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The Divine Comedy

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The Divine Comedy

By: Dante Alighieri, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - translator
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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About this listen

 Dante's Divine Comedy is considered to be not only the most important epic poem in Italian literature, but also one of the greatest poems ever written. It consists of 100 cantos, and (after an introductory canto) they are divided into three sections. Each section is 33 cantos in length, and they describe how Dante and a guide travel through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

Expertly translated here by the famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dante's masterpiece leaps vividly to life in this production.

Philosophically, the poem is based on the theological works of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Divine Comedy is essentially an allegory of the progress of the human soul toward God and the progress of mankind toward peace on earth. Many of the characters involved are drawn from ancient Roman history and from Dante's contemporaries, making the work a realistic picture of Italian life in the early 14th century. As well, it is an intensely developed analysis of human affairs. In structure the poem appears to be a description of the afterlife. But it is in essence, a compassionate, oral evaluation of humanity and a mystical vision of the Absolute toward which mankind struggles. The Divine Comedy endures today because of the universality of its drama and the lyric quality of the poetry, and not as the result of any doctrinal content.

Public Domain (P)2009 Audio Connoisseur Classics Epic European Fiction Religion & Spirituality Italy Epic Fantasy Comedy Fantasy

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Would give 6 stars if I could

Excellent but very difficult-to-read text, extremely well read. Full of emotion, contrast and authority. Brilliant!

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Is the editing a joke?

The editing simply ruins this reading. When I listened to the sample, I assumed the noises were just going to be at the beginning of the book. There are very long, loud, and cheesy noises at the beginning of each canto, which sometimes last well into the reading (which is pretty good as far as English readings of Dante go), but when the readings are actually interrupted by this terrible editing, I could not tolerate it.

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