Inferno by Dante Alighieri - A New Verse Translation by Elio Zappulla [FIRST EDITION THUS] 1998

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri: A New Verse Translation by Elio Zappulla and illustrated with the paintings of Gregory Gillespie [THE DIVINE COMEDY VOL. I]

FIRST EDITION THUS [1998] PANTHEON BOOKS

First printing.  Illustrated hardcover with dust jacket in excellent condition. 

Light shelf wear to jacket.  Book itself is near mint and  reads as new. 

In this new rendition of a timeless classic, Italian scholar Elio Zappulla captures the majesty and enduring power of the Inferno, the first of the three canticles of Dante's The Divine Comedy, unarguably one of the masterpieces of world literature. Rendering Dante's terza rima into lyrical blank verse, Zappulla's translation makes accessible to the modern reader the journey of the famed Florentine poet Dante through the nine circles of hell. With Virgil at his side, the great poet descends through horrific landscapes of the damned--dark forests, boiling muck, and burning plains filled with unspeakable punishment, lamentation, and terror--depicted with gruesome detail unmatched in all literature. Richly annotated, this translation takes even the first-time reader on a truth-seeking journey whose imaginative and psychological discoveries make clear why this work persists at the heart of Western culture.