What this is

A hundred cantos in three canticas, written in exile between about 1308 and Dante’s death in 1321, in a rhyme scheme he invented for it. He called it a comedy because it begins badly and ends well; the divine was added by later readers.

About this translation

Longfellow made it in the years after his wife burned to death, and finished it in 1867. It is line for line with the Italian and does not rhyme — he would not buy the rhyme at the price of the sense — and it is the version most Americans met Dante in for a century.

What is not here

Notes, and a map. The Inferno has the translator’s own summary at the head of each canto; the other two canticas have none in this edition and none has been written for them. An empty heading is better than invented filler.

Inferno

Down through the nine circles, from the dark wood to the frozen lake at the centre of the earth, with Virgil for a guide. 34 cantos. Begin →

Purgatorio

Up the mountain on the far side of the world, through the seven terraces, to the earthly paradise at the top. 33 cantos. Begin →

Paradiso

Up through the spheres of the heavens to the Empyrean, with Beatrice, and then beyond what can be said. 33 cantos. Begin →