Monday, 28 October 2019

Purgatory - Dante Alighieri (3.5🌟)

I read Inferno about a year ago.  Liked it but the reading was so hard and time consuming, I decided to stop and take a gap year.

Purgatory is an interesting read but I found Inferno much more engaging. Perhaps it was because the descriptions of the circles, the sinners and their punishments. I could see some of these descriptions reflected in modern (horror) literature. I think that contributed to my enjoyment. 

Purgatory is a sort of mountain which Dante and Virgilio ascend through its terraces. Two terraces for the ante-purgatory plus seven terraces  each representing a sin. At the end of the last terrace Dante meets Beatriz and is allowed to cross into paradise. This whole journey might seem simple but it isn't.  As in Inferno, Dante here uses innumerable literary, mythological  and historical references. So I had to stop my reading to read footnotes to understand. I think I ran out of motivation half way through the sloth terrace. The slothful are condemned to run and run until they are clean from their sins. I found this amusing but then very little happens.  Two or three terraces up I got to Lust and some long descriptions of Lust and chastity which I found, obviously, old fashioned.   Not much more to say except that  will wait another year to read paradise.

My edition is in Spanish published by Alianza editorial. 

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