Translation of the Divina commedia.

"This brilliant, standard translation of one of the great classics of Western literature is now made available in a single volume hardcover edition, for the first time complete and in a final form. Although Dante is one of the two who "divide the world between them," the world had to wait until now for a trul accessible translation of Dante into spoken English. Archibald MacLeish describes Ciardi's version as "a text with the clarity and sobriety of a first-rate prose translation which at the same time suggests in powerful and unmistakable ways the run and rhythym of the great original ... a spectacular achievement." While the Ciardi translation has become the standard in paperback form in the colleges and universities, the separate paperback volumes were work in progress. Now it is in a permanent edition, completed at last."--From the dust-jacket front flap.