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This edition of Dante's classic Divine Comedy comes in the right order, that is, the order he wrote them, Inferno-Purgatory-Paradise, and is beautifully--if somewhat archaically--translated by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I had previously read the edition translated by H.F. Cary, which was awful and out of order. The illustrations were from Gustave Dore and were excellent, though be warned, the printing on the front and back covers wipes right off very easily.
The Inferno is perhaps the most famous part of the work, what with its graphic and horror-inspiring scenes of divine punishment for misdeeds in this life. However, the sufferings of Purgatory are in some cases just as bad, although they at least let up and permit the sufferers to pass on to Paradise, unlike the eternally damned. Purgatory also contains perhaps the most and best theological content of the entire work, though Paradise has some, too. Dante's grasp on the theology of his day was certainly solid.
Modern readers will probably be shocked at some of the "sins" being punished so awfully in the Inferno. For instance, a ship's captain whose sin was trying to explore beyond the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, in the highest level of Purgatory, we have those who participated in every type of sexual deviancy, to include bestiality, but who are well on their way to eternal bliss. Then there is Beatrice, whom Dante finds second perhaps only to the Blessed Virgin Mary of those who lived mortal lives (more on her later).
Dante seems to take his work at times as a means to either praise those he favors or condemn those he despises, by placing them in the various three locations as per his own judgment. One can certainly get the feeling of pre-Reformation (and Counter Reformation) Christendom. Dante frequently praises Christianity and the Church and her saints and the orders within, yet roundly condemns the modern leaders and practitioners, right up to popes and the Vatican. The reader can certainly get a vivid feeling for the raw material which burst asunder across Europe a couple of centuries later. Dante unambiguously ascribes the responsibility for all evil to those who choose it: "Hence, if the present world doth go astray, In you the cause is, be it sought in you." (p 235) The severity of his criticism of his fellows can be seen from this example, as spoken to Dante by St. Peter:
The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been
On blood of mine, of Linus and Cletus,
To be made use of in acquest of gold;
But in acquest of this delightful life
Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,
After much lamentation, shed their blood.
Our purpose was not, that on the right hand
Of our successors should in part be seated
The Christian folk, in part upon the other;
Nor that the keys which were to me confided
Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner,
That should wage war on those who are baptized;
Nor I be made the figure of a seal
To privileges venal and mendacious,
Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.
In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves
Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures!
...O thou good beginning,
Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall! (p 356)
Longfellow's translation does justice to a poet like Dante, but its age makes it difficult to modern readers at times. This is most the case when Dante is showing his excellent understanding and familiarity with the Greek and Roman classics and making exceptionally long metaphors and descriptions in unending run-on sentences. It is almost like reading a very poetical Yoda who does not know where to find the "." key. For those readers not as steeped in the classics, an annotated study version of the Divine Comedy may be better, though certainly not as flowing. The font used is nice too, but so thin as to make reading difficult on older eyes, and the letters "b" and "h" are rendered nearly indistinguishable, making for more difficult reading.
Dante's autobiographical "La Vita Nuova" is appended at the end, which the producers of this book assure us will enlighten us as to Dante's fascination with Beatrice. In fact, it does little of that. All we learn is that Dante fell in love with her at first sight when he was nine years old, and was further confirmed in this infatuation the first time she actually said "hello" to him years later. He seems to know very little of her and not of close acquaintance, yet he is completely moon-struck by her. And he is convinced of her unerring virtue, even though the picture he paints of her in life is not always flattering (like when she joins her friends in mocking Dante for being love-struck by her).
However, La Vita Nuova demonstrates to the reader that Dante already had a tremendous education in the classics even as a young man. He was an able poet and versatile in Latin and his native Tuscan dialect. And he had a penchant for seeing visions and apparitions, meaning that his Divine Comedy is likely a recollection of such a vision or dream, rather than a from-whole-cloth work of Dante's conscious imagination.
The Divine Comedy is an important work in the Christian corpus, as well as being an important surviving work of high Medieval literature. For those interested in such topics, it really is a must-read. There may be better editions out there, though there are certainly worse. If you can stomach Longfellow's more dated English, this is a good choice.