Title:

Dante's Inferno

Illustrators:

Paul & Gaëtan Brizzi

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

June 11, 2025

normally don't write reviews for graphic novels (not enough hours in the day to do so), but for this graphic adaptation of Dante's Interno, I am making an exception, because I was impressed by quality of the artwork and the clarity of the story telling. I have never read Dante's Inferno, but I know the gist of the tale. (I once read a book called Inferno by the famous SF team of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, which was their own take on Dante's nine circles of hell.)

The artwork is all black and white pencil drawings. Many are full page. There are no hard lines to create sharp edges, every image is carefully rendered with shaded pencils. A lot of effort went into each panel - just look at the art on the cover, which shows hundreds of human bodies locking in a seething whirlwind - this is a depiction of the second circle of hell, where people who were consumed with lust during life now grapple with each other through all eternity as powerful winds sweep them through the sky. It must have taken a long time to create this book.

The great artist Gustav Doré produced a set of excellent woodblocks illustrating Inferno in the 19th century. Clearly the Brizzi brothers pay tribute to Doré's work - their depiction of Dante and Virgil is quite similar to Doré's creation, including wearing the same costumes. Virgil is shown with a crown of laurel leaves around his head.

There are only two characters in Inferno - Dante and his guide Virgil. Other famous personalities make short appearances, including the devil himself. It isn't explained why Dante must traverse hell and purgatory before reaching heaven - do all the saintly deceased have to follow the same route instead of going straight to heaven? There is no sign of St Peter and the judgement book directing souls either to bliss or damnation - maybe that idea of a final judgement before the pearly gates is a later addition to the afterlife. Dante wrote this book back in the fourteenth century. (Dante wrote Inferno in the Italian language, rather than Latin which was until then still the language of the scholars and poets.)

This is book is nicely done. Well worth checking out of the library. Makes me interested in what else the Brizzi's have illustrated.