Paradiso Dante Alighieri, Fiction, Classics, Literary

". . . All things whate'er they beHave order among themselves: and this is Form, That makes the universe resemble God."Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82) was America's most widely read poet of the 19th century. Yet little remembered today is the ambitious and laborious project of his middle years: his translation for New World readers of Dante Alighieri's epic trilogy of a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.In Paradiso, the third and final book, Dante enters the realms of the upper Heavens, where he and others rail against the avarice, luxury and corruption of ecclesiastics -- and where no less than Saints Peter, James and John challenge Dante on questions of Faith, Hope, and Charity.Dante learns of the creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and gains final insight into the mystery of human and divine nature, in this fitting sequel to Inferno and Purgatorio.

About the Author

Durante degli Alighieri (1265 - 1321), was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. In the late Middle Ages, the overwhelming majority of poetry was written in Latin and therefore accessible only to affluent and educated audiences. In De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular), however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature. He himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, although highly unorthodox, set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. As a result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835, after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861, after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages.

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