Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) is one of the best-loved Scottish writers. Beginning with a series of poetry collections and nonfiction works, Scott quickly became known as a rising force in British letters. But it was with the publication of Waverley (1814), the first of a series of sixteen bestselling historical novels known collectively as the Waverley novels, that the writer established himself as a literary icon. Such works as Guy Mannering, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, and Kenilworth, among many others, are still widely read today, and have never been out-of-print. S. Fowler Wright here provides a...

In his introduction, the translator says: "I suppose that a very great majority of English-speaking people, if they were asked to name the greatest epic poet of the Christian era in Western Europe, would answer Dante." THE DIVINE COMEDY continues to be widely read today, whether for its religious inspiration or for the sheer power of its verse. The first part of the epic, THE INFERNO, tells how the narrator "loses his way," and finds himself in a strange landscape hes never seen before. There he encounters the shade of the ancient Roman poet, Virgil, who offers to lead him through the nine...