The Divine Comedy

Depicting a realm of intense sensation and physical experience, this poem transforms the traditional Christian idea of Purgatory by showing how the free will of the aspiring soul could change wordly perversions into perfection.

The second volume of Dante''s epic, printed with the original Italian and Robin Kirkpatrick''s sublime translation

Climbing out of Hell, Dante in the Purgatorio reaches an island set in the southern ocean. This is Mount Purgatory, where he encounters the penitents who heroically endure their sufferings and speak of their time on Earth. Strange and fresh at every turn, Dante''s narrative evokes the mountain landscape in terms of intense physical sensation, right up to the summit. There, before rising to heaven, he enters the Earthly Paradise, where he is movingly reunited with his lost love, Beatrice. This gloriously vivid portrayal of the search for redemption transformed the traditional conception of Purgatory and affirmed the dignity of human will and compassion.

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