Dante's Inferno, by Mark Sanders, Sandow Birk, Dante Alighieri

I've read a few different translations of Dante's Inferno I found this version to be the worse translation by far.  You can literally tell this book was written by a surfer, probably while stoned.  The only redeeming quality of the book are the drawings of hell.  I liked the modern take on the different scenes yet keeping with the original style.

The book is about Dante's journey through the different circles and levels of hell.  With vivid descriptions of the various tortures to the different sinners.  I found it distracting that he would basically translate the tortures happening to different politicians that lived during the 1300s and then throw in a modern politician that is still alive...I had hoped if he was going to do a modern  translation and throw in modern technology that he would change all of the sinners of the book to be dead sinners of the last couple hundred years.  Not talk about 14th century clergy, royalty and politicians which I will admit I had to google a few to know who they were and then throw in a handful of people from modern times, living or dead.

My biggest gripe with the book is the painfully boring dialogue between Virgil and Dante.  Some of the dialogue is so loosely translated that it no longer makes sense.  I think even an urban dictionary would fail to know what the point of the conversations was.  Would I recommend this book?  No, I think learning middle Florentine and reading the original would be more fun.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

-- Winston Churchill