Title: The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
Series: Catholic
Published by: Flame Tree Collections
Release Date: November 19, 2018
Contributors: Dante Alighieri (Author), Henry W. Longfellow (Translator), Gustave Dore (Illustrator), Robin Kirkpatrick (Foreword)
Genre: Classics
Pages: 432
ISBN13: 978-1786648112
Dante’s masterpiece of literature is well matched by the peerless art of Gustave Doré. Dante and his guides, Virgil and Beatrice, journey through the cantos in an allegory of the passage of the soul through the Afterlife, with the subtle engraving of Doré’s illustrations perfectly complementing the movement from darkness through to light.
Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections--Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God. It is usually held to be one of the world's greatest works of literature. The plot of The Divine Comedy is simple: a man is miraculously enabled to visit the souls in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He has two guides: Virgil, who leads him through the Inferno and Purgatorio, and Beatrice, who introduces him to Paradiso. Through these fictional encounters taking place from Good Friday evening in 1300 through Easter Sunday and slightly beyond, Dante the character learns of the exile that is awaiting him (an actual exile that had already occurred at the time of writing). This device allowed Dante not only to create a story out of his exile but also to explain how he came to cope with personal calamity and to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy's troubles as well.
Robin Kirkpatrick [Foreword] is Professor emeritus of Italian and English Literatures at the University of Cambridge. He was an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford and has been a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge since 1978. He has written widely on Dante’s work, and his verse translation of the Commedia is published by Penguin in a variety of editions. Other of his writings include studies of Renaissance literature and volumes of his own poetry.
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321) was an Italian poet, writer, and political thinker. After studying at the University of Bologna, he married and had four children. Dante was exiled from his hometown of Florence in 1302 due to his political leanings, finally settling in the city of Ravenna in 1307, when he began writing The Divine Comedy.
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