Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Inferno of Dante
    The Inferno of Dante
    The Inferno of Dante
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Inferno of Dante

    Written by Dante Alighieri

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Dramatic, intense, and gripping, The Inferno of Dante is an astonishing masterpiece that no listener can afford to miss. Robert Pinsky, the distinguished American poet, preserves the burning clarity and universal relevance of this 13th century literary masterpiece in a triumphant new translation for our times. Line by line, canto by canto, Robert Pinksy affirms The Inferno as a powerful living classic for today's listeners.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    TranslatorRobert Pinsky
    Release dateAug 7, 2007
    ISBN9781436100205
    The Inferno of Dante
    Author

    Dante Alighieri

    Dante Alighieri (Florencia, 1265 – Rávena, 1321), político, diplomático y poeta. En 1302 tuvo que exiliarse de su patria y ciudad natal, y a partir de entonces se vio obligado a procurarse moradas y protectores provisionales, razón por la cual mantener el prestigio que le había procurado su Vida nueva (c. 1294) era de vital importancia. La Comedia, en la que trabajó hasta el final de su vida, fue la consecuencia de ese propósito, y con los siglos se convirtió en una de las obras fundamentales de la literatura europea. Además de su obra poética, Dante escribió tratados políticos, filosóficos y literarios, como Convivio, De vulgari eloquentiao y De Monarchia.

    More audiobooks from Dante Alighieri

    Related to The Inferno of Dante

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Demeter

      Apr 7, 2022

      Demeter
      4 min read

    • Article

      Collins Ferry Landing

      Jul 1, 2020

      for my father Only rivers bottom out like this.Only rivers bottom out with this kind of conviction.Not humans, or, at least, not humans asindisputably human as you were,trapped in consciousness’s surplus, exilic,animalized absurdity, writhing in its

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2023

      This poem is for everyperson who will neverread it either by choiceor circumstance I writeit in silence wherethe most realparts of our liveslive like a shoe lostin an alley or an emptyboat in a black sea butmore like the fallenleaf on the other sideo

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      And god created the waves and we the graves beneath, bodies madeparticulate by the force of water against water, water against rock, againsttime. I descend into the deep in a kind of prayer, listen to its centuries.Make me pay, will you, make me hurt

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      Then the blue screech the lake bellowing my name over a crowd but I never felt found never knew that sharp peal of a bellTo be greeted hello by a warm group of friends who all look like me but for long years I have been litigating HellOnly to win any

      1 min read

    • Article

      La Globalizzazione In Versi / Globalisation In Verses

      Nov 25, 2022

      Non dico: sono uscito, se ho camminato. Se cammino, cammina con me il mio interno. Il mio interno è esterno, il mio esterno è interno – quando cammino. È l'unità del volto, del cuore e dei piedi: un'altra inclinazione senza come o dove? La magia del

      6 min read

    • Article

      Poetry Rx: You All Have Lied

      May 17, 2018

      Poetry Rx: You All Have Lied
      5 min read

    • Article

      From Cantares Mexicanos

      Dec 1, 2023

      Last night I dreamt that I was employed as a suicide prevention specialist in ancient Mesoamerica. We had no phones then so no hotline to call or anything like that. I held these gatherings going place to place for people to tell me their stories and

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      In a hotel in a small town in Norfolk I am listening to someonethrowing glass bottles into a metal bin: toss-shatter, toss-shatter.There are no other sounds; it’s a quiet afternoonbut the one tossing them has a sense of rhythm and I havea sense that

      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      The American linden sways nonplussed by the storm,a bounce here, a shimmy there, just shaking like musicleft over from the night’s end wafting into the avenues before sleep.I remember once walking down Clinton Street, and singingthat line returning,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      On Grief

