The Purgatorio: A Reading & Commentary, Part I

In this commentary, Dr. White describes Dante’s problems in writing The Purgatorio since he wrote it in the order in which it was to be read. And it was problematic because Dante had no literary framework –– no imagery of purgatory, so to speak, to draw on –– as he had of hell when he wrote The Inferno. Punctuated with inspired readings, White describes how Dante the pilgrim joins other pilgrim souls as they journey up the “mountain” of purgatory –– a place, unlike hell, of motion and movement.

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