Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Purgatory

The Divine Comedy is the classic narrative poem by the famous Italian poet and philosopher, Dante Alighieri, completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.