The third and final book of Dante's great 14th-century allegory traces the poet's ultimate stage of his journey, as he crosses into Paradise under the guidance of the saintly Beatrice. This edition features the renowned translation by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and serves as a companion volume to the Dover editions of Inferno and Purgatorio. AUTHOR: Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265?1321) is best known for The Divine Comedy, a three-part epic poem that progresses from Hell (Inferno) to Purgatory to Paradise. Written in the vernacular, rather than Latin or Greek, Dante's masterpiece immediately found a wide audience; it is considered the greatest work of Italian literature and its author is regarded as the father of modern Italian. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807?1882), author of The Song of Hiawatha and other beloved poems, was Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard University.
