Dante AlighieriVerified

An Italian narrative poem, here in English translation, following Dante through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Virgil and then Beatrice guide him as he meets souls receiving their due, in an allegory of the soul's path toward God.

Longfellow's translation brings Dante's medieval vision of damnation into crystalline English verse, making the Inferno's psychological torment feel unnervingly relevant to modern guilt and consequence. This is not a dusty religious text but a masterwork of imaginative horror that influenced every underworld narrative that followed.

Longfellow's English translation of Dante's long poem in three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. It opens with Dante lost in a dark forest, where Virgil becomes his guide through Hell and the fate of sinners.