Actor and writer Heathcote Williams gives a masterful performance of Benedict Flynn's blank verse translation. Williams modulates his smooth baritone into different characters, maintaining an even pace through this classic work. The cantos are punctuated by short selections of music ranging from Gregorian chant to Renaissance dance music. The CDs are accompanied by detailed notes that outline the action of each canto and provide information on classical and biblical references. The notes also include reproductions of Gustave Doré's famous illustrations. A plaintive horn sounds the beginning of INFERNO, the beginning of Dante's journey from The Gloomy Wood to the Circles of Hell. Dante begins alone in a fog of seeking and confusion until he encounters the shade of Virgil. When the poets begin the descent at the beginning of Canto Three, Williams's booming voice is technologically enhanced to create an echo for the famous line, "Abandon all hope, you who enter here." R.F. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Product Description
Originally released on 3 CDs in abridged form. Now available on 4 CDs unabridged. "Abandon all hope you who enter here" (Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate) Dante's Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is lead down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth. Inferno is the first part of the long journey which continues through redemption to revelation - through Purgatory and Paradise - and, in this translation prepared especially for audiobook, his images are as vivid as when the poem was first written in the early years of the 14th century. With music of the period.
