Dante. We will read Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, all three parts of Dante's so-called Divine Comedy. I consider the Comedy to be both “important” and fun, and I love to re-encounter it with new groups of readers. It's an exciting piece of narrative; it's the most stunning and extended example I know of a poet putting the right words in the right order; it's a profound exploration of the moral implications of the journey of our lives; and it's a dizzying display of learning and cultural synthesis. If you like words and if you'd like to encounter the European cultural tradition in both telescopic breadth and microscopic depth, then this is a poem you are likely to love.