Divine Comedy, Longfellow’s Translation, Hell

In the first and most famous part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the poet, lost in a dark wood, is guided by the Roman poet Virgil down through the nine circles of Hell, witnessing the punishments of the damned—from the lustful and gluttonous to traitors frozen in ice at Satan’s feet. This edition presents Longfellow’s stately English translation of the Inferno. A staggering feat of imagination, moral vision, and poetic power, it maps the consequences of sin with unforgettable vividness and gave the world its enduring image of Hell. One of the supreme achievements of world literature, Dante’s Inferno remains a profound and haunting journey through the depths of the human soul.