Inferno - (Divine Comedy) Annotated by Dante Alighieri (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This dual-language edition of Dante's classic poem chronicles the poet's descent through the nine circles of Hell, stunningly translated by and featuring an introduction and notes from renowned professor Anthony Esolen, plus haunting illustrations by Gustave Doré.

"Professor Esolen's translation of Dante's Inferno is the best one I have seen."--A. Kent Hieatt, translator of The Canterbury Tales

The Inferno, the first and most famous part of Dante's Divine Comedy, describes in unforgettable detail Dante's harrowing journey to the very bottom of the underworld. Guided by the poet Virgil, he travels through the nine concentric circles of Hell, each more cruel and sinister than the last.

At once universal and personal, Dante's Inferno is an epic poem filled with politics and philosophy, humor and horror. This sublime translation brings Dante's masterpiece to vivid life and includes a substantive introduction, extensive notes, and detailed appendices that reproduce Dante's key sources and influences to provide the most comprehensive version of this classic poem.

Review Quotes

"Professor Esolen's translation of Dante's Inferno is the best one I have seen. . . . And his endnotes and other additions provoke answers to almost any question that could arise about the work." --A. Kent Hieatt, translator of The Canterbury Tales

"Crisp and clear, Esolen's version avoids two modern temptations: a slavish literalness to the Italian or a taking of liberties in the attempt to make this greatest of medieval poems esthetically modern. . . . In addition to his scholarly tact, Esolen is simply one of the most vigorous English translators of Dante ever."--Crisis magazine

"Esolen's new translation follows Dante through all his spectacular range, commanding where he is commanding, wrestling, as he does, with the density and darkness in language and in the soul. This Inferno gives us Dante's vivid drama and his verbal inventiveness. It is living writing." --James Richardson, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University

"Opening the book we stand face to face with the poet, and when his voice ceases we may marvel if he has not sung to us in his own Tuscan."--William Dean Howells, The Nation

About the Author

Anthony Esolen is a published poet and professor of English at Providence College who has written extensively on Renaissance and medieval literature. His translations include the three volumes of The Divine Comedy--Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise--Lucretius's De rerum natura, and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata.