This epic poem was written between 1308 and 1321. It is divided into three sections; the inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradise. The Roman poet Virgil leads Dante through the first two sections. Beatrice, whom Dante considers the perfect woman, leads him through Heaven.

This translation of Dantes Convito--the first in English--is from the hand of a lady whose enthusiasm for the genius of Dante has made it a chief pleasure of her life to dwell on it by translating, not his Divine Comedy only, but also the whole body of his other works. Among those works the Vita Nuova and the Convito have a distinct place, as leading up to the great masterpiece. In the New Life, Man starts on his career with human love that points to the divine. In the Banquet, he passes to mature life and to love of knowledge that declares the power and the love of God in the material and...