Alighieri, Dante "The Divine Comedy"

Alighieri, Dante "The Divine Comedy" (Italian: Divina Commedia) - 1308-20

I love classics. I love chunky books. So, those should be two points for this book.
I don't like reading plays. I don't like reading poetry. Those are two points against this book.
Which side wins? Hard to say. If you don't enjoy reading something, it doesn't get better when it gets longer, so the chunkiness played against the read.

I also didn't think this was a very funny book, not that I have anything against that but if a title is "comedy", you should have to smile at least from time to time. Hmmm, didn't happen. Maybe not my kind of humour (though that is usually slapstick and this is certainly not that kind, either).

I know how often this work is praised as highly intelligent, greatest work of art, etc. but for me, it was not something I could relate to very well. Let me put it like this, if you are a classic lover, this is probably a must read and I am glad I finished it.

This was our read in our international online book club in October 2025 and here are some comments from the group:

• We had a lively and fascinating discussion. Several of us were impressed by how vivid and powerful the writing still feels, even after 700 years. The Swedish translation from 1983 was found to be excellent, while the older Finnish version seemed harder to follow.
  We rated the book between 4 and 5 of 5 stars. The many layers of hell led to a lot of discussion - whether Dante’s journey was real, dreamlike, or symbolic. Those with more background in ancient literature and history found it easier to follow all the references, while others were overwhelmed by the flood of Greek and Roman names and places. One member noted that Dante had even placed some of his real-life enemies in hell, adding a personal and political dimension to the story. One copy had a foreword by a translator that told that the author himself called the book only "Comedy", allegedly because it has a happy ending eventually, so the Divine part has been added hundreds of years later by history.
  We also looked at art inspired by Inferno, from paintings to illustrations, and one member had an edition with strikingly dark and vivid images that added to the experience.
  Overall, we agreed that Inferno has stood the test of time remarkably well, though modern translations make it far more accessible today. None of the other members had read the next parts, Purgatory and Paradiso, yet.
  
  
• As my 11th-Grade English teacher told us, "it's a helluva book".
  
  
• Dante's extraordinary intellect and imagination interwove Italian history, Church history, philosophy, theology, and his own life in mind-boggling ways. "The Figure of Beatrice" (Goodreads) by Charles Williams offers valuable insights. I was very moved to visit Dante's tomb in Ravenna (he died there of malaria while still in exile from Florence).

From the back cover:

"Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections - Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso - which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God. It is usually held to be one of the world's greatest works of literature. 

The plot of The Divine Comedy is simple: a man is miraculously enabled to visit the souls in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He has two guides: Virgil, who leads him through the Inferno and Purgatorio, and Beatrice, who introduces him to Paradiso. Through these fictional encounters taking place from Good Friday evening in 1300 through Easter Sunday and slightly beyond, Dante the character learns of the exile that is awaiting him (an actual exile that had already occurred at the time of writing). This device allowed Dante not only to create a story out of his exile but also to explain how he came to cope with personal calamity and to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy's troubles as well."

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Ten Books From My Favourite Genre

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish".

It is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

June 4: Books From My Favourite Genre

Historical Fiction

Definitely one of my favourite genres. But - decisions, decisions! It's always so hard to choose ten books only. I have reduced it to ten authors but even that was hard enough:

Falcones, Ildefonso "Cathedral of the Sea" (Spanish: La catedral del mar)
Follett, Ken: Medieval Duology ("The Pillars of the Earth", "World Without End") and Century Trilogy ("Fall of Giants", "Winter of the World", "Edge of Eternity")
Frazier, Charles "Cold Mountain"
Hislop, Victoria "The Sunrise"
Lowenstein, Anna "The Stone City" (Esperanto: La Ŝtona Urbo)
Mahfouz, Naguib: Cairo Trilogy: ("Palace Walk", "Palace of Desire", "Sugar Street")
Rutherfurd, Edward: any ("Awakening", "Dublin", "The Forest", "London", "Paris", Russka")
Schami, Rafik "The Calligrapher’s Secret" (German: Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen)
Smiley, Jane "The All-true Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton"
Weir, Alison: The Tudor Queens ("The Six Wives of Henry VIII", "Katherine of Aragon", "Anne Boleyn", "Jane Seymour")

As you can see, I have labels for almost all of those authors which means, in most cases I have read a lot more of their books than just the ones mentioned here. As soon as I have read three books by one single writer, I give them a label

I had chosen eleven other books/authors but, unfortunately, was restricted to ten only. If you're interested in them, I can always add them in the comments.

Melville, Herman "Moby Dick or The Whale"

Melville, Herman "Moby Dick or The Whale" - 1851

Moby Dick, an epic tale, "Call me Ishmael", one of the most famous first lines ever. So, I just had to read it one day.

Was it everything I thought it might be? Probably not though it is quite interesting. The story itself is a good one, the mad captain who is looking for the whale who is responsible for him losing his leg, the crew that is out for money, the encounters with whales or other ships. That alone might have made a good novel.

But Herman Melville had to add more, I was reminded of lessons at school where all I wanted was that this class would be over and the next, more interesting one, would begin. If I want to know all about whales, maybe I should better buy an illustrated book about them. Or what about fishing? Ships? How to dissect a whale? Various other seafood? I think after reading this most people know enough to go whaling themselves. Only - do they want to?

