We are finally at the last act for Dante. If you recall when I started, I was trying to delve more into faith with fiction. It didn’t take long for me to discover that this was more fiction with a faith backdrop. This lead to a long period of disappointment until I reconciled with Dante. More on that in a minute.

It was late into Paradise when I had a revelation. I always knew that Dante was destined to head back to earth. It was this story that he was commanded to take back. That was the genesis story for the Devine comedy.

If I had to stack rank the three books, this would be my order Purgatory, Hell and then Heaven. I know that might be a surprise, I think that I am too. But, of the story Purgatory actually makes the most sense to me. I still don’t believe in Purgatory, but I can understand the logic of how it works. I liked the creativeness of Hell and I was disappointed with Heaven.

I am glad that I read it. With the dust settled a bit, I can appreciate it a little more. It is considered one of the great works of literature. I don’t respect ‘great’ too much but it did allow me to contemplate my own faith given the contrasting opinion with Dante’s view of faith. It is one of those things that you can check off but I don’t think that I will likely be reading it again.

I think that you could probably read this twenty times to catch all of the nuances. I found myself getting caught up in all of the footnotes and backstory to really get in the groove. Some nights it was really hard because my reading was so disjointed flipping back and forth between the footnotes and the actual text. I could hardly remember what I read.

I know that you were all reading along with me right? Sure. Would I recommend this as an entertaining work of fiction? Honestly, I would say no. This is a scholarly work that is deep in Italian history, Greek and Roman mythology and Catholic regimen. I am not telling you what to do, but I am telling you that this is very hard to read. It is harder to understand and impossible to fully identify with.

I have heard that some reading clubs do The Devine Comedy in 100 days. This is because there are 100 Cantos. As much as I read, that would be pretty hard for me to do. Each Canto represented approximately 30 minutes each for me. So, I have about fifty hours into the book. Realistically a lot more than that but who is counting.

You can’t blame Dante really. He was pissed off about getting banished from his home. I would make fun of my enemies too if I were to write a story. The name Comedy was in the title. So shame on me for having different expectations. While I didn’t laugh much, I could see the sarcasm and irony both elements of humor. I am sure that if I had more context with many of the characters, I might have found it more funny.

I can’t remember if I said this or not, I think that I have. Despite not being a Catholic, I have a deep respect for the organization. There is no doubt that many bad things have been done in the name of the Lord. It is the mission of the church that I admire and not the people. That is one of the things that a lot of Catholics seem to miss, including Dante.

End Your Programming Routine: My final answer is that I am glad I read it and I am glad that I am done. Since I read the inferno in high school, reading the full work gave me a much more comprehensive view of the story. I am definitely looking forward to turning the page on The Art of War.