Divine Comedy

"Divine Comedy" is a grand monument of poetic culture and a true encyclopedia of medieval worldview. In it, the poet makes a journey through three realms of the afterlife and, with astonishing clarity and vividness of depiction, provides a lively, memorable picture of what is happening there. The common people perceived Dante's poem literally. Boccaccio told about two residents of Verona who, noticing Dante passing by, exchanged meaningful remarks. "Look, - said one, - there is the one who descends into Hell and, when he wishes, brings news of the sinners there. The other replied: "You must be right: look how curly his beard is, and his face is black from the smoke and soot of the hellish fire." In our days, historians and critics still do not cease to argue about what this great work is: a "guide" to the afterlife or an attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible, to find the rational in the irrational, to show people the way from darkness and sorrow to light and joy.