This is Not Dante's Purgatory

Birk and Sanders have adapted Dante's Purgatorio to bring a modern feel to it. Not only have they tried to add some modern references and expressions to Dante's comedy, but Birk has recreated the Dore woodcut drawings.

               While I like the idea of modernizing the text a bit and I did think that some of their attempts were at least somewhat creative, for example:

'Jeez', I thought to myself, 'look at those guys! They look like they could be Miriam during the siege of Jerusalem, or like something from Auschwitz.'

I thought that Birk and Sanders ultimately failed in their attempt. Beyond the addition of some modern expressions and the insertion of contemporary people, there were times when they inserted profanity into the text and while it wasn't overwhelming (See my review of Dante's Inferno by Birk and Sanders for a discussion of profanity in that work) it did distract me and ruin the overall experience. I simply don't need to have F bombs and the like being inserted into the text to try and make it feel modern.

               Many of the drawing were imaginative and impressive, but a few bothered me, especially the ones on pages 173, 179, and 186. The first was a depiction of Eden, which in the Comedy is found on top of Mount Purgatory, as a strip club; very inappropriate in my opinion. The other two were of women dressed and looking provocative, in fact there is a picture of a woman on a stripper pole with no shirt on page 179.

               The work is an interesting read and if you can get past the vulgarity and the unseemly pictures you might find it interesting. Obviously this is not a work for children and in my opinion, I would suggest you simply leave this work alone and read Dante's original.

If you simply have to read it you might find a copy HERE