The Divine Comedy
āĻāĻ āĻ āĻĄāĻŋāĻāĻŦā§āĻā§āĻ° āĻŦāĻŋāĻˇā§ā§
Blackstone Audio presents a new recording of this classic masterpiece, originally published in 1320, read by award-winning narrator Ralph Cosham.
No words can describe the greatness of this work, a greatness both of theme and of artistry. Danteâs theme is universal; it involves the greatest concepts that man has ever attained. Only a genius could have found the loftiness of tone and the splendor and variety of images that are presented in The Divine Comedy.
The story is an allegory representing the soulâs journey from spiritual depths to spiritual heights. As mankind exposes itself, by its merits or demerits, to the rewards or the punishments of justice, it experiences âInfernoâ or hell, âPurgatorioâ or purgatory, and âParadisoâ or heaven, a vision of a world of beauty, light, and song. Danteâs arduous journey through the circles of hell make for an incredibly moving human drama, and a single listen will reveal the power of Danteâs imagination to make the spiritual visible.
In this edition, âInfernoâ is translated by John Aitken Carlyle, âPurgatorio,â by Thomas Okey, and âParadisoâ by Philip H. Wicksteed.
āĻ°ā§āĻāĻŋāĻ āĻ āĻĒāĻ°ā§āĻ¯āĻžāĻ˛ā§āĻāĻ¨āĻžāĻā§āĻ˛āĻŋ
āĻ˛ā§āĻāĻ āĻ¸āĻŽā§āĻĒāĻ°ā§āĻā§
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. He met Beatrice, who was to be his muse, in 1274, and when she died in 1290 he sought distraction in philosophy and theology, and wrote La Vita Nuova. He worked on the Divine Comedy from 1308 until near the time of his death in Ravenna in 1321.
Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936â2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named âAudio Best of the Yearâ by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Pennyâs The Beautiful Mystery.
