Title: Dante for bigots?
Product review: Esolen is neither a Dante scholar nor an Italian language/literature specialist. He is an English Teacher at Providence College, a Catholic institution. His retelling of the Divine Comedy is reasonably accurate and quite readable. The problem comes with his notes. They range from the scandalously inadequate to the downright offensive. Esolen has written a number of anti-gay articles for religious publications . This is reflected in his notes where he refers to homosexuality as something like "that most heinous of sins". This is not only offensive in a contemporary publication, but is totally out of tune with Dante himself, who took a much more sympathetic and nuanced approach c.1300 AD. The skimpy notes manage to include other personal and inappropriate remarks.There are many superior translations out there. Mandelbaum's is excellent and has very good notes. Robert and Jean Hollander's is also very fine and the notation is the most extensive and scholarly of all.
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