Jack Kost

Sunday, February 9, 2025

The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso

By Dante Alighieri.

Translated by John Ciardi.

Published by Berkley.
Originally published 1321.
This edition published 2003.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0451208633
ISBN-13: 978-0451208637

Description:

The authoritative translations of The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso – together in one volume.

Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri’s poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise – the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.

Now, for the first time, John Ciardi’s brilliant and authoritative translations of Dante’s three soaring canticles – The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso – have been gathered together in a single volume. Crystallizing the power and beauty inherent in the great poet’s immortal conception of the aspiring soul, The Divine Comedy is a dazzling work of sublime truth and mystical intensity.

Dante's Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
By Dante Alighieri.
Illustrated by Paul Brizzi and Gaëtan Brizzi.

Published by Harry N. Abrams.
Published 2024.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 1419776754
ISBN-13: 978-1419776755

Description:

Acclaimed animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi adapt Dante’s literary classic Inferno in the sweeping, dramatic style that brought The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Fantasia 2000 to life.

Literary aficionados will appreciate this decadent graphic novel adaptation, which does not seek to sand down the source material. Likewise, adults whose imaginations were fueled by films like Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame as children, which the Brizzi brothers animated sequences for, will be swept up in this lushly illustrated adult fable, unfettered by the demands of corporate animation studios.

Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi make this famously dense literary classic accessible without distorting it and betraying the spirit of the Italian genius. They deftly translate it into comics while taking care to preserve the heart of the story: a taste for excess, dramatic tension, and the inevitable darkness of the subject matter.

Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante crosses the nine circles of Hell to find his beloved, Beatrice, in Paradise. Along the way, he must recognize and reject each of the incarnations of sin. In each circle of Hell, Dante confronts both sinners and demons, from Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Paris, whose loves were famously their downfall, to the Greek Furies and Medusa, to heretics like Epicurus, whose teachings claimed that the soul died with the body, now forced to writhe in a flaming tomb for eternity.

Each layer of Hell reveals monsters, gods, historical and mythological kings, philosophers, queens, and hordes of the miserable, faceless damned, all culminating in a confrontation with Lucifer himself.

The Warriors

By Sol Yurick.

Published by Grove Press.
First published 1965.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0802139922
ISBN-13: 978-0802139924

Description:

Every gang in the city meets on a sweltering July 4 night in a Bronx park for a peace rally. The crowd of miscreants turns violent after a prominent gang leader is killed, and chaos prevails over attempts at order.

The Warriors follows the Dominators as they make their nocturnal journey to their home territory without being killed. The police are prowling the city in search of anyone involved in the mayhem. An exhilarating novel that examines New York City teenagers left behind by society, who form identity and personal strength through their affiliation with their "family," The Warriors weaves together social commentary with ancient legends for a classic coming-of-age tale.

This edition includes a new introduction by the author.

Arthur Schopenhauer, on reading:

I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

On this day in movie history - Cold Pursuit (2019):

Cold Pursuit

directed by Hans Petter Moland,

written by Frank Baldwin,

was released in the United States on February 8, 2019.
A remake of In Order of Disappearance aka Kraftidioten (2014), directed by Hans Petter Moland.
Music by George Fenton.

Cast:

Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, Laura Dern, Aleks Paunovic, William Forsythe, Raoul Trujillo, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Michael Eklund, Bradley Stryker, David O'Hara, Christopher Logan, Nathaniel Arcand, Ben Cotton, Micheál Richardson, Mitchell Saddleback, Manna Nichols, Arnold Pinnock, Wesley MacInnes, Elysia Rotaru, Nicholas Holmes, Michael Adamthwaite, Elizabeth Thai, Gus Halper, Kyle Nobess, Glen Gould, Glenn Wrage, Michael Bean, Nels Lennarson.

On this day in music history - Careless Loving, by Roxanne Potvin (2004):

Careless Loving

Album by Roxanne Potvin,

released February 8, 2004.

Track list:

I Don't Want Nobody (To Have My Love But You); Make Me Yours; Ain't It a Shame; If I Can't Have You; Missing You; My Book; Don't Get Close to Me; Careless Loving; Wild Wild Young Men; Long John Blues.

On this day in music history - Rossini Recital, by Cecilia Bartoli (1991):

Rossini Recital

Album by Cecilia Bartoli,

released February 8, 1991.

Track list:

La Pastorella; Belta Crudele; Il Trovatore; La Regata Veneziana; Mi Lagnero Tacendo; Il Risentimento; La Grande Coquette; Ariette a Lancienne; L'orpheline Du Tyrol; La Legende de Marguerita; Nizza; L'ame Delaissee; Canzonetta Spagnuola; Giovanni D'arco.

On this day in movie history - Witness (1985):

Witness

directed by Peter Weir,

written by Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley,

based on a story by Earl W. Wallace, Pamela Wallace and William Kelley,

was released in the United States on February 8, 1985.
Music by Maurice Jarre.