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Virtuoso dance-music from the time of Boccaccio's Decamerone, performed by Ensemble Unicorn, was absolutely delightful and helped set the scene. I found it difficult to follow, but that has more to do with my personal struggles with audiobooks and less with the text itself (although I do think that translated classics such as this are best consumed with a healthy serving of footnotes). Heathcote Williams's narration is wonderful, his voices are excellent, and I would recommend this to those who like audiobooks and classical literature.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Torture
Moderate: Suicide, Violence
Minor: Incest, Cannibalism
Go Trojans beat Acheans
Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Sexual content
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Incest, Islamophobia
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism
Graphic: Gore, Self harm
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
How was this lowkey underrated? The Inferno has been hugely influential on our ideas of the afterlife, and yet it is so richly detailed and captivating I'm surprised a lot of the finer details get lost in other afterlife stories. It's the original self-insert fanfiction, and it weirdly reads like one in just how deeply personal it is. This also made it feel like a time capsule in how it presented medieval history and thought. Though I of course don't agree with Dante on a lot, I found the story's themes to be deeply thought-provoking.
I'd especially recommend fantasy writers read this as it's world building is still a golden standard. Despite being pretty quick to get through, it's a lush universe. The translation I read was John Ciardi's, and I greatly enjoyed how he kept the translation in rhyming verse and his notes provided context that made me appreciate the book even more.
TWs: as most classics, there are part of Inferno that haven't aged well. In particular, there's a bit of Islamophobia and homophobic implications. It's also pretty graphic with gore, violence, and torture.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Islamophobia
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Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail