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.

The Divine Comedy depicts the journey of Dante the pilgrim, guided

by the poet Virgil and the love of his life, Beatrice, as he moves through

the stages of his life and world. Raffel’s single-volume translation

of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso follows the complete journey of a

spiritual pilgrim who struggles from the depths of the inferno to the

heights of paradise. In the former Dante meets many of his political

enemies, suffering the punishments that match their crimes in life.

And in the ninth circle of Hell, Lucifer—the ultimate traitor—is shown

chewing on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot, three others who committed

horrendous acts of treason in the classical and early Jewish

worlds. Dante’s evocative description of Heaven is a sort of homecoming

for the exiled poet.

Dante’s epic poem challenged the political and religious hierarchy

of his time and remains a powerful and universal expression of human

desires, strivings, and shortcomings.