"This convenient single-volume edition contains all three parts of Dante's 14th-century poem; Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; in an acclaimed translation by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Combining classical and Christian history as well as medieval politics and religion, this trilogy of sublime verse is among Western civilization's most important artistic works and essential reading for students of literature and history. Dante's allegory...

The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem by Dante Alighieri that describes the author’s travels through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). This trio of books, or canticas, is one example of the number three as a theme throughout the work. Each book consists of 33 cantos, which added to an introductory canto, totals 100. Each cantica follows a pattern of 9 phases plus 1 for a total of ten—9 circles of hell plus Lucifer,...

"Beatrice Fox deserves to go straight to hell. At least, that's what she believes. Her last day on Earth, she ruined the life of the person she loves most—her little sister, Emmy. So when Bea awakens from a fatal car accident to find herself on an airplane headed who knows where, she's confused, to say the least. Once on the ground, Bea receives some truly harrowing news: she's in purgatory. If she ever wants to catch a flight to heaven, she'll...

In the West, there are worse things to fear than bandits and outlaws. Demons. Monsters. Witches. James Crowley's sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good. He didn't choose this life. No. He didn't choose life at all. Shot dead in a gunfight many years ago, now he's stuck in purgatory, serving the whims of the White Throne to avoid falling to Hell. Not quite undead, though not...

"Dante's theme is universal. ... The story is an allegory representing the soul's 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"--container.

No words can describe the greatness of this work, a greatness both of theme and artistry. The theme that Dante treats is universal; it involves the greatest concepts which man has ever attained. Only a genius could find the loftiness of tone and the splendor and variety of images and scenes that are presented in The Divine Comedy.

"From the seed of historical truth that is the death of President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son Willie, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm ... Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state--called, in the Tibetan tradition,...