The Inferno

Henri BarbusseProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 230K words
Chapters: 23

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.The Inferno by Henri BarbusseAuthor: Barbusse, Henri, 1873-1935,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

The Inferno is a novel by the French writer Henri Barbusse. Although its title borrows the imagery of Dante's Divine Comedy, its content is not a classical depiction of hell; instead, through the eyes of a narrator who takes a room in a cheap hotel, it peers through cracks in the wall at the private lives of various lodgers, gazing upon desire, illness, loneliness, and death. With an almost coldly realistic technique, the work peels away layer after layer of everyday appearances, forcing readers to confront the isolation between people in the modern city and the ethical dilemmas of voyeurism. Its value lies in fusing psychological observation with social critique; the narrative is restrained yet intensely oppressive, and it will appeal to readers interested in French literature, psychological fiction, and the turn toward modernism. Read it slowly, attending to the limits of the narrator's perspective and its moral ambiguity; do not rush in search of a plot climax, but rather savor its atmosphere and intellectual tension.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in French literature and the transformation of modernist fiction
Readers who enjoy psychological description and a dark atmosphere and do not require a strong plot
Literature students studying voyeuristic narrative and ethical questions
Readers seeking to broaden their view of the European novel from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting classical hellish depictions in the manner of Dante's Divine Comedy
Readers who prefer light, briskly paced stories
Readers sensitive to oppressive atmospheres and depictions of illness and death

Reading tips

Begin with the translator's preface or a biographical note on the author to understand the period background, then proceed to the main text.
Treat the narrator's voyeurism as a narrative device and reflect on its moral position as you read.
Pause briefly after each lodger's segment to sort out the characters and thematic threads.
You may compare the title's imagery with common knowledge of Dante's Inferno, but do not force the comparison.

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 book related to Dante's Divine Comedy?

The title borrows the imagery of "hell," but the content is not a rewriting of or commentary on Dante's work. Barbusse writes about the private lives and spiritual predicaments of lodgers in a modern hotel; it is an independent realistic psychological novel, and readers need not have read the Divine Comedy to enter it.

What English level is this English edition suitable for?

This is an English public-domain e-book provided by Project Gutenberg; its language is early twentieth-century literary English, with long sentences and detailed description. It is best suited to readers with college-level English reading ability or some experience reading English fiction; beginners may read it alongside a Chinese translation.

What should I pay special attention to while reading?

It is worth attending to the ethical meaning of the narrator's act of "peering" and to how the author creates an oppressive atmosphere through spatial and sensory details. The book lacks a strong plot in the traditional sense; its value lies more in psychological portrayal and social observation, and slow reading is more effective than fast reading.

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About the author

Henri Barbusse Author · French · 1873–1935

Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) was a French novelist, born in Asnières-sur-Seine and died in Moscow. During the First World War he served as an infantryman and, drawing on his firsthand trench experience, wrote Le feu (Under Fire: The Story of a Squad), which won the Prix Goncourt in 1916. With its nearly documentary style, the novel depicts soldiers' daily lives and the cruelty of war, and became an important work of war literature. He later turned to communism and pacifism, publishing novels such as The Inferno and Light, whose themes extend from individual experience to social criticism and idealistic striving. Five of his works are held in this collection, and he also wrote Meissonier. Public information on his early education and specific posts is limited, so no conjecture is offered here; his literary influence rests mainly on his war writing and his ideological turn.