Inferno, by Dante Alighieri
Written: May 23 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: One of the earliest horror stories still being read today.
Cons: 1300s prose is DRY.
The Bottom Line: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here"
|
|
|
| cdm72's Full Review: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri : Vol 1. Infe... |
The poet Dante loses his way in a forest and, finding there’s no way out, is met by Virgil who was sent by Dante’s love Beatrice in Heaven, to guide him through Hell and Purgatory, and finally to Heaven where Beatrice will lead him back into the world. This is the premise of Dante Alighieri’s long work “The Divine Comedy”, the first part of which is “Inferno”, or Hell. Originally published 700 years ago, Dante’s is one of the most long-lasting works of literature the world has ever seen, and it forms a solid foundation upon which a LOT of today’s horror fiction is built, whether it knows it or not. This excerpt from Canto XXV could have been lifted from any Clive Barker novel:
“The shoulders next I mark’d, that entering join’d
The monster’s arm-pits, whose two shorter feet
So lengthen’d, as the others dwindling shrunk.
The feet behind then twisting up became
That part that man conceals, which in the wretch
Was cleft in twain. While both the shadowy smoke
With a new color veils, and generates
The excrescent pile on one, peeling it off
From the other body, lo! upon his feet
One upright rose, and prone the other fell”
The language is a bit stiff, I’ll grant, but what an image.
Following along behind Virgil, Dante enters Hell and travels through its nine levels, coming across the damned on every level--most of whom seem to be politicians of Dante’s era, which provides some interesting subtext to the theme here. For example, in the seventh level, where those are tortured who’ve done violence to others, Dante sees Ezzelino di Romano who died in 1260 “His atrocities form the subject of a Latin tragedy,” the footnotes tell us (and thank God for the footnotes).
There are cities in Hell--the city of Dis on the 6th level, we learn is where “he discovers that the heretics are punished in tombs burning with intense fire”--and rivers, mountains, bridges, and anything else one would expect to see on any other journey. Other than the damned souls, that is.
On his journey, Dante descends deeper and deeper to the very last level, all the way meeting mythological creatures--giants, centaurs, minotaurs--and the damned of Hell, frightened of every new abomination the place presents, and never sure if he’s going to survive the journey. But all the way, he trusts in Virgil, whom he refers to here as Master, to lead him on in safety. Or, as safely as Virgil is able.
Reading of Dante’s journey, especially with the footnotes, gives, not only a very interesting portrayal of Hell, but of the times in which Dante lived. Most of the people he meets there are, as, I said, politicians, rulers, or others in similar positions in their society, and if even half these people really existed, and the footnotes lead me to believe they did, then Dante’s world was a very violent one, full of doublecrossing, murder, and greed.
His journey itself, while it had its moments, as in the above excerpt, for the most part I never felt Dante was in any real danger from Hell, even when he comes across Lucifer in the end. The damned of Hell are a horrible lot and no one would ever want to come across them, but for the most part, I never really felt any danger from them. In fact, most of them, it seems, just wanted to talk with Dante a while, then let him go on his way. This leads me to think the whole point of “Inferno” was more a commentary on the times and the politics (Dante was sentenced to death by his own political enemies and saved himself only by agreeing to exile in 1302) of his world. By specifying each of the damned souls he meets as someone with whom he is familiar or has heard of, I wonder what the leaders of Florence in the 1300s made of “Inferno”.
I was very tempted, more than once, to see if my library had an updated version, something with the story intact, but told in more modern language. I decided against this, however, because I wanted to read DANTE’S “Inferno”, not someone else’s translation of Dante’s “Inferno”. But be warned, if you decide to take up the task of reading Dante, clear your schedule. It’s VERY heavy and takes a while to get through (almost 2 weeks on “Inferno” alone, and it’s only 144 pages).
At the end of “Inferno”, Dante has escaped Hell with Virgil into the night and sees once again the stars shining above him. But he still has Purgatory to go through before reaching Paradise. I’m very interested in knowing how his story unfolds further.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
cdm72
|
 in Music, Movies, Books |
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: St. Joseph, MO, USA
Reviews written: 765
Trusted by: 112 members
About Me:
That's me in front of Trent Reznor's house in NOLA several years ago.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.