"Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them—there is no third."—T. S. Eliot
"Ciardi has given us…a credible, passionate persona of the poet, stripped of the customary gauds of rhetoric and false decoration, strong and noble in utterance."—Dudley Fitts
"A sensitive and perceptive translation…a spectacular achievement."—Archibald MacLeish
Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece,
The Divine Comedy
, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise—the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.
Now, for the first time, John Ciardi's brilliant and authoritative translations of Dante's three soaring canticles—
The Inferno, The Purgatorio
, and
The Paradiso
—have been gathered together in a single volume. Crystallizing the power and beauty inherent in the great poet's immortal conception of the aspiring soul,
is a dazzling work of sublime truth and mystical intensity.
"I think [Ciardi's] version of Dante will be in many respects the best we have seen."—John Crowe Ransom