Litsy

RamsFan1963

bailed

My last DNF of 2025. The story is moving too slow to keep my attention. I gave it over 50 pages, but I don't feel it's going to get any better. #hailthebail

Ruthiella I read that a million years ago. I can‘t remember if I liked it or not, which means it was probably only so-so. 😉 1w

dabbe YES! #hailthatbail 🙌🏻 #betterbooksahead 1w

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MaGoose

Inferno: A Novel | Dan Brown

so-so

Boring. 😴 I almost DNF several times. This is a stroll through Renaissance art in Florence, Venice and the mixture of art and culture in Istanbul. All disguised as a rather slow chase of Robert Langdon by unknown pursuers. Brown even takes time to mention two ugly sculptures in the Boboli Gardens through which a lengthy portion of the chase ran. I love art and art history but yeah...Plus, a great deal about Dante and his Divine Comedy.
#litsylove

37 likes

giu-world

The Kingdom of Light | Giulio Leoni

pan

I couldn't finish it. Too many characters to remember. The narration was at times fluid: Dante Alighieri's adventures occasionally stopped for explanations, descriptions of the places, the landscapes that surrounded him, the customs and traditions. After that the story returned to Dante Alighieri and I was so lost with all those useless explanations, that every time I had to go back several pages to understand where I had left off.

Tamra

The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation, Bilingual Edition | Dante Alighieri, Robert Pinsky, Nicole Pinsky

so-so

Ready for book club tomorrow! It‘s a funny group, so I‘m looking forward to their takes on Dante & the filth, stench, and all around beastliness of his hellish creation.

I‘m glad I read it. Did I enjoy it? Parts were creative and engaging, others read like a contemporary political revenge rag for which I have no context. Very thankful to Ciardi & his notes.

It‘s a bit like a collection of short stories, some Cantos are a hit and others a miss.

Cathythoughts Enjoy Bookclub, should be interesting 👍🏻❤️ 8mo

sarahbarnes Congrats to you for reading it! 8mo

54 likes2 comments

quietlycuriouskate

Dante: A Life | Alessandro Barbero

pick

(Photo is my journal, with one of the fabulous Dante stickers my daughter made for me. ❤️)
I enjoyed this meticulous book's painstaking sifting of all the extant sources for the facts of Dante's life. Look elsewhere for discussion of his works: this is strictly biographically-focused. Personally, I appreciated being given some context for the creation of his extraordinary Divine Comedy. (Turns out he didn't beam down from outer space/Paradiso! 😄)

TheBookHippie ♥️ 9mo

34 likes1 comment

Tamra

Inferno of Dante: Reader's Guide | Robert Pinsky

Next IRL book club pick 🔥😈

We have three translations in the house, but I‘m going with Pinsky since he‘s a poet. 🤞🏾

quietlycuriouskate Dante! ❤️ 9mo

Tamra @quietlycuriouskate I‘m looking forward to it! 9mo

48 likes2 comments

quietlycuriouskate

Dante: A Life | Alessandro Barbero

Oh hello, Dante; is that you again?
Apparently this is how Venus retrograde is manifesting in my life, courtesy of BorrowBox. 😄

23 likes

paxton.tucker

Dantes Inferno in Modern English | Dante Alighieri, Douglas Neff

pick

Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy in the early fourteenth century after being on the wrong side of a political argument and being exiled from Florence by Pope Boniface VIII. It is an epic poem which is divided into three parts that are: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. In the first section, Inferno, the reader follows the protagonist, Dante, as Alighieri imagines what it would be like if he were forced to travel the circles of hell.

paxton.tucker Writing in the first person and using graphic imagery, Dante describes each circle of hell and interacts with the people he observes there. As they travel, Dante and Virgil discuss man‘s innate sinfulness, and Dante stresses that living a Christian life and seeking forgiveness is the only way to avoid God‘s retribution. 12mo

paxton.tucker While warning people of the fate they may endure, Alighieri exposes his enemies and judges their actions. The poem references people and political and religious events of the time. It alludes to mythology, literature, art, the Bible, and the religious structures of the time making it very complex with many connections and levels of meaning.
12mo

paxton.tucker Inferno is divided into 34 cantos and describes the nine circles of hell. Dante, the traveller, finds himself lost in the dark woods unable to find the straight path. This symbolizes that Dante has lost his way and isn‘t following God as he should. He follows his guide, Virgil, through the circles to the depths of hell to where Satan lives. 12mo