      Jul 29, 2019

      On Grief
      5 min read

    • Article

      Orpheus and Eurydice

      Dec 25, 2023

      Orpheus and Eurydice
      2 min read

    • Article

      All I Know

      Jul 1, 2022

      The Statue of Liberty was packed in crates of lentilsand there is a species of catfish with scalesso tough that piranhas can’t chew throughto red softness. I’m thinking of what is vital,today. The willow tree in my dreams that swaysand a little girl

      2 min read

    • Article

      Rim Of A Mirror

      Apr 6, 2021

      Rim Of A Mirror
      3 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      'The Pursuit Of William Abbey' Travels A Twisty Path

      Nov 17, 2019

      Claire North's new book starts with a doctor witnessing an atrocity in Africa in 1884, but becomes a spy thriller, a horror story, a supernatural mystery and an indictment of capitalism and empire.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Learning To Walk

      Oct 28, 2019

      Learning To Walk
      5 min read

    • Article

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors

      Jul 11, 2023

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors
      6 min read

    • Article

      Read a (Love) Letter From Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne

      Mar 16, 2017

      167 years ago today, Ticknor, Reed & Fields published The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel of repentance and slut-shaming. But actually, this isn’t about The Scarlet Letter—it’s about one of the most fascinating friendships in lite

      5 min read

    • Article

      Confronting Agony

      Jan 29, 2019

      Confronting Agony
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Inferno of Dante

