Description
For sale: a rare and exceptional first edition, first printing hardcover copy of Inferno:The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1 by Robert Durling . First Edition unstated, 1996 Oxford University Press. First Printing with full number line.
The book is in Fine condition with spotless boards, strong title gilt on a straight spine, clean page blocks, tight binding, no spine tilt, lightly rolled spine ends, mild edge wear, and strong corners. The interior of the book is also in Fine condition with no marks, inscriptions, or any other signs of ownership. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright, making it an excellent addition to any collection.
The dust jacket is in Near Fine condition with mild surface and edge wear, the price intact on the front flap and a small crease on the rear flap. Looks great in a new Brodart archival wrap.
This first volume of Robert Durling’s new translation of The Divine Comedy brings a new power and accuracy to the rendering of Dante’s extraordinary vision of Hell, with all its terror, pathos, and humor. Remarkably true to both the letter and spirit of this central work of Western literature, Durling’s is a prose translation (the first to appear in twenty-five years), and is thus free of the exigencies of meter and rhyme that hamper recent verse translations. As Durling notes, “the closely literal style is a conscious effort to convey in part the nature of Dante’s Italian, notoriously craggy and difficult even for Italians.” Rigorously accurate as to meaning, it is both clear and supple, while preserving to an unparalleled degree the order and emphases of Dante’s complex syntax.
Large volume ships promptly in a corrugated mailer with the book wrapped in both craft paper and multiple layers of bubble wrap.
