Inferno, by Dante Alighiere

NOTE:  This is the first of a three-part series related to Dante's Inferno.  This month my Library Book Group is discussing Inferno plus miscellaneous biographies of Dante.  For June we are reading The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl and for July Inferno, by Dan Brown.  The following is a summary of the circles of Hell, a brief timeline of Dante's life and discussion questions.

Circles of Hell	People trapped there/Sins Committed
Ante-Inferno	Those who could not decide between good and evil
First - Limbo	Those who did not know Christ Examples: virtuous pagans, Virgil, great writers and poets of antiquity, unbaptised infants
Second	Lust
Third	Gluttony
Fourth	Greed/Extravagance and waste
Fifth	River Styx Those who were uncontrollably angry and sullen
Sixth	Heretics – those who reject religious beliefs
Seventh	First Ring – violent toward others Second Ring – violent toward themselves (suicide) Third Ring – violent toward God (blasphemers), violent toward nature and toward animals
Eighth	First Pocket – Panderers and seducers Second Pocket – Flatterers Third Pocket – Those who make a profit by selling sacred objects Fourth Pocket – Astrologists and Diviners Fifth Pocket – Those who accepted bribes Sixth Pocket – Hypocrites Seventh Pocket – Thieves Eighth Pocket – Spiritual Thieves (false counselors) Ninth Pocket – Sowers of scandal and division Tenth Pocket – Liars
Ninth	Betrayers First Ring – Betrayed their family Second Ring – Betrayed their country Third Ring – Betrayed their friends Fourth Ring – Betrayed their benefactors Lucifer – three headed giant eating history’s three greatest sinners Judas – betrayed Christ Cassius – betrayed Julius Caesar Brutus – betrayed Julius Caesar
Characters
Dante – Poet and character in poem Virgil – Dante’s guide through Hell Beatrice – Loved by Dante, died young and is believed to be in heaven.  Beatrice asks an angel to get Virgil to guide Dante.  May symbolize pure, spiritual love Minos – first judge of dead souls – has long tail and number of wraps of tail determines in which circle of hell the sinner belongs Charon – steers ferryboat

 A Biography of Dante Alighiere, by Denton Jaques Snider

General Timeline
Apprenticeship Florence, Italy 1265 – 1302	Early schooling : 26 – 27 years Apprentice in medical guild for physicians and apothecaries Identifies himself as a poet Also a soldier, served under Captain Corso Donati Break with Donati at end of this period, lead two different political parties, become enemies Beatrice marries in 1286 and dies in 1290 New Life published 1291-1292 Marries Gemma Donati – marriage arranged by Captain Donati Children: Pietro (lawyer), Jacopo (cleric), Beatrice (nun), Antonia
	Earlier Spiritual Estrangement: 8 – 9 years, 1291/2 – 1300 Estranged from Beatrice, from religion and intellectually
	Love’s Return: about 3 years Returns to his love of Beatrice – she becomes his spiritual guide
Journey down to other side 6 – 7 years	Dante aligned with White Guelfs who opposed papal influence over Florence, lost to Black Guelfs Banished from Florence in 1302 Writes Inferno
Remainder of life 10 – 12 years	Writes Purgatory and Paradise Aligns with Henry VII – Emperor – attempts to conquer Italy 1313 – 1316/7: retreated to monastery in Ravenna Influenced by Summa Theologica, by St. Thomas Aquinas (Christian theology) 1315 – sentenced to death along with two sons, all three were in Ravenna until Dante’s death in 1321

Notes – courtesy of David Bruce, Divine Comedy discussion guide, meyerenglishwiki.wikispaces.com
1. One theme in the work is that good is more powerful than evil.
2. The Inferno is for unrepentant sinners.  Repentant sinners are in Purgatory and Paradise.
3. There are three types of moral failure in the Inferno:
*Incontinence – not able to control yourself
*Violence – against self, God and others
*Fraud – the willful misrepresentation to harm someone else
**Complex Fraud – against someone who trusts you
**Simple Fraud – against people in general
4. Three women look after Dante on his journey:
*Mary, mother of Christ
*Saint Lucia – 3^rd century martyr
*Beatrice


