Hell on Earth

by Job

Author’s Comments

Why write Hell on Earth, yet another rendition of Dante’s Inferno from the famous Trilogy, The Divine Comedy? It joins a long list of successful attempts to bring to public attention the epic tale of Dante’s journey through Hell in the fourteenth century. These include the following.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's translations of Dante's entire masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, from Italian into English. His translation was published in three volumes between 1867 and 1870 and included all three parts: Inferno. Purgatorio and Paradiso.

Longfellow's was the first complete American translation of The Divine Comedy. While working on it, he met regularly with a group of writers and scholars known as the "Dante Club," which inspired the title and premise of Matthew Pearl's novel The Dante Club.

Longfellow's translation is in prose rather than attempting to reproduce Dante's complex rhyme scheme, making it relatively literal and faithful to the original Italian.

Inferno was written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in 1976. Inferno is a science-fiction reinterpretation in which a writer dies and journeys through a version of Dante's Hell. Inferno remained in print through multiple editions for decades. It was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel the year it was published. It also generated a sequel, Escape from Hell, in 2009, more than 30 years later. Clearly, it was a commercial and literary success. More importantly, from the perspective of Job, it brought Dante’s sentinel work back into the mass public eye after centuries of relegation to elite circles.

The Dante Club was written by Matthew Pearl in 2003 and became a bestseller. The book is a historical mystery set in 1865 Boston. The book follows actual literary figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and James Russell Lowell, who are members of a "Dante Club" translating Dante's Divine Comedy. A series of murders mimics punishments from Dante's Inferno, so they become involved in solving the crimes. Matthew Pearl later wrote several other literary-historical thrillers, including The Poe Shadow, The Last Dickens, and The Dante Chamber, a follow-up to The Dante Club. Dante Club is more of a murder mystery inspired by Dante, while Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Inferno is a much more direct modern journey through Hell.

A modern version of Inferno was written in 2003 by Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol. It is a thriller that uses Dante's Inferno as its central inspiration and symbolism.

The Bonfire of the Vanities was written in 1987 by Tom Wolfe. It is often considered a modern Dante-like descent through New York City.

The Circles of Hell are replaced by: Wall Street greed, media hysteria, legal corruption, and racial class tension. The protagonist’s fall feels like a modern moral descent rather than a literal afterlife journey. The Bonfire of the Vanities more closely resembles Hell on Earth than the previously referenced books.

American Psycho was written by Bret Easton Ellis in 1991.

Manhattan’s elite lifestyle is portrayed as emotional and moral emptiness.

A psychological version of Hell rather than a physical descent.

Ellis followed up with Underworld in 1997. It showcases America’s hidden systems of power, waste, and fear. The book is structured like a descent into buried cultural layers.

Why write Hell on Earth, yet another rendition of Dante’s Inferno from the famous Trilogy, The Divine Comedy? The answer is simple. Hell on Earth is not another copy of Inferno with modern accoutrements, or a plot that is a clear derivation of Inferno filled with the suspense that modern readers demand.

Hell on Earth is a totally different artistic perspective using a framework that is literally and literarily time-tested. Hell on Earth is not some fire and brimstone place in the other world, reflecting an ancient Christian concept of an afterlife place for bad people. In Hell on Earth, the underworld is right in front of everyone's eyes if they would only look. Also, some of those trapped in Hell are innocent. This approach invites contemplation and reflection on the human condition. The reader's experience in Hell on Earth is not through another person's view of the Inferno; they are experiencing it directly.