Hell

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.6

Word count: 209K words
Chapters: 21

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.L'enfer (1 of 2) by Dante AlighieriAuthor: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 26, 2007

Editor's review

This is an electronic French translation of Inferno, the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, a public-domain resource from Project Gutenberg. Its core value is that it gives French readers and learners of French direct access to this medieval literary masterpiece's narrative of the journey through Hell: beginning with being lost in a dark forest, descending level by level through the nine circles of Hell and their varied sins and punishments. While preserving the original's terza rima and symbolic system, the French translation also shows French's own rhythms of expression, making it a good entry point for comparative reading. Reading it requires some knowledge of medieval European religion and culture; otherwise the many allusions and names can be obstacles. Use an annotated edition or introductory material, and understand the overall structure before proceeding chapter by chapter. The electronic edition makes it easy to search characters and chapters, and suits classroom support, self-study close reading or parallel reading with a Chinese translation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with French reading ability who want to read classic literature in the original
Readers interested in the Divine Comedy and medieval European literature
Students or researchers who need to study the French and Chinese translations in parallel
Deep readers who enjoy symbolic narrative and religious-philosophical themes

Not a good fit for

Beginners with weak French who cannot yet read long literary sentences
Readers who want a Chinese translation to grasp the plot quickly
Readers uninterested in medieval religious allusions who prefer modern fiction

Reading tips

Read an introductory guide to the structure of Inferno first, and clarify the division of the nine circles before starting the text.
Read one or two cantos closely each day, noting names and allusions and looking them up as you go.
Prepare a Chinese translation for parallel reading: read the Chinese first to grasp the plot, then return to the French to appreciate the language.
After each circle, briefly retell the correspondence between sins and punishments to consolidate understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this edition the complete Divine Comedy or only Inferno?

According to the information, this book is the first part of Inferno (L'enfer), the first of the three parts of the Divine Comedy, not the whole work. To read the entire Divine Comedy, you will need translations of Purgatorio and Paradiso as well.

If I don't know Italian, will I lose something by reading a French translation?

A French translation can convey the plot, structure and symbolic system of the original, but the sound effects of Dante's terza rima are hard to reproduce fully. For readers unfamiliar with Italian, a French translation is still an effective way into the work; if you want a sense of the verse, compare it with translations in other languages.

What background knowledge should I prepare before reading?

It is advisable to learn first about the medieval Christian conception of Hell, Dante's life and his political exile, and to become familiar with the Florentine figures and mythological allusions common in the book. Preparing a character index or annotation material can significantly reduce obstacles to reading.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 Author

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is one of the most important poets in the history of Italian literature, renowned for the Divine Comedy. The library holds 61 of his works, including multiple editions and translations of the Divine Comedy, such as Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Publicly available information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here. His writing is distinguished by a grand narrative structure and a profound symbolic system, often presenting a first-person journey through the three realms and weaving medieval theology, philosophy, and political thought into verse. His language is concise and rich in imagery, and his works have had a far-reaching influence on later European literature, widely regarded as foundational to Italian literary language.