For discussion:
1. The circles of Hell get smaller as they descend.  Why do you think Dante designed it this way?
2. How does the punishment in each circle fit each sin?
3. The most famous line from the Divine Comedy is in Inferno, canto 3, line 9: “Abandon every hope, ye who enter here.”  Of all of the 100 cantos, why is this most famous?
4. Can you read the Divine Comedy without understanding the religious theme?   OR – how did your personal religious beliefs influence your reading and understanding? 
5. C.S. Lewis stated that there are three categories of activities: things we have to do, things we ought to do, and things we want to do.  As long as the third does not conflict with the first two, we are okay.  How does this fit in with the sins in Inferno?
6. Do you agree with Dante’s hierarchy of sins?  Any you would switch around?  Any you want to add?
7. What are some modern interpretations of these sins?
*****
First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn

 

Characters

Camille Preaker Adora and Alan Crellin Amma – step-sister Marian – deceased step-sister Joya – Adora’s mother   Frank Curry – editor (wife Eileen)   Murdered girls: Ann Nash Natalie Jane Keene Brother – John   Chief Vickery Detective Richard Willis   Misc. Friends Adora’s – Annie B. (best friend), Jackie O’Neele (had falling out with Adora) Camille’s from high school – Katie (now aide at school), Angie Amma’s – Kylie, Kelsey, Jodes (Kelsey), Lily Burke (Chicago)

 

For discussion:

1. Discuss the party Camille went to with her high school girlfriends.  Why was she so different from them?
2. Did you know anything about people cutting themselves before reading this novel?  What understanding did you gain into this problem?
3. Compare Adora's pulling out her eyelashes with Camille cutting herself.  Why did each woman do that?  Is there a relationship between the two problems?
4. When did you start to expect that Adora had murdered Marian?  That Amma and her friends had killed the two girls?
5. How did Adora's parenting (or lack thereof) contribute to both Camille and Amma's personalities and problems?
6. How did you explain Amma's fixation with the doll house?
7. What did Alan know?  Should he have done anything?
8. Discuss the dynamics of the Nash family - Ann had the plainest name of all three girls and was described as the "extraneous third daughter" who was born when parents were trying to have a boy.
9. What was the significance of both Ann and Natalie being biters?  Also of their personalities - they both were described as having strong personalities and minds of their own.  Consider Natalie being violent and stabbing a girl in the eye with scissors in her old school and Ann with a needle during sewing class in Wind Gap.  Why did she do that?
10. Consider Camille and Richard's discussion about sexism on pages 110-111 of the hardback edition.  Camille thought it was sexist to give women special consideration and that sometimes rape is really a drunken woman making a stupid choice.  How does this relate to her rape episode with the football team when she was a young teen? 
11. Which characters did you see as positive?  Negative?  Why?
12. Did you like this book?  Why or why not?

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

 

Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

Characters

Katey Kontent Valentine – husband in 1966   Eve Ross – roommate at Miss Martingale’s   Theodore (Tinker) Grey Henry (Hank) Gray - painter Anne Grandyn   Quiggin and Hale – law firm Miss Markham – head secretary Charlotte Sykes – new girl   Nathaniel Parish – fiction editor, Pembroke Press   Mason Tate – starting new magazine, Gotham Alley McKenna – competitor for job   Wallace Wolcott Dicky Vanderwhile Bitsy and Jack Houghton   Fran Pacelli – friend from Miss Martingale’s

For discussion:

NOTE: The page numbers refer to the hardback edition.

1. How do you think the story would have changed if the accident had never happened?

2. Discuss each of the main characters.  Could you connect with some more than others?  Why?

• Why did Eve refuse to go home to her parents?  Consider how she dealt with the accident and her subsequent disability.
• Consider Anne and Tinker's relationship and Tinker's decisions.
• Discuss Wallace and the following:
• His habit of pausing in the middle of sentences when he talked that disappeared with talking with other businessmen and during dinner at the hunting club with Katey.
• His comment that his successful twenties were his father's fifties.
• Knowing all the servant and trade peoples' first names.
• His feeling that he had not earned what he had.

