INFERNO, Episode 40. It's All Plot: An Overview Of The Circle Of Wrath In INFERNO

In most episodes of this podcast, we take a passage, walk through it, talk through it, tease out its knots, and maybe even find some more than can’t be undone.

But in this episode, I want you to hear the long sweep of the circle of wrath in INFERNO as a story. So I’m going to read it to you, all the way through, starting back in Canto VII at line 97 and going forward all the way to Canto IX, Line 106.

Yes, much of this is material that hasn’t yet gotten its own episode in this podcast. But I’ve been making a great deal about storytelling—so I want you to hear the story, its sweep and its action. Just sit back and listen to it. It’s some of the most important “work” you can do when you approach Dante’s COMEDY.

No passage translation in this post. You’ll find these passages on other episode posts. I want you to hear it, rather than read it. Don’t worry: we’re going back (in the next episode) to Canto VIII and picking the poem up where we left off. But for now: a story. Dante’s. The pilgrim’s and the poet’s. Listen for both stories in the long arc of the circle of wrath, the fifth circle of INFERNO.