Introduction by Eugenio Montale; Translation by Allen Mandelbaum

This timeless Christian allegory has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery fo its own identity. In the Inferno, the first of the Comedy's three parts, Dante is conducted by the spirit of the classical poet Virgil through the nine circles of Hell on the initial stage of his arduous journey toward God.

Through Mandelbaum's poetic artistry, this gloriously entertaining achievement of literature-classical myths filtered through the worldly and far from reverent sensibility of the Roman poet Ovid-is revealed anew. " An] extraordinary translation...brilliant" (Booklist). With an Introduction by the Translator.

"A brilliant translation; the only one since Dryden which reads like English verse and conveys some of the majesty and pathos of the original."--Bernard M. W. Knox
"Mandelbaum has . . . given us a contemporary experience of the masterpiece, at last."--David Ignatow
"The book has a wonderful, detailed liveliness in every line."--Robert Fagles
"Comes closer to the impossible goal of perfection than any of the numerous efforts that have poured out of American and British presses since World War II."--William S. Anderson

One of the founding texts of Western literature, the Metamorphoses is nevertheless anything but earnest or off-putting. Ovid's sequence of fifteen witty and playful poems sketches the history of the world from its creation to the poet's own time through a series of transformation myths in which gods and goddesses succumb to all-too-human passions, not least in the matter of love. Frequently translated, imitated and paraphrased.

This splendid verse translation by Allen  Mandelbaum provides an entirely fresh experience of  Dante's great poem of penance and hope. As Dante  ascends the Mount of Purgatory toward the Earthly  Paradise and his beloved Beatrice, through "that  second kingdom in which the human soul is cleansed  of sin," all the passion and suffering, poetry  and philosophy are rendered with the immediacy of  a poet of our own age. With extensive notes and  commentary prepared especially for this  edition.

This new critical volume, the second to appear in the three-volume "Lectura Dantis, "contains expert, focused commentary on the "Purgatorio "by thirty-three international scholars, each of whom presents to the nonspecialist reader one of the cantos of the transitional middle cantica of Dante's unique Christian epic. The cast of characters is as colorful as before, although this time most of them are headed for salvation. The canto-by-canto commentary allows each contributor his or her individual voice and results in a deeper, richer awareness of Dante's timeless aspirations and achievements.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1998.

The California Lectura Dantis is the long-awaited companion to the three-volume verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum of Dante's "Divine Comedy," Mandelbaum's translation, with facing original text and with illustrations by Barry Moser, has been praised by Robert Fagles as "exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths," and by the late James Merrill as "lucid and strong . . . with rich orchestration . . . overall sweep and felicity . . . and countless free, brilliant, utterly Dantesque strokes." Charles Simic called the work "a miracle. A lesson in the art of translation and a model (an encyclopedia) for poets. The full range and richness of American English is displayed as perhaps never before."
This collection of commentaries on the first part of the "Comedy" consists of commissioned essays, one for each canto, by a distinguished group of international scholar-critics. Readers of Dante will find this "Inferno" volume an enlightening and indispensable guide, the kind of lucid commentary that is truly adapted to the general reader as well as the student and scholar.