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paxton.tucker On the way, Dante learns the sinners put in each circle and sees the punishments given. Dante faces the consequences of unrepented sin, standing beside sinners yet seeing the humanity in them. Alighieri asks what makes the sinners damned to hell any different from us. 12mo

paxton.tucker The sixth circle of hell is in the City of Dis. Dante and Virgil are anxious about finding a way to enter the city. They meet three beasts who want Dante turned to stone but are rescued by an angel who opens the gates to the city. Sinners in this circle are the heretics, people guilty of denouncing and contradicting Christianity or the church. 12mo

paxton.tucker Virgil explains many are followers of Epicurus, who believed that the soul dies with the body. Heretics are put in tombs that are on fire and will be covered over on judgement day. Dante is recognized by the father of another poet and learns people on this level can know the future but not the past or present. A horrible odor is making them sick so Dante and Virgil leave.

12mo

paxton.tucker The seventh circle of hell is for the violent who are split into three groups: violent against neighbors, violent against self, and violent against God, nature, and art. Those who are violent towards their neighbors are put in boiling blood because their heated anger causes bloodshed. 12mo

paxton.tucker Next, Dante and Virgil enter a forest of trees with black leaves and poisonous thorns. Dante hears sinners crying but can‘t see them. Virgil tells him to break a branch off a tree to prove that the trees are actually the sinners who were violent to themselves and committed suicide. 12mo

paxton.tucker Since they destroyed their bodies in life they are not given human bodies in death and are picked at and tortured by harpies, creatures that are half woman and half bird. Dante listens to the story of Pier delle Vigne who committed suicide and feels sorry for him. 12mo

paxton.tucker After leaving the forest, the travellers enter an area of burning sand and burning rain. Those who commit violence against God are stretched out naked on hot sand, those who are violent to nature run naked in circles, and those who are violent to art are crouched naked and weeping on the sand. 12mo

paxton.tucker The travellers walk on the edge of the woods to avoid burning their feet. A group of sinners who were prominent people in Florence recognize Dante. Dante knew and admired all of them in Florence and feels badly for the way they are suffering.
12mo

paxton.tucker
Dantes and Virgil ride a beast to descend into the eighth circle separated into 10 different trenches that are narrow but deep. Each trench is for different types of simple fraud. Panderers, people who flatter others for self gain, those who sell positions in the church, fortune tellers, corrupt politicians, hypocrites thieves, fraudulent advisors, those who cause chaos, and falsifiers.
12mo

paxton.tucker The 9th and final circle treachery is again split. There are 4 rings around the center. for the traitors of family, traitors of their country, traitors of guests and the traitors of their lords, and finally the worst act, traitors of God, where the devil lies. 12mo

paxton.tucker There are many themes in Dante‘s Inferno. The most prevalent theme is that the consequences of man's actions, although not always seen in life, will be seen in death. Many people he meets on his journey, political leaders, famous philosophers and popular socialites, had prosperous and rewarding lives, yet are tortured in hell. 12mo

paxton.tucker Dante is writing this not for the reader's amusement but to force the reader to confront his own mortality and consider his judgment in front of God. Dante is a believer who wants to warn all people about the tortures of hell so they can save themselves.
12mo

paxton.tucker Dante wrote in the common vernacular instead of Latin so that all people would be able to read the poem and understand his message.Dante's Inferno, in the end, is about a man evolving through life and getting a second chance.
12mo

paxton.tucker Another underlying theme of Dante's Inferno is the hypocrisy and corruption of the upper class who have the power in society. He names politicians, elites, and the popes and learned in the Catholic church who he believes use their power to benefit themselves instead of doing what is right and moral. 12mo

paxton.tucker Although Dante was a faithful Christian who followed the Catholic Church, he did not believe in the pope's infallibility which caused him to often oppose people in power. Dante found the corruption in the church an affront to God and called it as such.
12mo

paxton.tucker In many ways Dante's Inferno is unlike any book I've ever read. Although he does not choose, Dante takes a hero‘s journey to find the answers he seeks similar plot devices, thematic statements, and writing style to other books it's unique in the way it looks to confront the issues of the time through a fictitious journey. 12mo

paxton.tucker If you enjoy researching words, context and deeper meanings this book would be a challenge for you. Often Dante references current events and people that can only be understood with a deep knowledge of 1300s italy. Poems such as Homer's the Odyssey, Milton's paradise lost, and many of Shakespeare's works share elements of storytelling, themes and writing styles with inferno.
12mo

