The Inferno by Dante Alighieri is one of those incredible books that seems to both be a pretty quick read simultaneously as being a tough slog. This daunting, fiery book if read slowly and carefully, and with the aid of lots of explanatory endnotes can be a fascinating study of the time that it was written, how people at that time saw themselves connected to the past through the lineage of Rome, the history of the Catholic church with all of its faults (an many of its leaders and lining various circles of Hell), the bitterness of political rivalries, various betrayals, love stories, hatred, the power of literature, the limits of philosophy, personal perseverance, the reality of sin, the depths of irony and satire, and the frightening implications of what eternal justice might look like. Most of all though, this is a story of a pilgrim who has found himself hopelessly trying to climb a mountain and ending up being lead through horror to reach the top of a different mountain on the other side of the world.

You may not have known this, but The Inferno is just the first book in a set of three epic poems called The Divine Comedy written by Dante after he was banished from his home city of Florence in March of 1302 after his political party was ousted by a rival. The events in the poem start off in the year 1300 on Good Friday. The three books Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso each take place in the period of 24 hours and parallel Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

The phrase, “the punishment fits the crime,” takes on new meaning as the poet, Dante (who writes himself as the protagonist of the epic), gets lead through the nine circles of Hell by his intrepid guide Virgil. Each circle in the underworld is packed with different types of sinners who are being punished in what is called a contrapasso, which basically just means that eternal justice will fit the crimes committed by the perpetrators. I could go into the really interesting discussions about all the ingenious different punishments in each circle, but you’ve just got to read it yourself. I’m also tempted to delve into how the major categories into which all the sins fall (incontinence, Violence, Fraud, and Betrayal) are basically just a Catholic version of Aristotle’s Nichomachaen Ethics, but you would lose interest, and I would be  displaying of my own personal flavor of incontinence. What I will say is that you had better be glad that you never crossed Mr. Dante in life, because he is not afraid to name-drop seemingly every person who did him wrong and point them out as an example of type of person who will end up ripped in two or being eternally drown in a boiling river of blood. One might say Dante had a little chip on his shoulder. This is why you have got to read this book with explanatory notes that help you understand all of the hilarious and ironic shade (pun intended!) that Dante is throwing in the afterlife.

Also, if you’re like me and find that part of the fun of reading really intimidating books,  that everyone talks about and nobody reads, is for all the sophisticated fart jokes, you will not be disappointed. Yes, this book is an amazing, really creative, deep dive into the history of the church, philosophy, poetry, and literature; and you can gain true insights on life, meaning, and faith by reading it, but it is also a pretty funny book once you start understanding the context of who all these people are who are being tortured for eternity. As messed up and paradoxical as that sounds, Dante somehow pulls it off.

Normally, I would put a bunch of quotes in this section, but I think it would be a little messy, and since I just read a translation of the book, the quotes themselves are a little less important or trustworthy. I would, however, recommend the translation by Robert Pinsky to anyone interested in reading Dante.