The Divine Comedy - Hardcover

Alighieri, Dante

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393044726 ISBN 13: 9780393044720

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1977

Synopsis

This single volume, blank verse translation of The Divine Comedy includes an introduction, maps of Dante's Italy, Hell, Purgatory, Geocentric Universe, and political panorama of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, diagrams and notes providing the reader with invaluable guidance.

Described as the "fifth gospel" because of its evangelical purpose, this spiritual autobiography creates a world in which reason and faith have transformed moral and social chaos into order. It is one of the most important works in the literature of Western Europe and is considered the greatest poem of the European Middle Ages.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

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.

One of the greatest works in literature, Dantes story-poem is an allegory that represents mankind as it exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice. A single listening will reveal Dantes visual imagination and uncanny power to make the spiritual visible.

From the Back Cover:

This story begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year of our Lord 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense re-creation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 0393044726
• ISBN 13: 9780393044720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 622