The Inferno

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So many versions of the Divine Comedy exist in English that a new one might well seem needless. But most of these translations are in verse, and the intellectual temper of our time is impatient of a transmutation in which substance is sacrificed for forms sake, and the new form is itself different from the original No poem in any tongue is more informed with rhythmic life than the Divine Comedy. And yet, such is its extraordinary distinction, no poem has an intellectual and emotional substance more independent of its metrical form.

At the age of thirty-five, Dante is lost. Metaphorically by temptation and the turns of lifes ever-changing path; and literally, in a dark and ominous wood to which there seems no escape. Attacked by three beasts of Hell, Dante has no recourse but to retreat into the hopeless darkness of the wood, saved only by the light of the Roman poet, Virgil sent forth to guide him through the underworld and to salvation by the Divine Symbol of Love, Beatrice. Journeying through the Nine Circles of Satans domain, Dante is met by historical figures and acquaintances alikewhose acts of violence, fraud, treachery, and betrayal in life forged chains of nightmares and suffering in death.

Hailed as one of the greatest works of literature ever written, The Divine Comedy is a highly influential poem that has dazzled readers for over five centuries, with its first book, The Inferno, being one of the most recognizable pieces of fiction ever published. Revisit the masterfully crafted story of Dantes descent into Hell, with a beloved translation by revered American scholar Charles Eliot Norton, adapted into prose.

Author Bio

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet. Born in Florence, Dante was raised in a family loyal to the Guelphs, a political faction in support of the Pope and embroiled in violent conflict with the opposing Ghibellines, who supported the Holy Roman Emperor. Promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati at the age of 12, Dante had already fallen in love with Beatrice Portinari, whom he would represent as a divine figure and muse in much of his poetry. After fighting with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289, Dante returned to Florence to serve as a public figure while raising his four young children. By this time, Dante had met the poets Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and Brunetto Latini, all of whom contributed to the burgeoning aesthetic movement known as the dolce stil novo, or "sweet new style." The New Life (1294) is a book composed of prose and verse in which Dante explores the relationship between romantic love and divine love through the lens of his own infatuation with Beatrice. Written in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, The New Life was influential in establishing a standardized Italian language. In 1302, following the violent fragmentation of the Guelph faction into the White and Black Guelphs, Dante was permanently exiled from Florence. Over the next two decades, he composed The Divine Comedy (1320), a lengthy narrative poem that would bring him enduring fame as Italy's most important literary figure.