    4/5

    169 ratings89 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I hate Shakespeare so I didn't think I'd like this, but I did. Really cool, every scene became real in my head, the black and white, cartoon version at least. The craziest part -- hell is real, to Dante and all the Catholics who read it when it was first published. How horrifying for them. Next time my grandmother wants me to go to mass with her, I'll go. He's a beautiful writer, and so modern but I don't know if thats just the English translation. Interesting perspectives on sin. It's like he knows to sin is a natural part of being human, which I keep forgetting. I hate to read those little summaries they give you because I want to read it the same way people have been for hundreds of years. He sort of invented hell, or he really saw it. The world was much more spiritual back then so to be honest I wouldn't rule it out. Maybe he saw all this in a dream. I don't know if I completely got this book but I'm just gonna keep reading it until I do. It's better if you don't read others' explanations of books like these, I think, because it is better to read it how people have always read it, and you can preserve your original reactions, based on your personal background in religion, nationality, language, faith, and sin. Maybe you think you belong in hell, maybe you think you belong in heaven, or maybe you don't believe in either or God or maybe you have your own definition of purgatory, and this will change the way we all feel about what Dante describes.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Almost totally pointless to read without an extensive grounding in 13th century Italian political history. I'm not surprised that Dante took the narrative of exploring hell as an opportunity to portray the supposedly deserved suffering of various recent historical figures he hated but I was not prepared for the extent to which he single-mindedly devoted the Inferno to this purpose and nothing else, just one long catalog of medieval Italians I'd never heard of and what a just God would posthumously wreak on them. Also Simon told me there's a cute fan-fictioney current to the relationship with Virgil, and I thought he was exaggerating but no, it's definitely there - there's one point where Dante talks about how one of his slams on these dead Italian assholes was so on target that Virgil decided to show how happy he was with it by carrying Dante around in his big strong poet arms for a while. Anyway this is cute and gay but it's not enough to carry my interest through the book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Dante's journey through Hell ranks in my top 5 favorite books. I especially like this translation, as it keeps the language modern enough to be readable, but is still beautiful. Also, there are plenty of foot and end notes to explain middle age-phrases and historical references many people may not be familiar with.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Dante's journey through Hell ranks in my top 5 favorite books. I especially like this translation, as it keeps the language modern enough to be readable, but is still beautiful. Also, there are plenty of foot and end notes to explain middle age-phrases and historical references many people may not be familiar with.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      If you like reading about people boiled in a river of blood, forever immersed in shit, having their heads on backwards, split down the middle, beheaded, suffering eternal disease and itching, being frozen in ice, or lastly for those in the innermost circle of hell, you know, bad old Judas and Brutus, chewed by Satan himself (as well as in the other circles a myriad of other tortures, er, “just” punishments for sins on Earth per the Christian view of morality), well, this is the book for you! To me this book represents the worst of Christianity: eternal torment, eternal torture, and no mercy. It’s all cruel retribution, without pity. I fail to see how these sentiments are Christ-like even within the dogma of the religion, and I fail to see why anyone would ever view this as representative of an enlightened faith that should be aspired to. If you are inclined to read it this is a great edition – lots of annotation, illustrations, and a fresh translation … but I don’t recommend it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The primary virtue of the Oxford / Sinclair edition is the parallel text, which means that you can both appreciate the beauty of Dante's original, and make sure that you miss none of the finer points by following the English translation. Each canto has its own introduction and endnotes, which means that important contextual information is always at hand. Inferno is for me by far the most engaging cantica, as Dante creates ever more imaginative tortures for the souls condemned to each circle of Hell. An absolute classic.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I've read this book, the first of three, in French, when I was 25, and I immediately was swept away by its poetic force, its classical symmetrical construction and its sharp and benign view on the human condition. Brilliantly composed. Each canto tells the story of several prominent historical persons, set in breathtaking landscapes. Tragedy is all around, sometimes with a comical touch, but almost always compassionate. The filosofical and theological dimensions are less prominent than in book II and III. I've reread this book in Dutch (both prose and lyrical translation) and in the original Italian. An everlasting treasure.
    • 4/5
      It's interesting but I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. The morality seems rather heavy-handed, maybe I'm not digging deep enough into it.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this, but in the end it just got very repetitive and preachy to me. There was certainly some great symbols and imagery and the weird obsession with numerology was interesting but this semi-casual semi-academic reader could not be bothered to dig into all of the abstruse Italian references to by-gone politics family feuds etc... In some sense Dante's hubris annoyed me as well. Placing himself in his own epic, chatting it up with the greatest poets of the time etc... I know that a story is not the author but when the author directly inserts himself into that story, I don't know what I'm really to make of that.
    • 2/5
      Admittedly, I got rather annoyed with Dante while reading this. He was so self righteous, especially towards the end. At one point he gets mad at someone who tells him not to step on his face. I definitely got the impression that there were a lot of political messages and that Dante was using this as a tool to complain about people. It gets points for having an interesting concept, but I disagreed with a lot of his punishments. The worst one, in my opinion, was the people who were stuck being itchy all the time. That would be awful. For the most part though, the torments were physical and could have been worse. I was also slightly disturbed that liars were worse than murders- um, I've gotta disagree with that one.
    • 5/5
      Poetry like this touches your soul Dante was a lot like Mozart a daring rebel and a genius
    • 5/5
      Excellent prose translation. The essays at the end of each canto are worth the price of the book,
    • 3/5
      I kinda didn't love this as much as I wanted to. The fault might be Pinsky's; he uses a lot of enjambment, which makes the poem a more graceful, flowing thing than Dante's apparently was. It might also be Dante's fault; there are a ton of allusions to contemporary politics, none of which I got at all, so I did a lot of flipping to the end notes. And, y'know, it's a little...religious. I know, who woulda thought?

