The Inferno

As the protagonist in his own visionary three-part passage through the afterlife, Dante begins at the gate of Hell, guided by the poet Virgil. Together they journey through the underworld’s nine circles, witness harrowing punishments for sin, and come face-to-face with Satan—all in order for Dante to be reunited with his beloved Beatrice who awaits in Heaven.

Conceived as a deliverance from “the state of misery…to the state of felicity,” and informed by Christian history, medieval politics, and lost love, Dante’s voyage through the realms of the hereafter is an epic narrative at once theological, philosophical, and autobiographical.