The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Divine Comedy

ISBN: 0226702707

Author: Raffa, Guy P.

Condition: New

Dante Alighieris Divine Comedy has, despite its enormous popularity and importance, often stymied readers with its multitudinous characters, references, and themes. But until the publication in 2007 of Guy Raffas guide to the Inferno, students lacked a suitable resource to help them navigate Dantes underworld. With this new guide to the entire Divine Comedy, Raffa provides readers-experts in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Dante neophytes, and everyone in between-with a map of the entire poem, from the lowest circle of Hell to the highest sphere of Paradise.Based on Raffas original research and his many years of teaching the poem to undergraduates, The CompleteDanteworlds charts a simultaneously geographical and textual journey, canto by canto, region by region, adhering closely to the path taken by Dante himself through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. This invaluable reference also features study questions, illustrations of the realms, and regional summaries. Interpreting Dantes poem and his sources, Raffa fashions detailed entries on each character encountered as well as on many significant historical, religious, and cultural allusions.