Dante’s Inferno – Gustave Dore (1880s)

S$152.00

Dante’s Inferno – Gustave Dore (1880s)

S$152.00

Title: Inferno

Author: Dante, Gustave Dore (illus), Henry Francis Cary (trans)

Publisher: Henry Altemus. No date, circe 1880s.

Condition: Hardcover, cloth. Poor, reading copy onlyCovers so beaten up the book is worthy of being used as a prop in a B-grade horror movie. Front hinge reinforced with duct tape but starting. Tanned pages. Prelims dust-soiled. One signature, containing plates 65-66, loose. Small closed tears here and there. However, all 74 illustrated plates are present and in good, bright condition, in spite of tanning to the borders. Text unmarked. Folio-size. A large book, overseas shipping will cost a lot extra.

Inferno (Italian for “Hell”) is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy.

It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.