Dante got rid of the fetters of the medieval literary tradition and tried to express the ideological content of the new era with new artistic forms, which made Dante the first national poet in Italy.
The great historical value of Divine Comedy lies in that it reflects the changes in real life and social and political fields in Italy during the transition period from the Middle Ages to modern times through the descriptions of hundreds of various characters encountered by the poet in his fantasy journey, and reveals the new concept of the new era-the dawn of humanism. Divine Comedy gives an artistic exposition and summary of politics, philosophy, science, theology, poetry, painting and culture in the Middle Ages. Therefore, it not only reached the advanced level of the times in thought and art, but also was an epoch-making milestone and an encyclopedic masterpiece reflecting social life and imparting knowledge.
I haven't read the full text either, but the fifth volume of the high school Chinese reader has an introduction and an excerpt from the full text, which I read only a few days ago. I have read the excerpts, and to be honest, the following annotations can only be barely understood. I feel that the level of western classical culture is not high, and it is really difficult for people who know about religious customs to understand. There are many metaphors, allusions and characters in the Bible. I don't think I can understand it at all without the translator's comments.
Although the Divine Comedy used 66 songs to describe hell and purgatory, it used 33 songs to describe heaven. However, I think the description of hell is actually just a foreshadowing of heaven, which is very similar to the paradise advocated in Buddhist thought. People who have committed crimes in the world go to hell after death and are graded according to their severity. Even pagans who have never experienced Christian baptism, such as Homer, Socrates and Plato, are on the first floor of hell.
Finally, Dante drank the water and forgot the past so that he could ascend to heaven. However, there are nine points in the sky. God is just above the ninth level, but unfortunately, God can't escape class struggle.
Of course, I think it is a failure to treat the Divine Comedy as a novel in the introduction. The religious thoughts and Buddhist teachings preached by Divine Comedy seem that God is like the Tathagata and the Jade Emperor, hell and purgatory are like 18 layers of hell, and heaven is like the western paradise.
Engels said that Dante was the last poet in the Middle Ages and the first poet in the new era. It is enough to show that The Divine Comedy is an epoch-making poem, but unfortunately there is not so much time and energy to understand it.
PS: I didn't see fallen angels Lu Xihua (in the introduction), but I saw the guardian angel and the nemesis.