Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$16.00$16.00
FREE delivery: Friday, May 12 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $8.51
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
95% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
88% positive over last 12 months
Usually ships within 2 to 3 days.
+ $3.99 shipping
90% positive over last 12 months
Usually ships within 4 to 5 days.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
The Divine Comedy, Part 1: Hell (Penguin Classics) Paperback – June 30, 1950
Purchase options and add-ons
Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards God. Together they descend through the nine circles of the underworld and encounter the tormented souls of the damned - from heretics and pagans to gluttons, criminals and seducers - who tell of their sad fates and predict events still to come in Dante’s life. In this first part of his Divine Comedy, Dante fused satire and humour with intellect and soaring passion to create an immortal Christian allegory of mankind’s search for self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Classics
- Publication dateJune 30, 1950
- Dimensions5.02 x 0.65 x 7.79 inches
- ISBN-100140440062
- ISBN-13978-0140440065
- Lexile measure1220L
Frequently bought together

- +
- +
What do customers buy after viewing this item?
- Most purchasedin this set of products
The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)Dante AlighieriPaperback - Highest ratedin this set of products
Introductory Papers on Dante: The Poet Alive in His WritingsPaperback
The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory (Penguin Classics) (v. 2) by Dante Alighieri (1955-08-30)Dante Alighieri; Contributor-C. W. Scott-Giles; Introduction-Dorothy L. Sayers; Translator-Dorothy L. SayersPaperback Bunko
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths.” –Robert Fagles, Princeton University
“A marvel of fidelity to the original, of sobriety, and truly, of inspired poetry.” –Henri Peyre, Yale University
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Dorothy L. Sayers wrote novels, poetry, and translated Dante for Penguin Classics. She died in 1957.
Barbara Reynolds was Lecturer in Italian at Cambridge University and subsequently Reader in Italian Studies at Nottingham, and Honorary Reader at Warwick. She has written books, both on Italian authors and on Dorothy L. Sayers.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (June 30, 1950)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140440062
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140440065
- Lexile measure : 1220L
- Item Weight : 8.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.02 x 0.65 x 7.79 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #314,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #269 in Ancient & Classical Poetry
- #288 in Epic Poetry (Books)
- #8,562 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The biggest flaw of the translation is that it's just not literal enough, due mainly to Sayers's attempt at rhyming. Dante invented terza rima ("threefold rhyme") for his Comedy, and trying to use the same rhyme in English is a noble effort but ultimately hopeless. She frequently strays from the original or, worse, obscures something very clear in the original so that she can fit the lines into her rhyme scheme. Her English is also littered all over with strange syntax and archaic words, some of which worked while others left me scratching my head and, in at least one case, laughing out loud.
But for all that, her translation is entertaining and still allows Dante to speak, if through an imperfect medium. There were some sections in which the wording and rhyme worked so well I was thrilled as I read it--most of the work, however, is not up to that standard.
As I said at the beginning, though, this translation's greatest strength is its notes. Sayers shows years of dedicated study in the introduction, notes, and appendices she prepared for this work. One of the most helpful parts of her work are the breakdowns of difficult sections, which she analyzes in the four levels of interpretation at which Dante wrote. These sections are very good and offered even a seasoned reader of Dante like me something to sink my teeth into.
Some of her notes are misguided or flawed, but the book is still worthwhile to the new student of Dante for the wealth of good information they contain. I give one star for the translation and three for the notes.
If the notes are not what you're after and you want to read something more literal the first time around, check out the Mark Musa translation, also available from Penguin Classics, or that of Anthony Esolen from the Modern Library.
Recommended.
I hope the Purgatory and Paradise are as good.










