The Divine Comedy The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso [Paperback]

The authoritative translations ofThe Inferno,The Purgatorio, andThe Paradiso—together in one volume.

Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri’s poetic masterpiece,The Divine Comedy,is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise—the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.

Now, for the first time, John Ciardi’s brilliant and authoritative translations of Dante’s three soaring canticles—The Inferno, The Purgatorio,andThe Paradiso—have been gathered together in a single volume. Crystallizing the power and beauty inherent in the great poet’s immortal conception of the aspiring soul,The Divine Comedyis a dazzling work of sublime truth and mystical intensity.The Divine ComedyHow to Read Dante
Translator's Note
The Inferno
Introduction
Cantos

The Purgatorio
Introduction
Cantos

The Paradiso
Introduction
Cantos

“Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them—there is no third.”—T.S. Eliot

“Ciardi has given us...a credible, passionate persona of the poet, stripped of the customary gauds of rhetoric and false decoration, strong and noble in utterance.”—Dudley Fitts
 
“A sensitive and perceptive translation…a spectacular achievement.”—Archibald MacLeish

“I think [Ciardi’s] version of Dante will be in many respects the best we have seen.”—John Crowe Ransom



Dante Alighieriwas born in 1265. Considered Italy’s greatest poet, this scion of a Florentine family mastered the art of lyric poetry at an early age. He is the author of the three canticles,The Inferno, The Purgatls´