3 likes20 comments

paxton.tucker

The Inferno | Dante

pick

Alighieri‘s Inferno is an intricate commentary on the innate tendency to sin, the consequences and human emotions that follow, and man's search for redemption through God. Written in the first person perspective, characterized by the use of I, we, and our, this epic provides insight into how a man would act if thrust into hell and includes Dante‘s thoughts and observations.

paxton.tucker Written in 1321, the poem makes many references and allusions to the city state of Florence, Catholicism, respected writers and philosophers, influential politicians, myths, and religious texts. Readers of other classical literature such as Homer's The Odyssey will be intrigued by how many important connections exist between this poem and other pieces of writing; it is a stepping stone for many other books and modern literature.
13mo

paxton.tucker Canto 1
Halfway through his life, Dante awakens in a dark forest where misery surrounds him; he is in the area outside of hell. He is unable to say how he arrived at this place but knows he strayed from the straight road. In his pursuit of light, representing Christ, he climbs a hill. However, blocked by beasts symbolizing the three types of sin separating mankind from God (deception, violence, and greed), he decides to turn back to the forest. 13mo

paxton.tucker Canto 2
Approaching hell's gates on Good Friday, Dante laments that he is not worthy to enter the afterlife and return. Virgil tells him that the virgin Mary knows he has strayed off course and has sent her messenger to tell Virgil to guide him. Heaven is with them so Dante agrees to enter hell.

13mo

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paxton.tucker Canto 3
Outside of hell is a place for the uncommitted in life. These people never chose a side, good or bad and only did what was best for themselves. This group includes the angels who chose no side in the rebellion of angels. The uncommitted scurry restlessly through fog in search of a blank banner they can never catch while being pursued by wasps and hornets. Their bodies drop with pus and blood that attracts maggots.

13mo

paxton.tucker There are 9 circles of hell and the evilness of sin increases as you go down with Satan at the final level. The punishment given for each sin in some way fits the evil done. The first circle of hell is for those who died before Jesus was born. The souls in this level are sinless but can‘t enter heaven because they died without knowing Jesus. Virgil, along with many famous thinkers including Homer, Julius Cesar, Brutas, Socrates, and Euclid, are 13mo

paxton.tucker Sinners are condemned to their fate by Minos, a serpent who indicates the circle of hell they will reside in. The second circle of hell is for those who fell to lust. In this circle the punishment is being pushed around by constant winds and having no say in where they go. This punishment symbolizes the power of lust to blow aimlessly. Dante feels sympathy for those in this circle and faints after talking with them.

13mo

paxton.tucker
The third circle of hell is for those guilty of gluttony. These sinners wasted their lives eating and drinking too much so they are forced to bathe in a foul slush that rains on them. Cerberus, the three headed dog of myth, drools over the people. Dante meets up with a man from Florence who tells him about the future.

13mo

paxton.tucker
The fourth circle of hell is for the hoarders and the wasters. The hoarders only wanted to gain wealth and things on earth and the wasters spent money recklessly. These sinners were blind in life and in hell their souls can‘t be seen. For punishment, they joust with heavy boulders and mock one another. This is a fit punishment because one side is hoarding and the other side is throwing away just like they did on earth but now with rocks.
13mo

paxton.tucker People who are wrathful and sullen are condemned to the 5th circle which is the river Styx. The wrathful are those who are aggressive and angry toward others while the sullen are people who hold deep hatred inside. These sinners live in the river which is full of dirty boiling water.
13mo

paxton.tucker Virgil and Dante cross the river in a boat and one person in the water talks to Dante, Dante knows him as an enemy and makes fun of him. Virgil and Dante can‘t get through to the capital city of Hell because it is guarded by fallen angels. Virgil tells Dante to be patient because help is coming to get them into the city.

13mo

paxton.tucker A reader who enjoys A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens would enjoy Alighieri‘s Inferno. Scrooge and Dante are characters who have strayed off the straight path and need to find their way back. Reluctantly they leave behind their everyday lives and travel into other realities. Dante, unsure of how he arrives in the dark woods consents to travel through hell with Virgil as his guide. 13mo

paxton.tucker Similarly, Scrooge is warned by his deceased partner, Jacob Marley, that he must change his ways so he agrees to go with the ghosts of the past, present, and future. At the end of their journeys, both men are given a chance to correct their behavior and change their fates. As the characters transform themselves to avoid a miserable end, the reader can reflect on the changes and consider how what the characters learned applies to them. 13mo

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Chittavrtti

The Inferno of Dante Alighieri: A New Translation | Dante Alighieri, Ciaran Carson

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