The Inferno

374 Pages·1995·1.56 MB·English

by  Alighieri Dante

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction

Canto I - The Dark Wood of Error
Canto II - The Descent
Canto III - THE VESTIBULE OF HELL
Canto IV - CIRCLE ONE: Limbo
Canto V - CIRCLE TWO
Canto VI - CIRCLE THREE
Canto VII - CIRCLE FOUR
Canto VIII - CIRCLE FIVE: Styx
Canto IX - CIRCLE SIX
Canto X - CIRCLE SIX
Canto XI - CIRCLE SIX
Canto XII - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round One
Canto XIII - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round Two
Canto XIV - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round Three
Canto XV - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round Three
Canto XVI - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round Three
Canto XVII - CIRCLE SEVEN: Round Three
Canto XVIII - CIRCLE EIGHT (Malebolge)
Canto XIX - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Three
Canto XX - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Four
Canto XXI - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Five
Canto XXII - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Five
Canto XXIII - CIRCLE EIGHT : Bolgia Six
Canto XXIV - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Seven
Canto XXV - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Seven
Canto XXVI - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Eight
Canto XXVII - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Eight
Canto XXVIII - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Nine
Canto XXIX - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Ten
Canto XXX - CIRCLE EIGHT: Bolgia Ten
Canto XXXI - THE CENTRAL PIT OF MALEBOLGE
Canto XXXII - CIRCLE NINE: Cocytus
Canto XXXIII - CIRCLE NINE: Cocytus
Canto XXXIV - NINTH CIRCLE: Cocytus
“It is Mr. Ciardi’s great merit to be one of the first American translators to have ... reproduced [The
Inferno] successfully in English. A text with the clarity and sobriety of a first-rate prose translation
which at the same time suggests in powerful and unmistakable ways the run and rhythm of the great
original ... a spectacular achievement.”
—Archibald MacLeish

“Fresh and sharp.... I think this version of Dante will be in many respects the best we have seen.”
—John Crowe Ransom
DANTE ALIGHIERI was born in 1265. Considered Italy’s greatest poet, this
scion of a Florentine family mastered the art of lyric poetry at an early age. His
first major work, La Vita Nuova (1292), was a tribute to Beatrice Portinari, the
great love of his life. Dante’s political activism resulted in his being exiled from
Florence, and he eventually settled in Ravenna. It is believed that The Divine
Comedy—comprising three canticles, The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The
Paradiso-was written between 1308 and 1320. Dante Alighieri died in 1321.

JOHN CIARDI was a distinguished poet and professor, having taught at Harvard
and Rutgers universities, and a poetry editor of The Saturday Review. He was a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Institute
of Arts and Letters. In 1955, he won the Harriet Monroe Memorial Award, and
in 1956, the Prix de Rome. He died in 1986.

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Published by Signet Classics, an imprint of New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Mentor edition.

First Signet Classics Printing, June

Copyright © John Ciardi, 1954, 1982
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