The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri
By: translated by Charles Eliot Norton
Contributors: Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827-1908
Series: Great books of the western world -- 21
Publisher: Encyclopædia Britannica
Published: 1952
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 163
Subjects: Heaven; Fiction; Hell; Purgatory; Italian literature
Work titles: Divina commedia
Description: The "Divine Comedy" was entitled by Dante himself merely "Commedia," meaning a poetic composition in a style intermediate between the sustained nobility of tragedy, and the popular tone of elegy. The word had no dramatic implication at that time, though it did involve a happy ending. The poem is the narrative of a journey down through Hell, up the mountain of Purgatory, and through the revolving heavens into the presence of God. In this aspect it belongs to the two familiar medieval literary types of the Journey and the Vision. It is also an allegory, representing under the symbolism of the stages and experiences of the journey, the history of a human soul, painfully struggling from sin through purification to the Beatific Vision.
Notes: Great books of the Western World v.21

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Hell; title: Purgatory; title: Paradise.