Danteworlds: Complete

Perhaps, due to success of Danteworlds: Inferno, a complete edition featuring guides of the second and third parts of Dante's Divine Comedy, Purgatorio and Paradiso was published. I was very excited about this as too often the second and third parts of the master work are overlooked which has resulted in a misguided view of Dante as a dark and arrogant poet who put all his enemies in hell.

Applying the same formula as the Inferno reader's guide, Raffa goes through every terrace of Purgatory and ring of heaven giving a brief synopsis of events, describing the characters encountered with in-depth history and analysis of characters and finally the allusions, which give insight regarding the images and subtext of the peom.

This is a great resource expanding on the great Inferno reader which covers a lot of bases regarding one of literature's greatest achievements. Hopefully this text helps to shed new light for those put off by the difficulty of reading Dante's great poem.

A word of warning, this isn't cliff's notes. Raffa goes deep into the most obscure reference with significant detail as to who everybody is and why they feature in the comedy. If you are looking for a page turner, this isn't for you. However this is a fantastic study guide which is refreshingly impartial despite being written by an avid enthusiast.