      I liked it okay, I guess, but I've been reading a ton of epic poetry over the last year, and this hasn't been one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      This particular translation is interesting because it attempts to retain Dante's original three line rhyming scheme.
    • 5/5
      My favorite of all classics. This is a story of loss and retribution, temptation and horror. The imagery is amazing and the voice is strong and full of passion.
    • 5/5
      If you haven't walked through Hell with Dante, I highly recommend you do so immediately. It's quite nice.
    • 4/5
      This particular version of the Inferno is a particularly great read. The Italian is translated on the opposing page and at the end of each section there's a explanation of what you've just read. I didn't use the notes to explain anything, but rather they referred me to ideas that I missed on the first read through. I've read this book 3 times and each time I find something new.
    • 4/5
      Despite its deserved reputation as being a bit hard to follow, if you stick with it, this is really worth reading.
    • 3/5
      This was the most difficult book to understand i have ever read do to so many old local events and characters in it. It was hell but I am glad i got through it. it felt like an acomplishment
    • 4/5
      This was my favourite thing I've read for school this semester. Vivid and fascinating.
    • 3/5
      If you like reading poetry then this won't be as difficult of a read than for those who do not, however you still need to get past the language Dante uses. If you get the Barnes and Noble Classic Series book (which I highly suggest) you get great End Notes that are actually longer than the poem itself. Getting through the language and seeing what Dante is really talking about you see the horror that is hell, and it is a fascinating horror. You may feel more religious than ever after reading this book; no one wants to walk the path that Dante and Virgil walked. But you want to read about it...
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book on CD instead of actually reading it. The version that I had had an explination at the beginning of each verse to help you understand and then read the verse.

      In this book, you travel with Dante through the 9 circles of hell.

      I really liked this book. I forgot how much I liked Greek Mythology (which I did not expect in this book at all). It has pushed me to look into more mythology again.
    • 2/5
      I have finally read the Inferno and if I am going to be honest, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Not being a student of Italian literature and having read Clive James' English translation there was probably a lot I was missing, in the original, but I found that it was really just a horror story with the added s pice of the author being able to denigrate persons he didn't like. All this would have been extremely entertaining at the time when the names were topical, but I do not understand why it is considered such a classic. It was just a litany of various types of physical torture with no overarching point that I could see, except to list all that horror.
    • 4/5
      I read this book/Poem because I had always heard about it but had never read it. So I challenged myself to read this book. I chose the Pinsky translation for my read. The story was very thought provoking, and disturbing as to whether any of it could true. As a born and raised Catholic, I chose the time of the read for the Lenten season since this is not the type of literature that I normally appreciate and I'm not sure that I do appreciate it. I do, however, acknowledge the talent of the writer and his imagination but I was disappointed by the amount of politics involved in the story.
    • 4/5
      i had trouble with this one. i did not know who many of people Dante wrote about seeing on his journey, and if it were not for the notes in the back i would not have understood much at all. if you really want to experience this book as it was meant be, be prepared to do some research.
    • 3/5
      Basically, Dante made a list of people he didn't like and put them all in Hell. Disturbing imagery abounds and there are loads of interesting references to mythology. But it's not exactly summer reading. Glad I read it from an academic perspective, but to be honest it was a little bit of a slog. Perhaps if I knew more about Italian history I would have appreciated it a little more.
    • 3/5
      Mildly amusing, though this ostensibly pure Christian author clearly has a perverse streak running through him. (As does the Christian God, so not surprising.)
    • 3/5
      Dieser Klassiker birgt so einige schöne, vielfältige und wundervolle Zitate, doch es ist kein einfaches Lesen. Oft fehlt dem modernen Leser das Wissen, um alle genannten Personen einordnen zu können. Dieser Mangel ist vermutlich dafür verantwortlich dafür, dass das Buch zwischen den Zitaten eher als Probe dient, wie gewillt man ist, sich durch seitenweise Verse durchzukämpfen. Leider geht darin die Schönheit und die Metaphorik des Textes für mich verloren. Vermutlich müsste man sich jeden Vers einzeln vornehmen, um das Werk wirklich zu verstehen.
    • 5/5
      An excellent (rhyming) translation of Dante's epic by Dorothy L. Sayers. Very easy to read. The commentaries between cantos (by Sayers and heavily influenced by Charles Williams) are of great value for understanding both the social setting of the work and the deep philosophical and mythological imagery.
    • 5/5
      One needs to read this just so that can fully realize the abundance of references there are to this book in modern media - really, it's ridiculous how many nods Dante gets but it is understandable. I refer to frequently, usually in the form of "you're going to the sixth circle of Hell for that!" Great way of feeling smart. Oh, and it's a good read too.