12 h 42 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 42 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Lost in a dark wood, how do you find the right road again?
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy begins with a traveller who has lost his way in the middle of life. Virgil, the Roman poet who stands for human reason, guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Across these realms, encounters with lovers, rulers, poets and enemies turn a journey among the dead into an urgent search for direction.
The long poem unfolds in three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. In Dante’s imagined afterlife, each soul’s place reflects his understanding of divine justice. Francesca tells of love born while reading; proud souls bend beneath stones. Beatrice, the woman Dante loves, becomes his guide in Paradise. Religion, politics and personal affection meet in a poem about learning to love rightly.
What you’ll discover
- Lovers in the storm Meet Francesca da Rimini as she tells Dante how reading draws her and Paolo together.
- A face that deceives Encounter Geryon, whose honest human face hides a serpent’s body and a scorpion’s tail.
- The weight of pride Climb Purgatory’s mountain, where souls bent beneath huge stones make pride a visible burden.
- Reason and beloved guides Follow Virgil and Beatrice through a poetic world where thought and love shape the journey.
- Verse that pulls forward Discover terza rima, Dante’s chain of three-line stanzas whose linked rhymes keep drawing you onward.
Who will love it
Readers who love journeys, vivid characters, and big questions about love, justice, and choice will find a home here, along with anyone drawn to medieval Italy and stories where every scene carries meaning.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lost traveler meets Virgil in the forest
- The gate of Hell opens onto Limbo and love
- Gluttons, misers, and the angry fill the upper circles
- Violence is punished in blood, thorns, and fire
- Fraud fills the ten ditches of Malebolge
- At the bottom, betrayers lie frozen in ice
- Purgatory offers hope on a mountain of seven terraces
- Eden brings Beatrice, and Paradise rises through the heavens
- Love, free choice, and justice drive the whole poem
- Numbers, similes, and a direct voice shape the telling
Who’s who
- Dante, the travelerA man lost in a dark forest halfway through life, who wants to find the true path and see the realms of the dead.
- VirgilThe Roman poet who guides the traveler through Hell and up the mountain, wise and steady, though barred from the highest heaven.
- BeatriceA woman from Heaven who sends help to the lost traveler and wishes to lead him toward the highest truth.
- FrancescaA noblewoman in the circle of the lustful, who tells the traveler how a book of Lancelot led her to love.
- FarinataA proud Florentine leader who rises from a burning tomb and still cares about the fate of his city and family.
- Count UgolinoA Pisan nobleman frozen in ice who gnaws his enemy's skull and tells how he and his sons were locked in a tower.
- StatiusA Roman poet released from his penance on the mountain, who joins the travelers and admires Virgil.
- SordelloA proud Mantuan poet who greets Virgil as a countryman and guides the travelers through the valley of the princes.
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- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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La Divina Commedia, traduzione di Longfellow, integrale
by Dante Alighieri · 1320
A lost man in a dark forest follows a dead poet down through nine circles of Hell and up a mountain.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
Halfway through life, a man wakes in a dark forest and cannot find the path. A panther, a lion, and a she-wolf block his climb toward a sunlit hill.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lost traveler meets Virgil in the forest
The poem opens with a man halfway through life who wakes in a dark forest. The place frightens him so much that even telling of it renews his fear. At the foot of a hill he sees sunlight, but a panther, a lion, and a gaunt she-wolf drive him back toward the dark.
A figure appears, hoarse from a long silence. He says he lived in Rome under Augustus and sang of the hero who fled burning Troy. The traveler knows him at once as Virgil, the poet he loves. Virgil says the wolf lets no one pass, so another road is needed. It runs through the eternal place, and a worthier soul must guide him farther. When the traveler doubts he deserves the journey, Virgil tells how Beatrice came down from Heaven and asked him to help.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1320
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 8 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/divine-comedy-longfellows-translation-complete.
Dante Alighieri. (2026). Divine comedy, Longfellow's translation, complete. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/divine-comedy-longfellows-translation-complete (Original work published ca. 1320)
Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/divine-comedy-longfellows-translation-complete.
@book{dantealighieri2026divine,
author = {Dante Alighieri},
title = {Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/divine-comedy-longfellows-translation-complete},
note = {First published ca. 1320}
}
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What is the Divine Comedy about?
It tells of a man lost in a dark forest, led by Virgil through Hell and up Purgatory, then by Beatrice through Paradise, meeting many souls along the way.
Who are Virgil and Beatrice in the Divine Comedy?
Virgil is the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid and guides the traveler through Hell and Purgatory. Beatrice is a woman from Heaven who sends Virgil to help the traveler and later leads him upward.
What are the nine circles of Hell?
Inferno sorts sinners into circles by their sin. They run from Limbo, the lustful, gluttons, greedy, and angry, to heretics, the violent, the fraudulent in ten ditches, and finally the betrayers frozen in ice.
The author
Dante Alighieri
1265–1321 · Medieval Italian poet
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. He wrote poetry and works on language, politics, and philosophy. He wrote La Vita Nuova in the 1290s and the Divine Comedy in the early fourteenth century. Exiled from Florence in 1302, he lived elsewhere in Italy and died in Ravenna in 1321.
More by Dante Alighieri
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