Audiobook · read by volunteers
Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)
Read by Cori Samuel, Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Denny Sayers (d. 2015), Jennifer Crispin, Hugh McGuire, Anne's Man and Thomas' Dad, Aaron Decker, Marlo Dianne, Catharine Eastman, Kirsten Ferreri · 19 chapters · 12 h 23
About the book
Midway through the journey of his life, the poet finds himself lost in a dark wood. Led first by the Roman poet Virgil, and later by others, he descends through the circles of Hell, climbs the mountain of Purgatory, and ascends at last through the spheres of Paradise. On the way he meets sinners, saints, rulers, lovers and old acquaintances, each of them placed exactly where the poet’s moral universe decides they belong.
Dante’s Divine Comedy is one of the supreme achievements of world literature, a vision of the afterlife that is also a portrait of its own time. This recording uses Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s English translation, the work of a distinguished American poet. In nineteen sections and a little over twelve hours, you are invited to take a journey that is dramatic, strange and extraordinarily beautiful.
Introduction
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was a Florentine poet, writer and political figure who spent the last years of his life in exile. He wrote the Divine Comedy between about 1308 and his death in 1321. The title Commedia later became Divina Commedia, the adjective being credited to Giovanni Boccaccio. The poem is widely considered the central epic of Italian literature and the last great work of the Middle Ages, and it is often seen as the first great work of the literature of the Italian language.
The poem has three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Each describes a different stage of the poet’s journey through the afterlife, and each is carefully structured, with a pattern of numbers and rhymes that reflects the order of the universe as Dante understood it. The poet is guided by figures such as Virgil and Beatrice, and he meets a great many historical and contemporary people along the way. Some of the most memorable scenes involve the punishment of the damned, but the poem is equally concerned with hope, love and the possibility of change.
The English translation recorded here is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), the American poet best known for Hiawatha and Paul Revere’s Ride, who worked on Dante over many years. The recording is divided into 19 sections and runs for around twelve and a half hours. It is read by LibriVox volunteers.
Why listen today? Dante’s imagery is vivid and unforgettable, and the poem has influenced writers, painters and composers for centuries. Hearing it aloud lets you appreciate its rhythm and drama, and following the journey from darkness to light is a rewarding experience whether or not you know the background.
Public domain
Dante Alighieri died in 1321: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text