This is a repeating event- Event 7 / 1118 February 2026 5:30 pm4 March 2026 5:30 pm
Dante's Inferno
Event Details
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi retrovai per una selva oscura
che la diritta via era smarrita
In the middle of the journey of our life
I awoke within a dark wood
where the straight way was lost
So begins Dante’s epic journey. The Inferno takes us into the depths of Hell, where we meet such remarkable characters as Francesca, Ulysses and Ugolino and hear their stories of passion, pride and hatred. Dante writes in the first person as a very human voyager, reacting with strong and varied emotions to the characters before him, as the reader might. As we pass through an array of landscapes, each peculiarly appropriate to the sins of the inmates there, Dante presents a psychological study of what leads men and women into destructive behaviours. How can we understand good and evil? Dante challenges us with the big questions.
Like Joyce, Dante is an ideal author for an in-depth study at the LitSalon. The Divine Comedy has multiple meanings that provide rich material for discussion. The poem weaves together myth, theology, history and the contemporary life of Dante’s time. For his epic poem Dante created a new and beautiful poetic form – terza rima. This form interlocks the rhymes from stanza to stanza in a binding forward movement. For preference, we will read the English translation by John and Jean Hollander with its excellent notes, but as an alternative the Robin Kirkpatrick translation may be more readily available. In addition to reading in translation, facilitator Sean Forester will help you experience a few select examples of the original Italian.
Join us as we read one of the classics of world literature. Find out for yourself why T.S. Eliot declared “Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them.”
STUDY DETAILS:
- Eleven meeting study (on Zoom) led by Sean Forester
- Wednesdays 5.30-7.30 pm (UK)
- 14, 21, 28 January, 4, 11, 18, 25 February, 4,11,18, 25 March 2026
- £385 for 11 sessions, to include opening notes and resources
- Recommended editions, The Inferno by Dante Alighieri:
- Random House USA, translated by Robert & Jean Hollander, ISBN-13 : 978-0385496988 (N.B. this is a US edition and not always easy to source in the UK)
- Alternatively, in the UK: Penguin Classics, translated by Robin Kirkpatrick, ISBN-13 : 978-0140448955
REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.
