Why Divine Comedy considered as a classic?

Answer 1

Because, before talking about religion, love, death, God, people, it talks about Life. This is the reason of its name: a Divine Comedy, The Comedy. Dante shows us an other World to show this World, the one we are living in. Our crazy, romantic, fool, ridiculous, serious, but always incredibly Beautiful and Poetry-full World. Dante talks about the people who made history, about what is Love, and how powerful it could be, about God and his mercifulness. In one word: Life.

Answer 2

Another indication of Dante's greatness is that every generation produces a new competent translation. I liked Ciardi's when it came out, but then–as a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers–I read hers as well.

Don't choose an edition without copious footnotes; otherwise, you will be lost.

The Inferno is a fascinating read; the Purgatorio is thought-provoking; the Paradiso is tough!

An aside: C. S. Lewis, better known for books for laymen about Christianity, wrote a marvelous introduction to medieval thought entitled "The Discarded Image." It is intended for college students and dips into about six languages, but some sections can safely be skipped, and you will be continuously interested by what you read. One sample: our influenza derives from the same Italian word, because the Italians of the time attributed the flu to "influences" in the air.

Answer 3

Because it tells a great story, and was a brilliant piece of writing. Dante was one of the truly great writers in any language. "The Divine Comedy" is also one of the very first works in a "secular" language, as it was written in Italian, not Latin.

Answer 4

Because it started/defined its genre (my prerequisite for a classic). Run a quick search on Bangsian Fantasy and you'll see what I mean. Anything that original will either become a classic or become virtually unknown.

Answer 5

It's been one of the most widely read books since Dante wrote it, which was centuries ago.

Answer 6

Well, one obvious reason: It has survived the "test of time; it's lasted 693 years.

Here are some other reasons:

"The Divine Comedy
The great and renowned Italian writer and poet, Dante Aligheri, is considered by many to be the writer of the greatest work of poetry ever, The Divine Comedy. A book that has survived for six hundred ninety years since its first publication is still popular among publishers (The Classic). This book covers such a large spectrum of the life and journey through the evolution of the human soul and mankind that its greatness is not a phantom conjured to satisfy any average man. It is something that is meant to enlighten the mind, and arouse the heart. Genius in its own right, and alive in the minds of many, The Divine Comedy.
While the book is written in verse form it is not in rhyme for all those who do not speak Italian. In Dante's time it was expected for serious works of literature to be written in Latin. Instead, Dante wrote The Divine Comedy in his native tongue of Italian. This fact may seem unim-portant or trivial but it is certainly not the case. In all likelihood, the most important linguistics contribution to mankind ever because publishing this book in the common, Italian tongue signified the last book of the middle ages, and the beginnings of the new audience of the common man. Without the publishing of his book, there may have never been a need for such things as the printing press so that mass volumes could reach the common man. It broke down all previous political boundaries and began a revolution for desire of intellect and connections with the Roman past, The Renaissance. While it can not take direct credit all of these things there is certainly reasons to believe his publications were at the very least, a catalyst of them. With the exception of religious doctrines of faith, the most important book to evolution of literature in mankind's existence.
With his many allegorical connections with the ancient Roman past, political connections with what was then contemporary church governing policy, and emotional connections with the paralleled growth of the human spirit as it traveled deeper into the depths of hell, and closer to God, the book is still popular today. First released in 1314, 690 years ago (The Classic), the book had much success for its time period. Even with documents being transcribed by hand there managed to be over 1200 copies sold in Italy alone before his death in 1321. Critics also agreed that his work was a masterpiece. Working until his final days on the last book of The Divine Comedy, Paradisio, it has been speculated by some that he never actually wrote the last fifteen chapters of the book but that has since been dismissed.
The Commedia was the original title of The Divine Comedy and saw much success under that name. After the books initial success interest in it died down slightly because of its sheer length and difficulty to copy until the invention of the printing press. This invention gave Dante a new found audience and his books became more popular than ever. People around Europe began to call him The Divine Poet and when an Italian printer misprinted his name as The Divine Comedy the name stuck and has been called that ever since. He once again received critical and popular acclaim. This success has translated into today's world where he is viewed as one of the greatest poets ever, and as for Divine Comedy, considered a masterpiece.
Dante was not typical of other writers at the time, often attacking the Catholic Church as he did in the Divine Comedy. In Iferno, Dante finds seven popes from the past in one of the deeper regions of hell. For these reasons he was often labeled a heretic despite the relative overwhelming success that The Divine Comedy had for a book in its time. Dante once said of himself and The Divine Comedy, "I was fearing that one day I would be convicted of the charge of buried talent, and I was desirous of keeping vigil for the good of the world, that I wrote a testament to the lame church that no longer serves the God of its name, but the name of its God."(Gardner) Accused repeatedly for heretical beliefs against the church but never condemned he found safe passage and friendly enthusiasts of the book everywhere he went, but accusations as well.
What is so difficult to understand about The Divine Comedy is its strange word usage and obscure passages. Written in verse form, so much of the book is lost in translation. While not recognizable at first, The Divine Comedy is actually an allegory on multiple levels. On the surface it would seem as though it were just a journey through a post-mordant hell and physical pain. When looking deeper though, one sees the levels at which it exist. Bearing the strength of the human soul, and the journey to peace. "... a realistic picture and intensely involved analysis of every aspect of earthly human life. Dante's literal journey is also an allegory of the progress of the individual soul toward God and the progress of political and social mankind toward peace on earth; it is a passionate, although moral, evaluation of human nature and a mystic vision of the Absolute toward which it strives."(The Classic).
The book that changed the face of literature is still alive and well today. No book has ever received such an audience that was not a doctrine of a faith. Once again, an amazing testament to the human soul. The audience it has touched, remarkable. The contribution it has made to literature, notable. The testament it is to the human soul, certainly undeniable. Dante's, The Divine Comedy.

