I stuck out from my compatriots and bought the Sinclair translation of Dante Alighieri published by Oxford University Press. The three softcover volumes feature facing pages of the original Italian text and Sinclair's prose translation, with endnotes and a critical essay at the end of each canto (or chapter for the uninitiated). I found the editions to be of solid construction, and very compact for their size (about 450 pages each). The pages were totally a bit thicker that Bible leaf, but were still totally opaque and very smooth, making it pleasing to the touch and no problem for taking notes. The fonts were pleasing in general. The covers were thick laminated paper and allowed the book to lie flat easily and easy to flex for note taking.
While structurally sound, the outer cover designs left a bit to be desired. The front covers all featured Dore illustrations from each of the respective levels, which contrasted sharply with the rather gaudy colors of the binding. The Inferno turned out traffic cone orange, Purgatorio was a brownish yellow, and Paradiso can best be described as plum. OUP's decision to use primarily white text on a black and white image was also not the wisest choice.
In general, I enjoyed both translation and presentation, but be careful to make sure the spines line up, my Paradiso volume is jus a bit offset, which ruins some of the shelf appeal.
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