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Hell Unearthed HIlary McElwaine

Hell Unearthed By HIlary McElwaine

Hell Unearthed by HIlary McElwaine


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Summary

This modern adaptation of Dante's inferno reveals a cast of largely contemporary wrongdoers including real and fictional characters. The book poses questions about social values, society and how we measure right and wrong.

Hell Unearthed Summary

Hell Unearthed: A modern adaptation of Dante's Inferno by HIlary McElwaine

Hell Unearthed charts Dante's journey, guided by his hero, Virgil, through the underworld. In this modern version of Inferno, the cast of sinners Dante meets includes gangsters, dictators, pop stars, sports stars, princes and princesses. These characters' stories will be familiar to many and they sit alongside sinners drawn from classical mythology as well as the heroes and villains from Dante's contemporary medieval Tuscany. Characters are positioned in Hell according to the gravity of their sin and are tormented by weapons such as fire, boiling blood, sticky tar or ice. Some are stuck headfirst in holes with their legs wriggling about in the air; others are clawed or hooked by demons. The tormented souls we witness in Hell Unearthed prompt questions about life, happiness, greatness, our relationship with society and with our friends and family. Do we really suffer for our wrongdoings after we have died? What is happiness? What is it to achieve greatness in life, and how is that greatness viewed in the afterlife? How should we live our lives to ensure happiness or salvation after we die? What makes society and local communities strong? The message remains the same as Dante's original. Happiness is achieved through peace and stability in government with clear moral guidance coming from a spiritual power. We need to nurture our relationships with others in society and be mindful of causing harm. What we achieve in life, and how, will ultimately be judged by God. Hell Unearthed expands Dante's world to show that people across geographical, cultural and religious divides can be guilty of the same human failings. Recognition of the universality of sin should be a unifying process and that was certainly also Dante's intention with Inferno.

Hell Unearthed Reviews

Your idiom has a modern air, but with touches that stop it being overly conversational, not least in keeping crucial Dantesque images. The result should prove approachable and engaging for novice readers, in part through making Dante not quite our contemporary. Professor Peter Hainsworth, University Lecturer in Italian and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.;Hell Unearthed is the ideal book for the neophyte who wishes to approach the greatness and depth of Dante's Hell. Whereas the Gate of the third canto invites those who enter it to lose all hope, I would dare to say that Hilary McElwaine's book is the Gate that gives all hope to those who have the courage to discover the journey of the Divine Comedy for the first time. Santy Masciaro, Founder of the Dante Society, London.;This is a very interesting and thought provoking read, regardless of whether you believe in any kind of afterlife or not and I do hope that the author will go on to rework the other two books in the 'Comedy', as Dante is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of all time and deserves to be introduced to a wider and younger audience in the same way that Shakespeare has been. Drena Irish, A LoveReading Ambassador.;McElwaine highlights not just individual criminals but criminal groups such as groomers of children, paedophiles, money launderers and human traffickers. This enables her to map not just hell but malignant contemporary forces. In timely fashion, she uses a semi-fictional character to denounce misappropriation of Haiti earthquake relief funds. Her book could inspire an extension of hell to accommodate those richly worthy of it. Desmond O'Grady, Author and Journalist.;McElwaine re-imagines Hell through the prism of the modern age and articulates with fearsome exuberance some of the realities of our corrupt human condition. Little has changed between Dante's tumultuous 14th century Italy and our own time, perhaps they've even become a little worse. She integrates the medieval and the modern with aplomb. Dr Daragh O'Connell, Head, Department of Italian, Director of the Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland (CDSI), University College Cork.

About HIlary McElwaine

Hilary McElwaine was born in Horsham, West Sussex in 1972. She attended St Leonards-Mayfield School in East Sussex and went on to read French and Italian at Oxford. She spent a year living in Siena where she furthered her Italian studies, enjoying the art and architecture on offer throughout Tuscany. A highlight of life in Siena was the build-up to the Palio, a bareback horse race between the town's seventeen contrade around the central Piazza del Campo. On graduating, she spent ten years working in the City in investment banking until the arrival of her first children, twins who arrived ten weeks early. She wrote a book about her experience with prematurity and the proceeds went to support the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Neonatal Unit who looked after the twins for seven weeks while they were in intensive care. She dedicated herself to their early years and then qualified as a teacher of French and Italian, teaching in both primary and secondary schools for ten years. She lives in Wandsworth with her husband, Simon, and their three children, Ollie, Clarissa and Hugo.

Table of Contents

34 chapters based on the 34 Cantos in Dante's Inferno.

Additional information

NLS9781789632064
9781789632064
1789632064
Hell Unearthed: A modern adaptation of Dante's Inferno by HIlary McElwaine
New
Paperback
The Choir Press
2021-09-01
220
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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Customer Reviews - Hell Unearthed