Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise moves on a chain of interlocking rhymes. Michael Palma carries that pattern into English across the whole poem.
Readical Key Points
- The complete Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso), translated by Michael Palma
- Translated in terza rima, the rhymed three-line stanza Dante used, tercet by tercet
- Includes an introduction and notes
- Written in the early fourteenth century and completed before Dante's death in 1321; this Liveright paperback was published in July 2026
- Paperback, 624 pages
The poem follows Dante from a dark wood down through the circles of Hell with Virgil as his guide, up the mountain of Purgatory, where he meets Beatrice, and on into Heaven. Along the way it questions sinners, penitents and saints about faith, love, politics and justice. Palma keeps the rhyme scheme throughout in plain contemporary English, which reviewers quoted by the publisher single out for its readability.
Palma's Inferno appeared in 2002; his Purgatorio and Paradiso complete the poem here, so all three parts are in one translator's voice. It suits first-time readers of Dante, students, and poets interested in how a strict form travels between languages. The rhyme Dante built to climb from Hell to Heaven makes the whole trip in English.
About the Author and Translator
Born in Florence in 1265, Dante Alighieri entered the city's politics and was exiled in 1301. He finished the Divine Comedy late in life and died in Ravenna in 1321. Michael Palma, a poet with six collections of his own, has translated nearly twenty books by modern and contemporary poets; his honors include the Italo Calvino Award from the Translation Center of Columbia University.
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