The Divine Comedy

No words can describe the greatness of this work, a greatness both of theme and of artistry. Dantes theme is universal; it involves the greatest concepts that man has ever attained. Only a genius could have found the loftiness of tone and the splendor and variety of images that are presented in The Divine Comedy. The story is an allegory representing the souls journey from spiritual depths to spiritual heights. As mankind exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice, it experiences Inferno or hell, Purgatorio or purgatory, and Paradiso or heaven, a vision of a world of beauty, light, and song. In this translation by Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, a single listening will reveal the power of Dantes imagination to make the spiritual visible. A modern reader, uninformed, could peruse the whole Commedia, satisfied with the mere literal story and entranced by its unparalleled beauty of language and imagery, but he would miss the inspiration of that higher message which so clearly merits the name of divine. C. H. Grandgent DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321), one of the greatest poets in the Italian language, was born in Florence and later banished from there for his political activities. He wrote the philosophical-political poem Commedia, later called Divina Commedia, recounting his imaginary journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise, guided through the first two by the poet Virgil and through the last by Beatrice, a woman who was the poetic love of Dantes life. The Divine Comedyis considered a masterpiece of world literature. RALPH COSHAM, a former British journalist who changed careers in the 1970s to become a voice, screen, and stage actor, has performed inmore than a hundred professional theater roles. His narrations have several times been named Audio Best of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and he has been a three-time nominee for the Audie Award.