ALIGHIERI, Dante "The Divine Comedy" [Houghton Mifflin, 1895] Longfellow Translation

[ALIGHIERI, Dante] LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1895. Three volumes. 7.75" x 5.25". Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's celebrated translation of Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Bound in an attractive contemporary three-quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, spines gilt with raised bands and decorative tooling, marbled endpapers and top edges gilt. Light rubbing and wear at extremities, most noticeable at joints and corners; bindings sound and internally clean. Very Good.

Longfellow devoted years to the translation of Dante and was instrumental in introducing the Divine Comedy to a broad American audience. First published between 1865 and 1867, his translation became the standard English-language Dante for generations of readers. Sets such as this, rebound in quality leather and intended for display in private libraries, reflect the late nineteenth-century revival of interest in fine bookmaking and the canon of world literature. An attractive shelf set combining one of the foundational works of Western literature with one of America's most influential nineteenth-century poets.