Inferno (Italian: [iɱˈfɛrno]; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.
The implications of this book are beyond my years, but its story-telling is wonderful and it is the finest piece of classic literature I have read to date.
I won't even try to praise The Divine Comedy because there's nothing I can say that more learned people haven't already said, most likely in much better prose than I can. This is a great translation in poem format.
BUT
I just could not reconcile myself to the style of narration. The narrator, who has a wonderful voice, chose to apply a breathless, "this is so meaningful" narration style that was off-putting and distracting. I listened to the end of "Inferno", couldn't listen to anymore of the narration style, and I'm now on the search for another audio book version with a different narrator because I. Will. Finish. This. Poem!
Classic tale of the poets travel through the circles of hell. Not sure how this compares to other translations, but felt concise. A short but challenging read.
Psychedelic, strange, extremely physical, and bodily. Dante is the spiritual counterpart of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg,
I feel like you need to take a course in 13th-century Italian politics before reading this book, otherwise you're just reading Dante talk shit about random people.
My edition had no notes or explanations, so I was super confused most of the time and had to stop to google about Guelphs, Ghibellines, and other references that would have been instantly recognizable to a medieval reader but... not to me.
Still, the descriptions of the torture were really interesting, especially when Dante talks about someone you actually know. I also found it super interesting that the book mixes Greco-Roman mythology with Christianity and modern(for the time) subjects.
Overall, it is definitely a book that I will read again when I have more context.
