“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.