The Divine Comedy: Inferno

By: Dante Alighieri, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - translator

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The most famous of the three canticles that compose The Divine Comedy, "Inferno" describes Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life, with Virgil as a guide. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonizing torture, Dante encounters doomed souls that include the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicidal Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit.

Led by leering demons, Dante must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all - for it is only by encountering Satan himself, in the heart of Hell, that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin.

This version of the classic poem is the translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poem's first American translator.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

It's okay

I've always wanted to go through the story of Dante's Inferno. A few other stories out there reference this little passage, due to the imagery it describes. I honestly felt a lack of energy going through the story. Some of the low energy came from the narration. It doesn't quite feel engaging, as much as feel like a poem. Which is fine, but leaves me feeling just that....just fine, not bad.

Absolutely wonderful.

A wonderful reading of one of my favorite tales. I listened all on one go, couldn't put it down!

A well told tale.

The narrator did fantastic job. His voice work and characterization were superb. I enjoyed it immensely.

Brilliant rendition!

Very easy to get through. An absolute joy to listen too from beginning to end. It's easy to forget there's comedy in the Inferno!

Good story, great performance

It’s a really good book, just these old timey books are kinda hard to follow sometimes.

Well Done Wonderful Story

although the story by Dante was a brilliant peice of fiction I couldn't help but feel pulled away slightly by the almost cartoonish narrorator, he was not at all terrible but for a story of this genre and time I would say it pulled from the initial feel for me a bit. personal opinion

Needs more

I wish it was the whole version of the book instead of one part. The book is written in early English which might make the story a bit hard to comprehend.

Convoluted and befuddling

Don’t expect any comedy, divine or otherwise, in this astonishingly tedious descent into hell. A literal tour of wretchedness is made worse, unfortunately, by the cheesy voices the narrator uses, voices that deflate whatever elevated style Dante or Longfellow were going for entirely. I suspect the language is finer in Italian, but an English listener would never know, because Longfellow is one of our most plodding American poets. This might be better to experience as a dual language print edition.

A product of it's time

It's like reading Romeo Juliet but about how all the people that Dante thinks are in it. it's a product of its time, but seems to have lost its luster

Maybe need a newer translation

I don’t know if it was the reader or just all the old English or maybe both but I couldn’t get into this.