The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)
Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, the last great work of literature of the Middle Ages and the first great work of the Renaissance. A culmination of the medieval world-view of the afterlife, it establishes the Tuscan dialect in which it is written as the Italian standard, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. - The Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas (or "cantiche") — Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) — composed each of 33 cantos (or "canti"). The very first canto serves as an introduction to the poem and is generally not considered to be part of the first cantica, bringing the total number of cantos to 100. - The poet tells in the first person his travel through the three realms of the dead, lasting during the Easter Triduum in the spring of 1300. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): Poetry, Epics

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto I - Canto V Cori Samuel
00:43:10
Play 02 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto VI - Canto X Annie Coleman Rothenberg
00:36:40
Play 03 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto XI - Canto XV Denny Sayers (d. 2015)
00:47:04
Play 04 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto XVI - Canto XX Jennifer Crispin
00:30:36
Play 05 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto XXI - Canto XXV Hugh McGuire
Anne's Man and Thomas' Dad
00:35:24
Play 06 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto XXVI - Canto XXX Aaron Decker
00:36:44
Play 07 Bk 1, Inferno: Canto XXXI - Canto XXXIV Marlo Dianne
00:36:18
Play 08 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto I - Canto V Catharine Eastman
00:42:33
Play 09 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto VI - Canto XI Kirsten Ferreri
00:37:19
Play 10 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto XII - Canto XVI Jennifer Crispin
00:33:15
Play 11 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto XVII - Canto XXI featherheadfop
00:35:31
Play 12 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto XXII - Canto XXVII David Barnes
00:47:07
Play 13 Bk 2, Purgatory: Canto XXVIII - Canto XXXIII Christie Nowak
00:43:32
Play 14 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto I - Canto V David Leaman
00:41:08
Play 15 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto VI - Canto XI Jennifer Crispin
00:38:33
Play 16 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto XII - Canto XVI Rosalind Wills
00:32:15
Play 17 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto XVII - Canto XXI JemmaBlythe
00:39:50
Play 18 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto XXII - Canto XXVII Christie Nowak
00:42:17
Play 19 Bk 3, Paradise: Canto XXVIII - Canto XXXIII Kirsten Ferreri
00:44:09