Inferno: Illustrated Edition

By Dante Alighieri

“Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
 
In Inferno, the first of the three books in his Divine Comedy, the poet Dante, adrift spiritually and emotionally in life, journeys down to Hell. Accompanied by the poet Virgil, Dante travels through all nine circles of the realm, meeting an array of sinners from Christian and classical history and legend. The terror and confusion he experiences ultimately give way to an understanding of the divine plan and the realization of divine love.
 
Written in the 14th century, Dante’s epic poem is a masterful meditation on the personal search for spiritual redemption. This fully illustrated edition features more than seventy engravings by Gustave Doré that bring the horrors and the majesty of Dante’s creation vividly to life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fall River Press
• Release date: Sep 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781435166912

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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