3. Discuss Katey's career path, particularly the fact that she quit Quiggen and Hale as soon as she was promoted.  Why did she quit?  How did that decision change her life?

4. Discuss the pronunciation of Katey's last name - Kontent vs. Kontent.  Did you like the way the author played with the pronunciation throughout the book?  (see page 19)

5. On page 37 the author wrote "...be careful when choosing what you're proud of - because the world has every intention of using it against you" and used Charlotte Sykes' typing skill as an example.  Do you agree?  Do you have any examples from your or other's lives?

6. Katey found great pleasure in reading.  On page 128 she stated that"...if after finishing a chapter of a Dicken's novel I feel a miss-my-stop-on-the-train sort of compulsion to read on, then everything is probably going to be just fine."  Can you relate?  When was the last time you had that feeling?

7. On the same page, Katey reflected on the pleasure of simple things and how the loss of appreciating these pleasures is dangerous.  Do you agree?  What simple pleasures are important to you?

8. Also on the subject of reading, Katey discovered Agatha Christie and said that, "Her books are tremendously satisfying.  Yes, they are formulaic.  But that's one of the reasons they are so satisfying."  What books do you find satisfying in that way?  What books have you liked because they are not formulaic?  How would you categorize this book?

9. Katey compared life to a journey where decisions we make along the way alter our life's course and then to a card game where we must decide what to do with each card until the deck is done (page 323).  How does this describe her life?  Does it describe yours?  What decisions have you made that altered your life's course?

10. Did you like the inclusion of Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour that was followed by George Washington?  How did Tinker's life follow these rules?  How did it not?

11. Discuss the writing.  Did you enjoy it?  What were your favorite phrases?  Here are some of mine:

• Page 40 - description of a sandwich, "a little too long on adjectives and little too short on specific."
• Page 78 - "waiting to hoi polloi home"
• Page 79 - "It is a lovely oddity of human nature that a person is more inclined to interrupt two people in conversation than one person alone with a book."
• Page 80 - "I let the silence grow awkward"

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini

The characters and story lines were so complex I couldn't decide what was the best way to present the characters, by time or story line, so I did both!  Enjoy!

Characters by Timeline
1952	2002/2003	2009/2010
Shadbagh Father – Saboor Abdullah Pari Mother – deceased Parwana – Stepmother Omar (deceased) and Iqbal (son)   Masooma – Parwana’s invalid sister   Kabul Uncle Nabi Suleiman Wahdati Nila Wahdati – took Pari and went to Paris   Idris and Timur Bashiri – grew up near Wahdatis	Markos – Greek surgeon – living in Wahdati’s (Nabi’s) house   Uncle Nabi  - cared for Suleiman Wahdati   Amra Ademovic – nurse   Roshi – disfigured girl   Idris  - doctor (meets Roshi and promises to help but does not follow through) Timur – real estate company Brothers return to Kabul to reclaim family property	Tinos Markos Mama – Aunt Odie   Thalia – came to Tinos in 1967 Madaline   New Shadbagh Adel Father – Commander Sahib Aria – mother Kabir and Azmaray – bodyguards     Came to Shadbagh, was in  refugee camp in Pakistan Gholam Iqbal – father Parwana – grandmother
1976/77		2010
Julien – affair with both Nila and Pari   Eric Lacombe – Pari’s husband Children – Isabelle, Alain and Thierry		United States Abdullah Pari - daughter   Paris Pari

