one of the best books I've ever read :)

You have read Dante's Inferno at age 5!? Is that even possible? I have read well enouph within the book, and when I summarize it to myself, it is close to impossible for a 5 year old to understand that book. Second of all, I don't think a 5 year old would enjoy such a frightening book. A normal 5 year old would be detered by it's complexity and give up reading it. I assume it would require a 12 grade reading level, a 5 year old wouldn't even have 1 grade. Most of 'em can't even read. Althought, could it be that someone read it to you aloud rather than verbatim to yourself? I refuse to believe that a 5-year-old could read such a thing.

I agree with the reply above i read the book in 11th grade and I couldn't understand it without the help of my English teacher so I find it unbelievable that a 5 year old could actually read the book and understand it..

Why do you find it so hard to believe that a five-year old child may contain the same intellect as that of a person four times their age. I am in my twenties and my intellect far surpasses many people four times my age (granted, most of them are in diapers and spoon-fed). It is not a matter of age, but it is rather a matter of capacity. Some people may never be capable of understanding Dante. Some people may never be able to read period. Why does youth frighten the aged? Is it because no matter what, it can never be performed over again. In truth, is it that you don't believe a five-year old can read Dante, or is it that it frightens you to believe it to be possible. Then again, the version Kelly read as a child may have been a coloring book.

Wow, did you really read that book at age 5? that's amazing! of course, you might be lying, but we would never know...

It doesn't matter! Reading and understanding books requires not only good english(or italian, whatever language your reading it in)skills, it also requires a lot of knowledge about Italian History and some forms of Mythology. So I CANNOT see how a 5 year old child can read such a book. And besides, who in the right mind would make a colouring book out of a book that gives vivid descriptions of HELL, sinners being tortured, gutted and mutilated. It's just not right!! This content is just not suitable for children of such ages! That is why this book is strictly for adults and intellectuals(recommended, rather)

It is good to see there are truly people out there, like myself, with a thirst for knowledge that started at an early age - alas, I only started out readin my mother's Herman Hesse books; Dante may have been a bit 'heavy' for me, but I, too, would have found great interest in understanding it!!

I am sorry you wrote to comment on how great it is that Dante's Inferno is on the internet and now you have all of these half-wits accosting you because they doubt you read this book at such an early age - THIS is what I meant when I just wrote that it is good to know there are still some brain cells still alive out there!!

Okay, I totally agree with the people who said that it's impossible for a five-year-old to read that book! I'm in 10th grade, and I'm struggling with it, and my five-year-old brother could never even understand if someone read it to him, let alone read it for himself. You must be a genius or something to have read this at age five.

You didn't read Dante's Inferno when you were five, you douche bag.

Anger Management, Robert....don't be accusing that of what we cannot back up without any evidence.

I find it hilarious how on a supposed "intellectual" website, it is still possible to find the words "douche bag". I'm definitely proud to be part of the young, intelligent, smart*** group. Just keep preachin it Robert.

1) I believe he read it when he was five. This is an ultimately meaningless exchange in one of several billion nearly identical forums, interacting with people you have likely never met, and never will. Why lie?<br><br>2) That being said, those saying they dont believe he read it and understood it at age 5 need only read his original post once more. He didn't say anything about comprehension at age 5. All he said is that he read it, he made no mention of understanding. Others latched that on afterwards. It is highly unlikely that a 5 year old can understand the text as a complete, intertwined package because the child would not have access to historical knowledge that illuminates parallels and other themes, etc.<br><br>3) Understanding is another word that no one here has bothered to define. Understanding is a personal thing. Regardless of how you view the text and what conclusions you draw from it, you have understanding. I submit that the only person who can "understand" the original text as "intended" is Dante himself. Every single person who reads anything applies their own meanings and thoughts to the work. Multiple and alternate meanings can be easily drawn from a work where an author insists on one, certain meaning. The study of literature is all about personal interpretation and learning to throw away the author's opinion of his own work.

Yeh? Well I read Dante's inferno when I was still in the womb ! I then went on to discover electricity, and was in fact the first man (I mean baby) in space. <br><br>Seems to me anyone smart enough to read such a work or even to take a passing interest in it is also smart enough to figure out that a 5 year old is barely capable of reading Noddy and Big Ears without assistance. But it takes someone with the social awareness of a 5 year old to make such a claim in the first place.<br><br>Would you look at that, goldden nuggets in my nappy (sorry, diaper)

I read Dante's Inferno when I was six, and I got some understanding out of it. Im reading it again now, and theres much more than what I previously saw, but its nto impossible for a kid to do it.

Oh look how patronizing Jeffrey is . . . too bad he has no point . . . no one read Dante when they were five. If they did they'd have better things to do by now than brag about it on some internet message board.

What is more amazing than the fact that Kelly could have possibly read Dante at the age of 5 is that we are all on this website (for one reason or another) discussing the the potential intellect of someone we don't know with other people... we don't know. If she didn't read it, well... everyone was right. If she did, congratulations. And everyone is wrong. I personally doubt that she could have read AND understood the book when she was in kindergarten, but does it really affect me? Nope. I am 16 and readind the Divine Comedy, accompanied by the "Dummies" version. I want to believe I am more capable than a 5 year old. As I'm sure we all do. I think that is why we are all replying to this comment. It's sad, and sort of desperate. But it's true.

Foolish mortals, does it really matter at all whether or not he read the book at age 5? Why do you care?

1. why 'he'? can't Kelly be a girl?<br>2. the real question is, who is Kelly's mother?

I first read Dante's Inferno when I was five years old. There was an old copy in my mother's bookcase; I found it and started reading it that day. (I lost the book someplace, but I've read the story many times since then.) I'm twenty-one now. I've been looking for a searchable verson for a long time online; I finally found this site today. Thanks for setting it up. :)

He might have read it, but he probably lacked all comprehension of the Inferno. It was probably all scrambled words to the child, or maybe he read one of those abridged and filled-with-pictures editions!

hahaha you guys are making me laugh i read it when i was 8 and i even got it it wasn't that hard not to get

It really isn't that hard to get, as long as the book has footnotes. I didn't read it when I was five (I was 14), but nonetheless when I was five or six I did know enough mythology to understand most of the references, and if the translation was bearable it is definately possible. However, if it was (as someone has commented) a picture book, the parents should be imprisoned and the child granted free psychological help. I don't know about the rest of you, but if I had seen a picture of a man sliced vertically in half up to the chin when I was five, I would currently be skinning cats alive and cooking my hair in my spare time.

I read it when I was 13 or 14....I would have not loved it nearly as much as I do without the footnotes and cliffnotes...I mean, I did not know who Francesca De RImini was... so I am very grateful for the aids in the book..
though I loved the INferno, I thought the Purgatorio was even better.. I think you have to read all of the parts of the Divine Comedy to really appreciate the whole..I don't know why people only read the Inferno!