Yesterday Claire and I finished our latest Hillsdale College online course, a very engaging 10-lecture series by Stephen Smith on Dante's
Comedy. It was the 6th Hillsdale course we have completed and certainly one of our favorites. Now, with the lectures finished, we will be re-reading the trilogy itself: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Claire I have read these classic poetics works but it has been many, many years ago -- me in high school and the both of us in the very first year of the Notting Hill Napoleons. But after going through Dr. Smith's lectures, we're very eager to take this amazing journey with Dante again.
Also exciting is that our previous excursions in the
Comedy were with the texts translated from the ancient Italian by John Ciardi in the 1950s. This time around, we've ordered old copies of the translations made by none other than Dorothy Sayers.
Anyone interested in taking the trip with us? If so, let us know...and may I suggest that a great preview would be that Hillsdale course.