Characters by Story Line
Pari/Abdullah family   Shadbagh	Father – Saboor Abdullah  - eventually moves to America and owns Abe’s Kabob House Pari – given to Wahdatis – moved to Paris – married and had three children Mother –d deceased Parwana - Stepmother Iqbal – son/stepbrother   Masooma – Parwana’s invalid sister
Wahdatis   Kabul	Suleiman Pari Nila – took Pari and moved to Paris (both Nila and Pari had affair with Julien)   Uncle Nabi – cared for Suleiman until death
Idris and Timur   America and Kabul	Grew up near Wahdatis Idris – doctor – introvert - meets Roshi and promises to help but does not follow through – family eats at Abe’s Kabob House Timur – owns real estate company – generous, but publically Brothers return to Kabul to reclaim family property   Amra Ademovic - nurse Roshi – disfigured girl
Adel   New Shadbagh	Commander Sahib – father Aria – mother Kabir and Azmaray – bodyguards   Gholam – Adel’s age - refugee, previously lived in Pakistan Iqbal – father – returned to Shadbagh to reclaim property Parwana – grandmother
Marcos   Kabul and Tinos	Plastic surgeon - Living in Uncle Nabi/Pari’s house in Kabul Mama – Aunt Odie Thalia – scarred by dog bite - came to Tinos in 1967 and left there by mother, stayed to care for Aunt Odie Madaline – Thalia’s mother

For discussion:

NOTE:  All page numbers refer to hardback edition.

1. Discuss Parwana and Masooma – Parwana’s actions that resulted in Masooma’s “accident” and the events leading up to the “accident.”

2. In two cases characters were helped to their death (Masooma by Parwana and Suleiman by Uncle Nabi).  How did you feel about this?  Could you understand the dying person’s choice?   Would you have honored their request?

3. How did you feel about Pari being given to the Wahdatis?   Her identity was completely changed and she never was told about her original family.   Compare Pari with other similar children you have encountered in novels such as “Run” by Ann Patchett and “The Light Between Oceans” by M. L. Stedman.  How are they similar and/or different?

4. Discuss Nila Wahdatis’ life in Paris and her relationship with Pari.   In the interview printed in the book Nila stated, “children are never everything you’d hoped for…:  (page 183) 

5. What did you think of the mother/child relationships in the novel?  Consider Nila/Pari, Odie/Markos, Madeline/Thalia, Aria/Adel, Parwana/Abdullah and Pari.

6. What did you think about Adel’s life with his father and bodyguards?   What did Adel learn from Gholam?  Why did the author include this story in the novel?

7. Were you surprised that Idris did not follow up on his promise to Roshi?  Should he have made such a promise in the first place?   Where you surprised that she dedicated her book to his brother, Timur?   What did you think of their encounter on the book tour when Roshi recognized Idris and whispered to him that he should not worry, that he was not in the book?

8. Compare the choices made by Marcos, Thalia and the younger Pari – Marcos left Tinos to pursue his dream while Thalia turned down an offer of boarding school in London to stay in Tinos with Marcos’s mother and Pari gave up a scholarship to take care of Abdullah.  Were you able to understand each person’s choice and motivations?

9. Did you relate to Pari’s reflection on aging, “This is what aging is….these random unkind moments that catch you when you least expect them.” (page 231)    Have you had any such experiences?

10. Consider Mama’s comment to Markos at the end of the novel, “…people mostly have it backwards.  They think they live by what they want.  But really what guides them is what they’re afraid of.  What they don’t want.”  (page 340)   Do you agree with this statement?  How does it apply to Marcos and others in the novel?

11. Discuss your reading experience.  How did you feel about the various story lines?   How do you think they are all connected?

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (first published in 1905)

Characters

Lily Bart Mrs. Peniston – aunt Grace Stepney – cousin of Mrs. Peniston, told her about Lily and Gus Tenor – inherited bulk of estate Lawrence Seldon Gerty Farish – cousin Percy Gryce Judy and Gus Tenor Bertha and George Dorset Ned Silverton – affair with Bertha Rosedale Norma Hatch – Lily took job as “secretary” to help guide her socially Freddy Van Osburgh – young – almost married Mrs. Hatch Other characters: Mr. and Mrs. Wellington Bry – hosted party where Lily was is a tableau Mrs. Haffen – sold Lily compromising letters from Bertha Dorset to Seldon Nettie Struther – helped by Lily at Girls’ Home, took Lily to her home at end of novel

 For discussion:

 

