The present volume reproduces with excellent clarity all 135 plates that Gustave Dore produced for ''The Inferno,'' ''Purgatory,'' and ''Paradise.'' From the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise, Dore's illustrations depict the passion and grandeur of Dante's masterpiece in such famous scenes as the embarkation of the souls into hell, Paolo and Francesca (4 plates), the forest of suicides, Thais the harlot, Bertram de Born holding his severed head aloft, Ugolino (4 plates), the emergence of Dante and Virgil from hell, the ascent up the mountain, the flight of the eagle, Arachne, the lustful sinners being purged in the seventh circle, the appearance of Beatrice, the planet Mercury and the first splendors of paradise, Christ on the cross, the stairway of Saturn, the final vision of the Queen of heaven, and many more.