The Divine Comedy
Midway upon the journey of his life, a pilgrim named Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood and is taken up by the Roman poet Virgil for a guided descent through the nine circles of Hell, up the seven terraces of Purgatory, and finally, under the guidance of his beloved Beatrice, through the nine celestial spheres of Paradise to the presence of God. Along the way he meets popes and heretics, lovers and traitors, old neighbors from Florence and heroes from antiquity, each placed, defended, or damned by the logic of medieval Christian cosmology. Dante Alighieri finished his Commedia around 1320, wrote it in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, and in doing so helped invent modern Italian, modern narrative poetry, and a vision of the afterlife that has shaped Western imagination for seven centuries.
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Lost in a dark wood at midlife, the poet Dante is led by the Roman poet Virgil down through the nine circles of Hell, up the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory, and at last by Beatrice into the spheres of Paradise.
Yes. The Divine Comedy was written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and 1320 and is in the public domain. Modern translations remain copyrighted. Notable English translations include those by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867, free), John Ciardi (1954-1970), and Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander (2000-2007).
Inferno is the most-read part on its own. Many readers stop there. Purgatorio and Paradiso are equally important to Dante's project, but Inferno is the most accessible and widely taught.
The Divine Comedy is 416 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Divine Comedy takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Divine Comedy is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Divine Comedy is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
