Do you want to understand Dante ?
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It's hard to find a criticism of this "audio-book".
The translation by Benedict Flynn is clear and lucid. He abandons couplets and terza rima for the clarity of blank verse which I think will be especially appreciated by first-comers to the Divine Comedy.
The reading by Heathcote Williams is wonderful.
The background music is sensitively chosen and always appropriate. It adds atmosphere and historical context without taking over.
The CD notes are helpful, with illustrations by Dore which are, to my mind, even better than Botticelli's drawings.
This CD collection is a masterpiece. It shows that Audio-books needn't be an afterthought or supplementary to the original text.
Hearing the Divine Comedy read by a master story-teller has given new depth to the work. I would recommend this audio-book to anyone coming to Dante for the first time, but also to old-hands like myself who would like to be re-introduced to the work.
If I have a criticism, I suppose I would've liked to have had Flynn's translation included with the CD notes, but I feel mean for saying this as I can understand how this would have pushed the price up and, it cannot be denied this is excellent value, especially with the extra "Life of Dante" CD.
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