• [1] Inferno.

• The divine comedy : Book I: Hell; Book II: Purgatory; Book III: Heaven.

The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation-decades in the making-gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively readable lyric poem. Written in the early fourteenth century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante's death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed. Divided into three books-Hell, Purgatory and Heaven-the poem's allegorical vision of the afterlife portrays the poet's spiritual crisis in terms of his own contemporary history, in a text of such vivid life and variety that modern readers will find themselves astounded in a hundred different ways. And indeed the structure of this massive single song is divided into a hundred songs, or cantos, each of which is a separate poetic miracle. But unifying them all is the impetus of the Italian verse: a verbal energy that Clive James has now brought into English. In his introductory essay, James says that the twin secrets of Dante are texture and impetus. All the packed detail must be there, but the thing must move. It should go from start to finish with an unflagging rhythm. In the original, the basic form is the terza rima, a measure hard to write in English without showing the strain of reaching once too often for a rhyme. In this translation, the basic form is the quatrain. The result, uncannily, is the same easy-seeming flow, a wonderful momentum that propels the reader along the pilgrim's path from Hell to Heaven, from despair to revelation. To help ensure that no scholastic puzzles get in the road of appreciation, James has also adopted the bold policy of incorporating key points from the scholarship into the text: uploading them from the footnotes, as it were, and making them part of the narrative, where they can help to make things clear. For its range of emotion alone, Clive James's poetic rendering of The Divine Comedy would be without precedent. But it is also singled out by its sheer readability. The result is the epic as a page-turner, a work that will influence the way we read Dante in English for generations to come.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• V.1. Dante, Commedia in deutscher Prosa : [Übersetzung] / Kurt Flasch
• v.2. Einladung, Dante zu lesen / Kurt Flasch.

The Divine Comedy marked nothing less than the arrival of vernacular Italian as a literary language--and Dante's book is still considered Italy's greatest literary achievement. Its highly idiomatic verse, however, has long bedeviled English-language translators. Burton Raffel, whose translation of Don Quixote is acclaimed for making Cervantes more accessible to the modern generation, in this new translation for Northwestern World Classics, shows exciting new directions, preserving both the lyricism of the original and its incisive meaning. First-time readers and longtime fans of "the supreme poet" alike will cherish this clear and lyrical rendering of one of world literature's masterpieces.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• t.
• 1. Inferno
• t.
• 2. Purgatorio
• t.
• 3. Paradiso.

Described variously as the greatest poem of the European Middle Ages and, because of the author's evangelical purpose, the 'fifth Gospel', the Divine Comedy is central to the culture of the west. The poem is a spiritual autobiography in the form of a journey - the poet travels from the dark circles of the Inferno, up the mountain of Purgatory, where Virgil, his guide leaves him to encounter Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise. Dante conceived the poem as the new epic of Christendom, and he creates a world in which reason and faith have transformed moral and social chaos into order. Charles Sisson's blank verse translation is remarkable for its lucidity and vigour, and the Introduction, diagrams, maps, and notes by David Higgins provide the reader with invaluable guidance.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• T.
• 1. [Inferno]
• T.
• 2. Purgatorio
• 3. Paradiso.

Dante's masterpiece is a foundation stone of European poetry. It was a profound influence on T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and in our own day has inspired Seamus Heaney. It is simple in style yet complex in its layers of meaning, episodic in manner yet architectonic in its over-arching vision. It is simultaneously a journey through life and a spiritual biography, a portrait of the internecine Italy of Dante's time and a pilgrim's progress through the tripartite afterworld of Catholic mythology. Paradoxically, it is also a devotional work and one of the strangest love poems ever written. It is without doubt one of the supreme works of world literature.Peter Dale has established a reputation as one of this country's leading translators for his "Francois Villon: Selected Poems", and more recently for his witty and accurate versions of Jules Laforgue. His great achievement here has been to produce a version of "The Divine Comedy" in modern English that echoes Dante's 'sweet new style', while keeping to the poet's demanding terza rima verse pattern. It is a reader's edition - accurate, clear and compelling. It is also Peter Dale's crowning achievement as a translator.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• v. 1. Inferno
• v. 2. Purgatorio
• v. 3. Paradiso

• v. 1. Inferno
• v. 2. Purgatorio
• v. 3. Paradiso.