Amiddle school teacher in the northern city of Treviso has exempted two Muslim students from studying Dante on the grounds that it is a religious work that clashes with their Islamic faith, local dailies reported Friday. The Divine Comedy, with its visions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, is stepped in medieval Christianity and the Prophet Mohamed is one of the historical figures placed in the Inferno. The teacher asked the families of all the students who are exempted from religious studies on religious grounds if they also wanted to be exempted from studying the greatest Christian poet, and two families said yes. The case spurred criticism Friday with centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Senator Simona Malpezzi saying it was "profoundly wrong" to deprive any student of the "deep knowledge of Italian culture that studying Dante brings". She added: "Knowing Dante does not take anything away from the children's religious confession".
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It's one of the only books I legitimately had trouble reading because of the old English prose, at least with the edition I had. And I've never had issues reading any other kind of book before, and I've read a fair variety.
It also requires a pretty deep knowledge of Italian history and politics, especially at the time, to properly understand and enjoy. Like, you won't lose a whole lot from the overall without that, but you'll be left with a lot of filler content without that context.
Its a work best enjoyed with a lot of annotations for deeper knowledge.
I tried reading it at age 10 but got confused. Definitely should try again
I find English translations confusing. You may as well read the old Italian and then read what it means. It's not any less confusing -- and it's worse as a poem -- translated.