Mark Musa again brings his poetic sensitivity and his skill as a translator to the difficult task of making Dante's masterpiece live for English-speaking readers. His rendering of the Purgatory is distinguished by the same flexible iambic verse, the same dignified understatement, and the same elegant clarity that characterizes Dante's own lofty and complex style. Musa's extensive annotation as well as his prose introduction to each of the cantos reveal the hand of the careful scholar and craftsman.

The Paradise, which Dante called the sublime canticle, is perhaps the most ambitious book of The Divine Comedy. In this climactic segment, Dante's pilgrim reaches Paradise and encounters the Divine Will. The poet's mystical interpretation of the religious life is a complex and exquisite conclusion to his magnificent trilogy. Mark Musa's powerful and sensitive translation preserves the intricacy of the work while rendering it in clear, rhythmic English. His extensive notes and introductions to each canto make accessible to all readers the diverse and often abstruse ingredients of Dante's...

Volume 4 of Indiana s six-volume edition of Dante s Divine Comedy consists of Mark Musa s extensive commentary on the Purgatory. Enlightening for the general reader as well as the student of Italian or comparative literature. Volume 3 is the companion volume, a dual-language edition of Dante s Purgatory.