Inferno: The Divine Comedy I [Volume 1] (Penguin Clothbound Classics)

New York: Penguin Classics, 2010. Reprint. Hard Cover. Fine/No Jacket. 7x5x1. Reprint. Brand new from publisher. 2010 Hard Cover. cix, 449 pp. Translated and edited by Robin Kirkpatrick, with an extensive introduction. Map of Italy circa 1300 and plan of Hell precede text. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Describing Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonising torture, Dante encounters doomed souls including the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicide Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit. Led by leering demons, the poet must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all. For it is only by encountering Satan, in the heart of Hell, that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin.