The three Reader’s Guides

Set · The Dante Curriculum

The Reader’s Guides

Inferno · Purgatorio · Paradiso

By Joe Carlson

This bundle includes all three Reader’s Guides: a companion to every canto of the Divine Comedy, from Joe Carlson, its translator.

You’re buyingThe Reader’s Guides: Inferno, Purgatorio, ParadisoThe set of three · $56.85Paperback
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One set per student.

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About the Reader’s Guides

Help into the boat

Stepping out of the modern, secular era and into a medieval Christian one is akin to stepping down from a dock into the middle of a little boat. If you are not careful, and don’t keep your wits about you, it would be easy to fall into the water and become discouraged from ever trying to get back into the boat again. But giving up the boat means giving up the water, the voyage, the experience, and the beauty.

In this volume, Carlson comes alongside and helps you into the boat, and points out the sights along the journey. Its goal is not only to help you understand and love Dante, but to read the Divine Comedy as he intended it to be read: as a window through which to see and know and enjoy the Triune God that much more.

For every canto

What the guide gives for each canto

  1. 01A list of the characters
  2. 02The location of the action
  3. 03A summary of the canto
  4. 04Notes on the text, including allusions, translation comments, context, and information on the main characters
  5. 05An analysis of the canto
  6. 06Discussion questions for students
In the set

Three books: a guide to every canto

Inside the book

Inferno III in the Reader’s Guide

Inferno, Canto III in the Reader’s Guide.

See more first? Read the free Dante Sampler: Inferno III from every part of the curriculum.

Reader’s Guides: An IntroductionPlay
Watch free · 15 min

Reader’s Guides: An Introduction

Daniel Foucachon and Dr. Joe Carlson discuss the Roman Roads Reader’s Guides that accompany the Roman Roads Classics.

“To accompany his smooth and literate translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Joe Carlson has put together a series of excellent Reader’s Guides that provide the necessary historical, literary, philosophical, and theological background.”
Louis Markos, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence, Houston Christian University
Dr. Joe Carlson
Written by

Dr. Joe Carlson

Joe Carlson holds a BA in Liberal Arts and Culture from New Saint Andrews College, and an MA in Humanities and a PhD in Literature from the University of Dallas. He is a Senior Editor with Roman Roads Press and a Literature professor at New Saint Andrews College.

The Dante Curriculum

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The poem in one volume or three, a guide to every canto, the lectures, the Teacher’s Edition, an interlinear, audiobooks read by the translator, and all of Dante’s prose. The most complete Dante in English, in one place.