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Dante's Paradiso

Adapted by Sandow Birk
and Marcus Sanders
Preface by Peter Hawkins
Foreword by Mary Campbell
Introduction by Michael F. Meister, FSC, PhD

7-1/2 x 11 in; 240 pp ; 68 b/w illustrations
Paperback
Published in July, 2005
ISBN 0811847209
ISBN13 9780811847209

$22.95  

Dante's Paradiso -- With the publication of Dante's Paradiso, Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders complete their literary and artistic achievement—the retelling of The Divine Comedy in contemporary words and images. Hailed as "inspired" by the The London Review of Books, Birk and Sanders's adaptation of Dante's classic work is true to the spirit of the original and is as acerbic and shockingly funny today as in thirteenth-century Italy. With a text that incorporates modern slang and references to anachronistically recent public figures, Birk and Sanders pay tribute to Dante's linguistic approach and clever politics. Birk's striking spin on Gustave Doré's famous engravings accompany the cantos. Together they lend the timeless poem a postmodern edge. A major retrospective of all of Birk's illustrations and paintings for the trilogy will be held at the San Jose Museum of Art in August 2005 in tribute to a masterpiece for our times.

Sandow Birk's work has been exhibited widely and published in several books. He lives in Long Beach, California.

Marcus Sanders is a contributing editor for Surfing and Surfline, and has written for numerous magazines. He lives in San Francisco.

Michael Meister is professor of religious studies at Saint Mary's College of California.

Mary Campbell is a poet and scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature at Brandeis University.

Peter Hawkins is director of the Luce Program in Scripture and Literary Arts at Boston University and coeditor of The Poets' Dante.