’m just thinking out loud here.