Finished: The Inferno (Alighieri). Dante's Inferno...I'm pretty sure I read this in high school, but I couldn't be sure, so I wanted to re-read it. It is, of course, considered one of the great masterpieces of literature. I'm certainly not going to argue with that notion, even if it wasn't my favorite book. There were so many beautiful passages, that I can see how the epic poem deserves those praises, especially considering that it's just the first part of the three part Divine Comedy of Dante's. The Inferno is the tale of Dante's guided tour through hell by his fellow poet, and somewhat hero, Virgil. Virgil, already deceased, penned the equally impressive Aeneid. Actually, I preferred both the writing and the story of The Aeneid, so I can see why Dante looked up to the impressive Virgil and made him his spectral guide through hell. So, in the 34 cantos of The Inferno, Dante and Virgil travel through all the layers of hell until they finally reach the very center pit of hell where Satan resides. It was a little anti climatic because throughout the book, on each level, Dante and/or Virgil held conversations with different souls. I really expected some kind of conversation with Satan, but there was nothing. All the levels have different punishments for the souls who are languishing there. And, as each level is detailed, we meet the souls of several real life people who Dante knew either historically or personally. I think the biggest problem I have with The Inferno is that most of the descriptions and stories of the damned souls are those of Florentines (from Florence like Dante) or other Italians that Dante was so familiar with, but that I was not. Sure, there were a few "famous" people scattered about, like Ulysses (Odysseus), who tells his tale, but most of them were obscure to me. I spent more time reading the notes in the back of the book than I did just reading the poem itself. However, the beautiful, descriptive writing was not lost on me. The explicit descriptions of each of the punishments were quite chill-provoking at times. At the end, Dante and Virgil climb back out of hell to see the stars far more quickly than it takes them to make their descent. The entire story starts because Dante has found himself turning more towards the dark side in his real life...I guess meaning he's losing sight of good and God? Anyway, I suppose that seeing all the evils of hell are supposed to reinforce in him the will to be good. The next two books in the series deal with his journey into Purgatory and then Paradise, so I'm assuming he makes it. :-)

Here are a few passages that I enjoyed.

Dante's opening lament:

Midway upon the journey of  our life
    I found myself within a forest dark,
    For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
    What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
    Which in the very thought renews the fear.

In this one, Dante questions Virgil about whether the damned souls will suffer more or less after the rapture occurs. Virgil answers that they will feel their pain more, just as those who are saved will feel the perfect pleasure:

So we passed onward o'er the filthy mixture
    Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow,
    Touching  a little on the future life.
Wherefore I said: "Master, these torments here,
   Will they increase after the mighty sentence,
    Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?"
And he to me: "Return unto thy science,
    Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is,
    The more it feels of pleasure and of pain.

As Virgil calls Dante's attention to the level of hell where people who have done violence to others are sent, he sees the souls mired in a boiling river of blood and wonders why we can't have more foresight and self-control in real life:

"But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near
    The river of blood, within which boiling is
    Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."
O blind cupidity, O wrath insane,
    That spurs us onward so in our short life,
    And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!

In one of the many moments where one of the souls mistakenly asks what Dante, the new dead soul is getting a tour of hell and their pain for, Virgil explains that Dante is not yet dead:

"But who art thou, that musest on the crag,
    Perchance to postpone going to the pain
    That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"
"Nor death has reached him yet, nor guilt doth lead him,"
    My Master made reply, "to be tormented;
    But to procure him full experience,
Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him
    Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle;
    And this is true as that I speak to thee."
More than a hundred were there when they heard him,
    Who in the moat stood still to look at me,
    Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.