A very intricate and sublime work
Dante's Divine Comedy is considered as one of the supreme works of Western Literature and it certainly deserves that title. It is about the author being taken and shown around the late-Medieval, Catholic worldview. There are 3 sections: in the first he visits hell to see the torments of the wicked, in the second he goes to purgatory where the souls are purified and await heaven and the third section of the work is his visit to heaven itself. It begins with the author being lost and threatened in a dark wood (metaphorical no doubt) and the eminent Beatrice (read the book to find out about her) sends the poet Virgil from the Limbo (in hell) to take Dante so safety and show him around the Inferno and Purgatorio. Then Beatrice herself accompanies Dante through the Paradiso. As such, according to the poem, this is all part of God's plan to have an eyewitness see the afterlife and take a didactic message back to a troubled earth.

The book is probably classed as a late Medieval, early Renaissance work. It is written in superb Italian vernacular verse (or so I would imagine) and has many things in common with the epic poem and the romance genre, both of which were important in Dante's time.

Dante has several objectives. The most pragmatic one is to establish himself as a poet and a quality one despite his use of the vernacular. As such, he can be seen as a foreshadower of an increased availability of learning to the masses. Dante wants to dispel the notion that only works in Latin can be erudite and he is considered to have been very inventive in his use of the Italian dialect, often inventing words like Shakespeare did.

The most interesting one I found was to expound his worldview, theology and philosophy. Dante is an orthodox Catholic and the Divine Comedy is a great window the Medieval thought as it combined religion with Greek philosophy and a certain outlook on history. As such, we find that the Aristotelian cosmos with the earth in the centre and ten spheres (one for each planet) surround it, except that the spheres are populated by an increasingly holy presence of angels and souls of those holy to Catholicism. Hell is inside the earth, also being a series of concentric circles, leading to Satan in the centre. Purgatory is a mountain located on the other side of the earth (that is, from the point of view of Europe) and the physical connects with the symbollic as the souls make circuits round the mountain leading higher and higher until, purged from their sins they can go to heaven.

Through the travels, Dante meets hundreds of characters, demons and historical figures who have died. From this perspective, a large part of the book is a tad inaccessible as it requires a fairly good knowledge of his world to get the subtleties of his political contemporaries and the such. He distributes historical figures based on how good he thinks they were. Overall, it is impossible to convey the feeling but the book is essentially a collection of hundreds of stories of people who've lived in Dante's world, the things they did, how they were rewarded and punished and what they think of the contemporary world. There are popes, kings, Dante's ancestors, mythological figures etc etc. And all through one gets the central ideal of Dante - that he is a scourge (both as the fictional visitor to the afterlife and as the real writer of the work) of the corrupt offices of the Church and other human institutions that have gone astray and that a view into the afterlife is necessary to bring the world to the right path.

Sounds like heavy stuff and it often is but the great thing is that a lot of profound ideas from a late-Medieval writer and thinker are presented in very colourful and strong images that you'll remember for years.

This translation seems pretty good though I haven't seen any other. The edition is great as it has plenty of white space making reading easy as well as extensive notes and references. Finally, an often-neglected component of classics is illustrations. Here, there are about 50-60 pencil sketches from a single Renaissance artist which bring the episodes to life.
Finally, the emotional and symbollic levels of this work in terms of a personal spiritual journey from a troubled world to the depths of depravity, through purification and to the divine, are magnificent even if like me you aren't a Christian.
Overall, a timeless work, very intricate, thoughtful and sublime."