![]() ![]() In a stroke of literary genius, Dante divided hell into nine separate circles, with each circle punishing a particular group of sinners.ĭante’s Inferno is full of iconic locations and characters. The Inferno provides, as mentioned, a striking setting. ![]() That’s how many readers feel, and to a certain extent, it is easy to see why. The further Dante ventures into the afterlife, the less compelling his journey becomes. Understanding why this is the case not only will help us better understand the poem itself but our own attraction to it as well. “One finds few who will claim (or admit) that it is their favorite cantica.” That’s what Robert Hollander, the late professor of European literature, had to say about Paradiso in the introduction to his 2007 English translation of the Comedy. Indeed, the first (and most read) cantica of Dante’s Comedy is not only the most visually striking but also the most easily digestible of the poem. Not because they are inferior in quality - both contain some of Dante’s finest lines - but because they have struggled to compete with the inherent marketability of Inferno. Purgatorio and Paradiso have, by contrast, received less adoration. ![]()
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