Inferno

by Dante Alighieri, Anthony Esolen

1767 · 490 pages

poetry
hell
illustrations
iconography
pictorial works
italian literature

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About this book

The Inferno, the first section of the 14th century poem The Divine Comedy, tells of the passage of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.

Hell is described as nine circles of suffering beneath the Earth.

Allegorically, the epic grandeur of Dante’s masterpiece

The Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and ultimate rejection of sin.

“Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third.”

— T. S. Eliot

DANTE ALIGHIERI was born in 1265. Considered Italy's greatest poet, his first major work is La Vita Nuova (1292) a tribute to Beatrice Portinari, the great love of his life. His political activism resulted in his exile from Florence to Ravenna. It is believed that The Divine Comedy—consisting of three canticles, The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso—was written between 1308 and 1320. Dante Alighieri died in 1321.

Quotes

From Wikiquote

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Io non so ben ridir com' io v'entrai, tanto era pien di sonno in su quel punto che la verace via abbandonai;
E come quei che con lena affannata, uscito fuor del pelago a la riva, si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata.
così l' animo mio, che ancor fuggiva, si volse indietro a rimirar lo passo che non lasciò giammai persona viva.