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.