The Complete Danteworlds
A Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Welcome to Danteworlds
Major Events in Dante’s Life
Map of Italy in the Thirteenth Century Hell
Illustration of Dante’s Hell
Dark Wood
Periphery of Hell: Cowardice
Circle 1: Limbo
Circle 2: Lust
Circle 3: Gluttony
Circle 4: Avarice and Prodigality
Circle 5: Wrath and Sullenness
Circle 6: Heresy
Circle 7: Violence
Circle 8, pouches 1-6: Fraud
Circle 8, pouches 7-10: Fraud
Circle 9: Treachery
Changing Values?
Purgatory
Illustration of Dante’s Purgatory
Ante-Purgatory: Late Repentant
Valley of Rulers
Terrace 1: Pride
Terrace 2: Envy
Terrace 3: Wrath
Terrace 4: Sloth
Terrace 5: Avarice and Prodigality
Terrace 6: Gluttony
Terrace 7: Lust
Terrestrial Paradise
Dante Today
Paradise
Illustration of Dante’s Paradise
Moon: Vow-Breakers
Mercury: Fame-Seekers
Venus: Ardent Lovers
Sun: Wise Spirits
Mars: Holy Warriors
Jupiter: Just Rulers
Saturn: Contemplatives
Fixed Stars: Church Triumphant
Primum Mobile: Angelic Orders
Empyrean: Blessed, Angels, Holy Trinity
Dante and Interdisciplinarity
Acknowledgments
Note on Texts and Translations
Bibliography
Index
“In no sense is this just another Cliffs Notes approach to Dante. In my view, this guide to Dante’s poetry is clearly the very best single book available for any student or interested general reader. The commentary and structure of the guide constitute a very impressive work of scholarship in that it admirably fulfills its goal of presenting Dante’s poem in all of its complexity without reductionism. Raffa has managed to hit exactly the right balance between providing information to readers and challenging them to use sources and Dante scholarship to come to grips with the meaning of the poem.”
“Danteworlds—the book and the website—makes the Comedy’s universal message accessible and meaningful to all readers. In his superbly written and always engaging presentation of the three realms of the afterlife Guy Raffa displays the rare ability to see, as it were, both the forest and the trees, capturing the grand outlines and shape of Dante’s poem as well as identifying and providing incisive commentary on its myriad components—people, places, events, themes. Not only will first-time readers of the Comedy appreciate Raffa’s meticulous overview, but seasoned scholars will also profit from his many critical insights. Danteworlds will have a major impact on the ways we read, teach, and study the Comedy.”
Literature and Literary Criticism: Romance Languages
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