Why read The Inferno?

Book cover of The Inferno

Book description

“Probably the most finely accomplished and ... most enduring" translation (Los Angeles Times Book Review) of this essential work of world literature—from a renowned scholar and master teacher of Dante and an accomplished poet.

“The Hollanders … act as latter-day Virgils, guiding us through the Italian text that is printed…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Inferno as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark William Roche

Author

When I was interviewing for a position at Notre Dame, the campus museum had an exhibit of illustrations for Dante’s Inferno, which reinforced to me the fascination of Dante.

When I began teaching the work a few years later, my students were engrossed by its riveting portrayals of moral ugliness. They were also amazed that Dante places even popes in hell. The work has so inspired my students that one of them submitted her final paper in terza rima, the form Dante uses, and another reflected on where precisely in hell she might belong.

This beautifully translated bilingual…

From Mark's list on The best books that combine beauty and ugliness.