Blackstone Audio presents a new recording of this classic masterpiece, originally published in 1320, with award-winning narrator Ralph Cosham.
No words can describe the greatness of this work, a greatness both of theme and of artistry. Dante's theme is universal; it involves the greatest concepts that man has ever attained. Only a genius could have found the loftiness of tone and the splendor and variety of images that are presented in The Divine Comedy.
The story is an allegory representing the soul's journey from spiritual depths to spiritual heights. As mankind exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice, it experiences "Inferno" or hell, "Purgatorio" or purgatory, and "Paradiso" or heaven, a vision of a world of beauty, light, and song.
In this translation by Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, a single listening will reveal the power of Dante's imagination to make the spiritual visible.
In this edition, "Inferno" is translated by John Aitken Carlyle, "Purgatorio," by Thomas Okey, and "Paradiso" by Philip H. Wicksteed.
The story is an allegory, representing "mankind, as by its merits or demerits, it exposes itself to the rewards or the punishments of Justice. 'The Inferno' is a description of Hell, conceived as a graduated conical funnel, to the successive circles of which various categories of sinners are assigned. 'The Purgatorio' is a description of Purgatory, a mountain rising in circular ledges, on which are the various groups of repentant sinners. And 'The Paradiso' is, of course, a vision of a world of beauty, light, and song."
"A modern reader, uninformed, could peruse the whole Commedia , satisfied with the mere literal story, and entranced by its unparalleled beauty of language and imagery; but he would miss the inspiration of that higher message which so clearly merits the name of 'divine.'"