Anyway, one of the lesser classic tales, in my opinion.

From the back cover:

"On a previous voyage, a mysterious white whale had ripped off the leg of a sea captain named Ahab. Now the crew of the Pequod, on a pursuit that features constant adventure and horrendous mishaps, must follow the mad Ahab into the abyss to satisfy his unslakeable thirst for vengeance. Narrated by the cunningly observant crew member Ishmael, Moby-Dick is the tale of the hunt for the elusive, omnipotent, and ultimately mystifying white whale - Moby Dick.

On its surface, Moby-Dick is a vivid documentary of life aboard a nineteenth-century whaler, a virtual encyclopedia of whales and whaling, replete with facts, legends, and trivia that Melville had gleaned from personal experience and scores of sources. But as the quest for the whale becomes increasingly perilous, the tale works on allegorical levels, likening the whale to human greed, moral consequence, good, evil, and life itself. Who is good? The great white whale who, like Nature, asks nothing but to be left in peace? Or the bold Ahab who, like scientists, explorers, and philosophers, fearlessly probes the mysteries of the universe? Who is evil? The ferocious, man-killing sea monster? Or the revenge-obsessed madman who ignores his own better nature in his quest to kill the beast?

Scorned by critics upon its publication, Moby-Dick was publicly derided during its author’s lifetime. Yet Melville’s masterpiece has outlived its initial misunderstanding to become an American classic of unquestionably epic proportions."

Happy June!

Happy June to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch

"Lila Mohnblüten"
"Purple poppy flowers"

May is done and dusted. It was pretty mild here but I've seen many pictures of other parts of this world where they had heavy snowstorms, even in areas where it usually is warmer at this time of the year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we wait for the Summer Solstice, beginning of summer in many countries, Midsummer in the Scandinavian countries. Always a happy occasion.

The old Germanic word for June is "Brachmond", named after the Brownfield land, the month, where in the three-field system the fields were left fallow (or "brach" in German). Gardeners also call it the rose month.

And the rose is one of the flowers of the month. In Victorian flower language, the rose has different meanings, depending on its colour, yellow stood for jealousy, red for love, and white for purity and silence, colours that still mean the same nowadays.

Have a happy June with this beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch.

You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.

Book Quotes of the Week

"Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read." Anne Brontë

"You are not done with a book until you pass it to another reader." Donalyn Miller

"Reading books removes sorrows from the heart." Moroccan proverb

"Reading teaches you empathy, and it really gives you a chance to examine all the grey areas of life. You get to think about and see things from other perspectives - it's awesome!" Nyeisha

Find more book quotes here.

Beckett, Samuel "Waiting for Godot"

Beckett, Samuel "Waiting for Godot" (French: En attendant Godot) - 1952

Plays are not my favourite read but I was always interesting to read "Waiting for Godot". The first surprise was that the Irish author Samuel Beckett has written this in French. I had never heard of that but when I ordered a copy in the library, it was written in both languages.

Anyway, an interesting story. True, as Estragon, one of the two main characters says, "Nothing happens, nobody comes", nothing much happens. There are two guys, Estragon and Vladimir who wait for this other guy, Godot. That's about the gist of the story. But the way they are waiting, that's the interesting part. The writing is done so well, even though you know that nothing happens and most probably nothing will happen, the suspension is there.

From the back cover:

"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful?' Estragon's complaint, uttered in the first act of 'Waiting for Godot', is the playwright's sly joke at the expense of his own play - or rather at the expense of those in the audience who expect theatre always to consist of events progressing in an apparently purposeful and logical manner towards a decisive climax. In those terms, 'Waiting for Godot' - which has been famously described as a play in which 'nothing happens, twice'- scarcely seems recognizable as theatre at all. As the great English critic wrote 'Waiting for Godot' jettisons everything by which we recognize theatre. It arrives at the custom-house, as it were, with no luggage, no passport, and nothing to declare; yet it gets through, as might a pilgrim from Mars."

Samuel Beckett received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996 "for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Alsanea, Rajaa "Girls of Riyadh"

Alsanea, Rajaa "Girls of Riyadh" (Arabic: بنات الرياض‎ Banāt al-Riyāḍ) - 2005

What a fabulous story about life in a part of the world so unknown to us. The Girls of Riyadh are all friends of the author. Sadim, Kamra, Michelle and Lanis let us take a glimpse into their world.

I have grown up in a Western country. Even though in my times girls didn't have the chances they have now - and I don't want to say they have equal chances, they just have more in modern times - we were never as limited as those girls in the novel. I was allowed to go to public dances as a teenager, I was allowed to go to parties in homes that my parents didn't know. And I don't know anyone who couldn't marry the guy they wanted to marry. Well, I know some cases, where the parents weren't happy with the choice but that doesn't mean they could prevent a marriage.

I myself couldn't imagine marrying someone I don't know, someone I didn't choose myself. It's hard enough as it is, so many divorces tell us that it's not easy to keep up a relationship but just getting hitched to someone your parents chose, just sounds impossible to me. And all the other restrictions, those girls can't decide much about their own life. How sad.

An interesting book.

I quite like the cover of the Arabic edition, little emojis. How cute.

We discussed this book in our international online book club in May 2019.

From the back cover:

"When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women - their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture - he caused a sensation across the Arab world.

Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home."