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Dante's Divine Comedy

Journey to Joy: Purgatory

Like Dante's Divine Comedy, Journey to Joy: Inferno, the second volume, Dante's Divine Comedy, Journey to Joy: Purgatory is a fresh, accurate translation of Dante's Italian poetry into clear English prose. Dorothy Sayers claimed, "Of the three books of the Comedy, the Purgatory is, for English readers, the least known, the least quoted and the most beloved."

The deep-felt need this book addresses is universal and powerfully personal. Most us want exactly what Dante's story promises: improvement. Such hope is what accounts for major movements that have flourished in the twentieth century, from psychotherapy and Communism to cosmetic surgery and twelve-step programs.

Ironically, many people assume that Purgatory is a realm of failure and pain. But Dante and his guide find it a bright mountainside on the outskirts of heaven, where they see people recovering from the effects of evil. No one there can fail. Each example teaches something new about human healing and growth, on earth as well as in the spiritual world. And as Dante journeys upward, level by level, he keeps gradually changing into a wiser, braver, and better man.

My single most exciting original discovery about Purgatory is explained in the introductory essay, "Botticelli's 'Primavera' and Dante's Purgatory." This essay solves a 400-year-old puzzle for art historians and Botticelli experts, and also reveals an inexplicable oversight on the part of Dante enthusiasts and specialists in Italian studies.

Although "Primavera," portrayed on my book jacket, is one of the world's most famous and beloved paintings, art historians have always admitted they don't quite understand it. They agree that it is a celebration of classical pagan deities, but the rationale for Botticelli's choice and arrangement of figures puzzles them. In fact, however, "Primavera" is an expression of Botticelli's devout Christianity. He was a Divine Comedy specialist, and the tableaux in "Primavera" represents Cantos 28-30 of Purgatory, which are set in the Garden of Eden in 1300 A.D. The loss of this crucial information may have been caused by the catastrophic misfortune of Dante's Neoplatonist patron, a young member of the Medici family. Shortly after acquiring the painting, he was overcome by his political enemies and banished from the city-state of Florence. Botticelli died a few years later.

This discovery means that countless art books, textbooks, and reference works should be updated. I believe Botticelli would be immensely pleased by my discovery, and so should everyone who cares about cultural studies and the arts.

Here are the titles I gave to Dante's Purgatory cantos:

  1. Down to the Dewy Grass
  2. Glad Ship of Singing Souls
  3. A Flock of Timid Sheep
  4. Up a Cranny in a Cliff
  5. Precious Shadow
  6. Away from the Eager Crowd
  7. A Valley of Flowers
  8. Green-winged Angels
  9. Peter's Gate
  10. Above the Needle's Eye
  11. Prayer of the Proud
  12. Up Sacred Steps
  13. Blind Beggars
  14. The Cry of Cain
  15. Toward the Western Sun
  16. Dark Smoke
  17. Caught by Nightfall
  1. Runners' Marathon
  2. Sweet Song of the Siren
  3. The Great Earthquake
  4. Meeting an Admirer
  5. A Fragrant Fruit Tree
  6. Singing through Tears
  7. The Beggars' Tree
  8. Flames of Lust
  9. A Fiery Path
  10. Through a Wall of Flame
  11. The Sacred Wood
  12. Seven Golden Candlesticks
  13. From a Cloud of Flowers
  14. Into the Sacred Stream
  15. The Tree of Knowledge
  16. A Holy Spring
"We need not forget that Dante is sublime, intellectual, and, on occasion, grim: but we must also be prepared to find him simple, homely, humorous, tender, and bubbling over with ecstasy."
—Dorothy Sayers

"Dante's Purgatory, as 'retold' by Kathryn Lindskoog, is clear, potent, and remarkably comprehensible, with her useful (and necessary) notes conveniently placed at the bottom of each page.... Certainly this vigorous version of Purgatory is a successful rendition for the nineties, as well as for whatever the first decade of the twenty-first century will be called. The surest proof, at least for me, of its success is that, as I write, I can hardly wait to read Kathryn Lindskoog's rendition of Paradise"

—THE CANADIAN C. S. LEWIS JOURNAL

"Dante's Divine Comedy: Purgatory, by Kathryn Lindskoog, is a delight to read.... Dante envisions Purgatory as a place of unearthly beauty, and here her pleasing choice of language makes this book a delight for the reader. The book closes with the words 'now I was pure and prepared to rise to the stars.' This reader has been caught up in Dante's joyful anticipation of heaven and eagerly awaits the third volume, Paradise."

—The C. S. Lewis Centenary Group

"Not only has Lindskoog done an admirable job of rendering Dante's Italian poetry into clear English prose, but for each volume she has provided helpful notes to further facilitate the reading of the text."

—Christopher Mitchell, Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review, vol. 16