The Dor? Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy Author: Gustave Dor? | Language: English | ISBN:
B00A3YECY8 | Format: PDF
The Dor? Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy Description
These 135 fantastic and grotesque scenes depict the passion and grandeur of Dante's masterpiece — from the depths of Hell onto the mountain of Purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of Paradise. Includes plates produced for The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Illustrations accompanied by appropriate lines from the Longfellow translation.
- File Size: 103309 KB
- Print Length: 141 pages
- Publisher: Dover Publications; 1st edition (August 24, 2012)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00A3YECY8
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,984 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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As I write this, I am a member of a book group that is working through the three parts of Dante's COMEDY. I am also a fan of Gustave Dore's illustrations, so it was a given that I would get a copy of this to accompany my trip through hell, purgatory, and the heavens with Dante. After having worked through these illustrations, looking at each one as I read the relevant passage in Dante, I simultaneously feel that any enthusiastic reader of Dante should own this book, while at the same time harboring some mild disappointment.
Most of the illustrations are marvelously done. Dore magnificently captures the inner spaciousness and abandonedness of hell. The landscapes, the pits, the caverns, the abysses are all marvelously drawn and conceived. I'm not sure there has ever been a better illustrator than Dore, and in this volume we have Dore at his best. Or, rather, near his best. In fact, I found these illustrations disappointing in two regards. First, virtually all of his human figures look like parodies of classical nude studies. One of the joys of illustrations by Dore to accompany DON QUIXOTE is the wonderful naturalness of his characters. Quixote looks very much like we imagine Quixote, and so does Sancho Panza. But in the COMEDY, Dore's figures look like slightly overweight body builders striking uncomfortable poses. There is an air of artificiality that I at times find somewhat overwhelming. The denizens of hell look spectacularly fit and well-fed. Where are the skinny sinners? The scrawny reprobates?
The second way in which I found the illustrations disappointing is in the depiction of Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice. Dante is actually drawn to correspond as closely as possible with what we know about his appearance.
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