1. How is this book different from more modern novels?   What about this novel did you like more or less than the usual books you read?
1. Why is this novel considered a classic?
2. Were you surprised with the stereotypes used to describe Rosedale?  Would that happen today?
3. Compare Lily and Gerty’s lives.  Do you think one was more happy or satisfying than the other?  Why?
4. Discuss Lily and Gerty’s friendship.    At one point Lily said that “friends say disagreeable things others would not say.”   Does this define their friendship?  Do you agree with this statement?
5. Discuss Lily’s relationships with Seldon, Tenor, Dorset and Rosedale.  Would you have advised her to handle things any differently? 
6. Was Lily capable of doing anything different with her life or was she a victim of her upbringing?  At one point she reflected that she “had been brought up to be ornamental, not to serve any practical purpose.”
7. What did you think about Mrs. Peniston cutting Lily out of her will?  Why did she do that?  Can you understand Mrs. Peniston thinking?
8. How did Lily change or not change over the course of the novel?

• Compare conversation with Rosedale at the beginning of the novel to the conversation in the tea shop at the end.
• She declined to move in with Gerty when offered because she did not want to be dependent on others.
• The satisfaction that she got from helping Nettie.

 

Vocabulary Quiz
Word	Definition
______…to escape from the threatened vacuity of the afternoon….   ______…cuirassed in shining black…   ______It was from her that he inherited his detachment from the sumptuary side of life…   ______….he still felt himself agrope…   ______Her worldly wisdom would have counseled her against such as act of abnegation…   _____ But brilliant young ladies, a little blinded by their own effulgence …   ______Mrs. Tenor’s complaints of Carry Fisher’s rapacity…	a. renouncement or relinquishment   b. covetous   c. emptiness   d. radiant splendor, brilliance   e. like a piece of armor covering body neck to waist   f. the act of groping   g. designed to regulate extravagant expenditures or habits

 

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

 

Answers:  c, e, g, f, a, d, b

Run, by Ann Patchett

Characters

Bernard Doyle – former Mayor of Boston Bernadette Sullivan – deceased wife Sullivan – oldest son – had been in Africa – driving car in which girlfriend was killed Tip – Black - adopted – Ichthyologist Teddy – Black - adopted – memorized famous speeches, interested in Catholic faith   Father John Sullivan   Tennessee Alice Moser – previously Beverly – took friend’s name and raised her daughter Kenya Moser Tennessee Alice Moser – deceased

 

For discussion:

NOTE:  All page numbers are from 2008 Harper Perennial paperback.

 

1. Discuss Sullivan:

* How did adopting the two boys impact his life both positively and negatively?

* How did his life change because of the death of his mother?

* Why did Doyle encourage him to lie about accident when he was driving and Natalie was killed?

* How did the accident and lie impact everyone’s life?

* His connection with Tennessee – when he was visiting her before her surgery he could not stop telling her his story. Why?

 

2. What did you think about Tennessee and Kenya following the Doyles’ lives?  Was it sweet or creepy?

 

3. How would things have been different if the second Tennessee had lived?

How would things have been different if Bernadette had lived?

 

4. What was the connection between Tip, Teddy and Kenya?  Why did they have similar features?  How were they related?

 

5. Did the way Tennessee raise Kenya give you any insights into being a minority?  For example, her mother taught Kenya to always be vigilant (page 80).  Is that trait you encouraged in your children?

 

6. Kenya was driven to run – it was impossible for her not to run.  Have you ever felt that driven to do something?  Could you understand her feelings?

 

7. How did the various family members connect with Kenya? 

 

8. How did his belief in God change for Father Sullivan?  When he was younger he “believed in a carefully ordered universe: action and reaction.  But now he could no longer picture a God who kept track of such minutiae or who would think to punish anyone for it.”  (page 126)  Also he felt, at the end of his life in the home, that “God seemed more abundant to him in the Regina Cleri home than any place he had been before.”  (page 131)

 

9. What was happening when Nena DeMatteo and Helen Cain where healed after visiting Father Sullivan?  Did he have a special insight when he was visiting Tennessee?

 

10. Both Tip and Teddy felt they had to punish themselves for what happened by going back to school – Teddy for law and Tip in medicine.  (page 284) Why did they feel so responsible?   Should Doyle have understood their feelings and intervened?

 

11. How did you feel about Tip abandoning medicine after he received his degree and returning to ichthyology?

 

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.