Description

Robin Kirkpatrick’s 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 time

The Divine Comedy describes Dante’s 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 O’Donoghue

‘The most moving lines literature has achieved’ – Jorge Luis Borges

‘This 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 Pennsylvania

Individual editions of Robin Kirkpatrick’s translation – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso – are also available in Penguin Classics, and include Dante’s Italian printed alongside the English text.

Publisher Review

The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism . . . Likely to be the best modern version of Dante -- Bernard O'Donoghue Kirkpatrick brings a more nuanced sense of the Italian and a more mediated appreciation of the poem's construction than nearly all of his competitors * The Times * We gain much from Kirkpatrick's 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 *