The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
This epic narrative poem is Dante's account of his fictional journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven with his guide, the ancient Roman poet Virgil. It consists of a trio of canticas-Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso-which represent each stage of his journey as well as the importance of the number three throughout the work. Each cantica, or book, consists of thirty-three cantos, which added to an introductory canto, results in a total of one-hundred cantos. Each cantica follows a pattern of nine phases, plus one for a total of ten: nine circles of hell followed by Lucifer; nine rings of Mount Purgatory followed by the Garden of Eden; and, nine celestial bodies of Paradise followed by the Empyrean essence of God. Widely considered to be the preeminent work in Italian literature, this masterpiece helped establish the Tuscan dialect as standard Italian.
Dante Alighieri (1265 1321) was born in Florence to a prominent family and trained as a pharmacist. He fought in the Battle of Campaldino and was active in the internecine Florentine politics of the time, which resulted in his exile. During this time, he began writing Commedia, which he finished shortly before his death in Ravenna.
Burton Raffel is a translator, a poet, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities and emeritus professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His most recent translations are the Modern Library edition of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and the Penguin edition of the Poema de mío Cid. He has translated the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, most of Horace's poems, and Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Burton Raffel is a translator, a poet, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities and emeritus professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His most recent translations are the Modern Library edition of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and the Penguin edition of the Poema de mío Cid. He has translated the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, most of Horace's poems, and Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780810126725 |
| ISBN 10 | 0810126729 |
| Title | The Divine Comedy |
| Author | Dante Alighieri |
| Series | Northwestern World Classics Ser |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Northwestern University Press |
| Year published | 2010-09-30 |
| Number of pages | 888 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |