Inferno from the epic The Divine Comedy is a series of cantos in which Dante Alighieri travels through the depths of Hell in order to try and reach Heaven. In the beginning, he loses his path and begins wandering fearfully through the forest. The sun shines down on a mountain above him, and he attempts to climb up the mountain but finds his way blocked by three beasts—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Frightened and helpless, Dante returns to the dark wood, where he encounters the ghost of Virgil, the great Roman poet, who has come to guide Dante to Heaven where his beloved Beatrice awaits. Virgil leads Dante through the gates of Hell and they enter the outlying region of Hell, the Ante-Inferno, where souls that never committed to either good or evil now must run in a futile chase after a blank banner, day after day, while insects bite them and crawl all over their bodies. Dante continues into the Second Circle of Hell, reserved for the sin of Lust. At the border of the Second Circle, the monster Minos lurks, assigning condemned souls to their punishments. He curls his tail around the souls a certain number of times, indicating the number of the circle to which the soul must go. Inside the 2nd Circle, Dante watches as the souls of the Lustful swirl about in a terrible storm and he meets Francesca, who tells him the story of her love affair with her husband's brother. Dante next follows Virgil into Judecca, the 4th Ring of the 9th Circle of Hell and the lowest depth. Here, those who betrayed their benefactors spend eternity in complete icy submersion. Also, here they see the three-headed giant Lucifer, or Satan, plunged waist-deep into the ice. Each of Lucifer's mouths chews one of history's three greatest sinners: Judas, the betrayer of Christ, and Cassius and Brutus, the betrayers of Julius Caesar. Virgil leads Dante on a climb down Lucifer's massive body, holding on to his frozen tufts of hair. At this point, Inferno ends and the next part of The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, begins.

        The two main characters are Dante and Virgil. Dante is the main character and focus of all action and interaction with other characters. He is a very sympathetic, somewhat fearful of danger, and confused both morally and intellectually by his experience in Hell. As the epic progresses, Dante gradually learns to abandon his sympathy and adopt a more pitiless attitude toward the punishment of sinners, which he views as merely a reflection of divine justice. Virgil is Dante's guide through the depths of Hell. Scholars consider him the greatest of the Latin poets. His masterpiece, the Aeneid, tells the story of how Aeneas, along with fellow survivors of the defeat of Troy, came to found Rome. Virgil has a wise, resourceful, and commanding presence, but he often seems helpless to protect Dante from the dangers of Hell.

         Personally, I like the Inferno. My favorite part is probably when Dante and Virgil enter the Ninth Circle of Hell and see Lucifer. I like this part especially because of the depiction of the deepest part of Hell being bitterly cold. I find that quite ironic and it is definitely something I would have never expected. I do not really have a least favorite part, however if I could change one thing, it would have to be the conversation between Dante and Francesca. I would change this because Francesca is able to talk to Dante even though it says that all the sinners in that part of Hell were being tossed around by a storm, which doesn’t make sense if Francesca is able to stop and tell Dante her story.

         I would definitely recommend this book to other people. Even if you are not a big fan of epics, such as the Oddysey, I would still strongly suggest this book because it is nothing like any epics that I have read. Also, seeing how Dante Alighieri is one of the best authors of all time, I would suggest this book to all literature lovers and anyone looking for an interesting look at the depths of the underworld.