Working from Dante's Inferno to draw out the reality behind the
fantasy, author Kim Paffenroth unfolds the horrifying true events that
led Dante to fictionalize the account of his lost years.
For 17 years of his life, the exact whereabouts of the medieval Italian
poet Dante Alighieri are unknown to modern scholars. It is known that
during this time he traveled as an exile across Europe, working on his
epic poem, The Divine Comedy. In his masterpiece he describes a
journey through the three realms of the afterlife. The most famous of
its three volumes, Inferno describes hell.
During his lost wanderings, Dante stumbled upon an infestation of the
living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed--cannibalism, live
burnings, evisceration, crucifixion, and dozens more--became the basis
of all the horrors described in Inferno. Afraid to be labeled a
madman, Dante made the terrors he experienced into a more "believable"
account of an otherworldly adventure filled with demons and mythological
monsters. But at last, the real story can finally be told.
BONUS AUDIO: Incudes a note from the author.
