12 h 42 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 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.
Is it for you?
This is for anyone who has always meant to start Dante and wants the shape of the whole poem first, and for readers of epic, history and ideas. It may suit you less if you want a quick plot with little religion or politics.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A man lost in a dark wood
- The gate, the first circles, and lovers in the storm
- Anger, heresy and violence run deep
- Fraud has its own pits below
- The mountain of Purgatory rises
- Seven terraces teach the cure of sin
- Paradise rises through the circling heavens
- What the poem is really about
- How the poem is built and told
Who’s who
- DanteThe poet and traveller, lost in a dark wood in the middle of his life, who must journey through all three realms of the dead.
- VirgilThe Roman poet of the Aeneid, who guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory and stands for human reason.
- BeatriceThe woman Dante loved in life, now among the blessed, who sends help to him and becomes his guide in Paradise.
- Francesca da RiminiA lover in the second circle of Hell, who tells Dante how she and Paolo fell in love while reading.
- FarinataA proud Florentine leader found among the heretics, who speaks to Dante of Florence and of exile.
- Brunetto LatiniDante's old teacher, found among the violent, whom the poet addresses with respect and affection.
- StatiusA Roman poet who joins Dante and Virgil on the mountain of Purgatory and says Virgil's verse led him to faith.
- CacciaguidaDante's ancestor, who greets him in the heaven of Mars and tells him of old Florence and his own coming exile.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 12 h 42 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works · 60-day guarantee
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, for the whole household.
- We remind you first. We email you 7 days before your first payment. Then your first year is 50% off: 0,14 USD a day, then 0,27 USD a day, never raised. Or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
60-day money-back guarantee. If the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear La Divina Commedia, traduzione di Longfellow, integrale in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Read it side by side
La Divina Commedia, traduzione di Longfellow, integrale
by Dante Alighieri· 1320
A lost traveller journeys through the realms of the dead.
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- The whole household
Starts right away, on any device
Read free60-day money-back guaranteeRenews every yearCancel anytimeHow it works
Language: Italiano
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A man lost in a dark wood
The poem begins in the middle of a life. Dante is thirty five, halfway through the span of seventy years the Bible promises, and he finds himself in a dark wood with no memory of how he came there. The straight road is gone. He is afraid, and he sees a sunlit hill ahead that might lead him out.
Three beasts block the way up the hill. A leopard, a lion and a she wolf drive him back toward the shadows, and the she wolf frightens him most. Readers have long taken these animals as signs of sins or temptations, though Dante does not explain them. What matters in the scene is that he cannot save himself by his own effort.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
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.
“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, for the whole household. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - The whole householdUp to 5 readers
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
More by Dante Alighieri
All 2 books
More like this
Free
Free
Free
Free
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
Questions about La Divina Commedia, traduzione di Longfellow, integrale
Can I read it free?
Yes. The beginning, from the first page to the end of chapter 1, and the first 5 minutes of the audiobook are free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 90 days, with the eBook to keep. After that, your first year is 50% off. You also get 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
Can my family read too?
Yes. The whole household reads and listens: up to 5 readers, each with their own shelf and their own place in every book.
What if it is not for me?
Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. If you have paid and the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
What is the Divine Comedy about?
It tells how Dante, lost in a dark wood, travels through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided first by Virgil and then by Beatrice. Along the way he meets real people and learns how sin, repentance and love shape the soul.
Why is it called a comedy?
In Dante's day a comedy was a story that moves from a sad beginning to a happy end, not a funny tale. Later readers added the word divine to honour the poem's religious scope.
Who are Virgil and Beatrice in the Divine Comedy?
Virgil was the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid, and he guides Dante through Hell and most of Purgatory as a figure of human reason. Beatrice was a woman Dante loved, who guides him in Paradise.
Popular in poetry and plays
See all
Free
Free
Free
Free
