Books by Alighieri Dante

Dante (1265-1321) is the greatest of Italian poets and his DIVINE COMEDY is the finest of all Christian allegories. To the consternation of his more academic admirers, who believed Latin to be the only proper language for dignified verse, Dante wrote his COMEDY in colloquial Italian, wanting it to be a poem for the common reader. This edition is translated by, and includes an Introduction by, Dorothy L. Sayers.

A guide to reading "The Inferno" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.

A collection of nine critical essays on Dante's epic poem arranged in chronological order of publication.

Mark Musa's verse translation of the "Inferno" in this volume is accompanied by 10 innovative interpretations of the work.

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of a pilgrim's journey to God. A man named Dante is lost in dark wood; through the intervention of his beloved Beatrice in Heaven, the Roman poet Virgil appears in the forest to lead Dante to her. In order to reach heaven, however, they must first pass through Hell and Purgatory. After journeying through Hell (Inferno), they climb the mountain of Purgatory (Purgatorio); at the peak, Dante is reunited with Beatrice, who serves as his guide through Paradise (Paradisio).

Dante's masterpiece of medieval literature contains many levels of meaning, including the literal (Dante's trip through hell, purgatory, and paradise); the allegorical (the progression of the soul toward goodness); and the moral (what it takes to lead a good life). Dante's great love, Beatrice, is seen in the poem as the personification of love and goodness.

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of a pilgrim's journey to God. A man named Dante is lost in dark wood; through the intervention of his beloved Beatrice in Heaven, the Roman poet Virgil appears in the forest to lead Dante to her. In order to reach heaven, however, they must first pass through Hell and Purgatory. After journeying through Hell (Inferno), they climb the mountain of Purgatory (Purgatorio); at the peak, Dante is reunited with Beatrice, who serves as his guide through Paradise (Paradisio).

This timeless Christian allegory has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery fo its own identity. In the Inferno, the first of the Comedy's three parts, Dante is conducted by the spirit of the classical poet Virgil through the nine circles of Hell on the initial stage of his arduous journey toward God.

Dante's masterpiece of medieval literature contains many levels of meaning, including the literal (Dante's trip through hell, purgatory, and paradise); the allegorical (the progression of the soul toward goodness); and the moral (what it takes to lead a good life). Dante's great love, Beatrice, is seen in the poem as the personification of love and goodness.

When Robert Pinsky's new verse translation of the Inferno was published in hardcover in 1994, Pinsky was praised for "creating a supple American equivalent for Dante's vernacular music where many others have failed" (Edward Hirsch, The New Yorker). Now Pinsky is serving as Poet Laureate of the United States, and the ample, elegant Inferno featuring Michael Mazur's illustrations is available at last in a paperback edition. In addition to Mazur's thirty-five monotypes, this edition presents the Italian text and English translation on facing pages, explanatory notes, and a Foreword by the leading Dante scholar John Freccero.

A translation of the classic poem about a journey through the nine circles of hell.

Dante's masterpiece of medieval literature contains many levels of meaning, including the literal (Dante's trip through hell, purgatory, and paradise); the allegorical (the progression of the soul toward goodness); and the moral (what it takes to lead a good life). Dante's great love, Beatrice, is seen in the poem as the personification of love and goodness.

Dante's "Vita Nuova", written in 1292, is heavily influenced by the courtly love tradition. In it, Dante records the story of his lifelong Platonic passion for Beatrice Portinari, whom he met when she was 9 and he was 10.

The Divine Comedy is a complete scale of the depths and heights of human emotion," wrote T.S. Eliot. "The last canto of the Paradiso is to my thinking the highest point that poetry has ever reached or ever can reach."The Divine Comedy stands as one of the towering creations of world literature, and its climactic section, the Paradiso, is perhaps the most ambitious poetic attempt ever made to represent the merging of individual destiny with universal order. Having passed through Hell and Purgatory, Dante is led by his beloved Beatrice to the upper sphere of Paradise, wherein lie the sublime truths of Divine will and eternal salvation, to at last experience a rapturous vision of God."A spectacular achievement," said poet and critic Archibald MacLeish of John Ciardis version of Dante's masterpiece. "A text with the clarity and sobriety of a first-rate prose translation which at the same time suggests in powerful and unmistakable ways the run and rhythm of the great original."

"The Portable Dante" contains complete verse translations of Dante's two masterworks, "The Divine Comedy" and "La Vita Nuova," a bibliography, notes and an Introduction by the eminent scholar and translator Mark Musa.

"The enjoyment of The Divine Comedy is a continuous process," observed T.S. Eliot. "It is not necessary to understand the meaning first to enjoy the poetry...our enjoyment of the poetry makes us want to understand the meaning." Arguably the greatest single poem ever written, The Divine Comedy presents Dante Alighieris all-encompassing vision of the three realms of Christian afterlife. In the Purgatorio, Dante struggles up the terraces of Mount Purgatory, still guided by Virgil, in continuation of his difficult ascent to purity."The clean force of the original comes through with astonishing success," said poet and translator Dudley Fitts in praise of John Ciardi's rendition of the Purgatorio. "Dante cannot speak in English, perhaps; but Ciardi has given us the next best thing--a credible, passionate persona of the poet, stripped of the customary guards of rhetoric and false decoration, strong and noble in utterance."

This bilingual edition of the "Vita Nuova" is the first facing-page translation of this text to be available in over 50 years. Dino S. Cervigni and Edward Vasta have translated Dante's lyrics into line-by-line free verse that seeks to reproduce Dante's lyrical complexities of meaning, form, and style. The three-part introduction covers Dante's life and work, the form and content of the "Vita Nuova", and the theory and practice adopted for the translation. A full concordance with glossary of the Italian text and a detailed index to the English translation will assist Dante scholars,

Dante's "Vita Nuova", written in 1292, is heavily influenced by the courtly love tradition. In it, Dante records the story of his lifelong Platonic passion for Beatrice Portinari, whom he met when she was 9 and he was 10.