Divine Comedy

Robin Kirkpatricks masterful verse translation of The Divine Comedy published in a single volume is the ideal edition for students as well as the general reader coming to this great masterpiece of Italian literature for the first timeThe Divine Comedy describes Dantes descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love Beatrice; and finally his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith desire and enlightenment the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption.This volume includes a new introduction notes maps and diagrams The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism... likely to be the best modern version of Dante - Bernard ODonoghueThe most moving lines literature has achieved - Jorge Luis BorgesThis version is the first to bring together poetry and scholarship in the very body of the translation - a deeply-informed version of Dante that is also a pleasure to read - Professor David Wallace University of PennsylvaniaIndividual editions of Robin Kirkpatricks translation - Inferno Purgatorio and Paradiso - are also available in Penguin Classics and include Dantes Italian printed alongside the English text. Review The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism . . . Likely to be the best modern version of Dante -- Bernard ODonoghueKirkpatrick brings a more nuanced sense of the Italian and a more mediated appreciation of the poems construction than nearly all of his competitors ―The TimesWe gain much from Kirkpatricks fidelity to syntax and nuance... His introduction...tells you very readable indeed pretty much all you need for a heightened appreciation of the work ―Guardian About the Author Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. He met Beatrice who was to be his muse in 1274 and when she died in 1290 he sought distraction in philosophy and theology and wroteLa Vita Nuova. He worked on theDivine Comedy from 1308 until near the time of his death in Ravenna in 1321.