Inferno (Barnes & Noble Signature Editions)

By Dante Alighieri and John Lotherington

“All hope abandon, ye who enter in!” reads the now famous words above the gate through which Dante, the protagonist of the Inferno, crosses the threshold. But that forbidding inscription applies only to those who have no faith. It does not apply to Dante. He begins a journey down into Hell in which terror and confusion transform into an understanding of the divine plan and the realization of divine love. We the readers place faith in him to represent us in finding our way through the Inferno to come out the other side enlightened.   

For his fateful journey through the perilous terrain of the Inferno, Dante is lead by Virgil, the great poet of classical Rome. They begin at the dark and savage wood near the Inferno entrance and then enter into its nine circles going deeper, one after another, in sin. Along the way, Dante meets an array of sinners from Christian and classical history and legend. Dante also meets his Italian contemporaries, chief among them, Florentines and neighboring Tuscans. These sinners were those whose factiousness and greed had severed the civic bonds and wrecked Florence and Tuscany, and Dante the author’s own life there, and undermined peace.

 

From The Eternal Rain to The Frozen Lake of Cocytus, from The Furies and Medusa to Count Ugolino and the Archbishop Ruggieri, the Inferno continues to fascinate readers since it was first published in 1317.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Nov 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781435141131

Dante Alighieri

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.

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