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About The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem by Dante Alighieri that describes the the pilgrim Dante’s travels through Hell ( Inferno ), Purgatory ( Purgatorio ), and Paradise ( Paradiso ). This trio of books, or cantiche , is one example of the number three as a theme throughout the work. Each book consists of 33 cantos, which—added to an introductory canto—totals 100. Each cantica follows a pattern of nine phases plus one for a total of ten: nine circles of hell plus Lucifer, nine rings of Mount Purgatory plus the garden of Eden, nine celestial bodies of Paradise followed by the Empyrean essence of God. Widely considered the preeminent work in Italian literature, it helped establish the Tuscan language as the standardized Italian language. This edition follows the H.F. Cary English translation.