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Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) Hardcover – Unabridged, May 14, 2013
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#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings.
“One hell of a good read.... As close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster.” —USA Today
“A diverting thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly
With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee.
Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno.
Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again, combining classical Italian art, history, and literature with cutting-edge science in this captivating thriller.
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDoubleday
- Publication dateMay 14, 2013
- Dimensions6.37 x 1.64 x 9.52 inches
- ISBN-109780385537858
- ISBN-13978-0385537858
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A disoriented professor and doctor flee an assassin through Florence, decoding clues left by a brilliant scientist obsessed with Dante's Inferno and the end of the world.
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The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.6,929 Kindle readers highlighted this
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The decisions of our past are the architects of our present. The decisions of the provost’s480 Kindle readers highlighted this
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Amazon Exclusive: Inside Inferno
Explore the sights of Inferno alongside Robert Langdon in this exclusive first look at Dan Brown's latest thriller.
As Langdon continued on toward the elbow of the square, he could
see, directly ahead in the distance, the shimmering blue glass dial of the
St. Mark’s Clock Tower—the same astronomical clock through which
James Bond had thrown a villain in the film Moonraker.
The Tetrarchs statue was well known for its missing foot, broken
off while it was being plundered from Constantinople in the thirteenth
century. Miraculously, in the 1960s, the foot was unearthed in Istanbul.
Venice petitioned for the missing piece of statue, but the Turkish authorities
replied with a simple message: You stole the statue—we’re keeping our
foot.
Amid a contour of spires and domes, a single illuminated facade dominated
Langdon’s field of view. The building was an imposing stone fortress
with a notched parapet and a three-hundred-foot tower that swelled
near the top, bulging outward into a massive machicolated battlement.
Langdon found himself standing before a familiar face—that of Dante Alighieri.
Depicted in the legendary fresco by Michelino, the great poet stood before
Mount Purgatory and held forth in his hands, as if in humble offering,
his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.
Amazon Exclusve: Additional Reading Suggestions from Dan Brown
- The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno—(Penguin Classics)
- The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology—Ray Kurzweil (Author)
- Brunelleschi's Dome—Ross King (Author)
- The Lives of the Artists Volume 1—Giorgio Vasari (Author), George Bull (Translator)
- The Book Of Symbols: Reflections On Archetypal Images—ARAS
Q&A with Dan Brown
Q. Inferno refers to Dante Alighieri´s The Divine Comedy. What is Dante’s significance? What features of his work or life inspired you?
A. The Divine Comedy—like The Mona Lisa—is one of those rare artistic achievements that transcends its moment in history and becomes an enduring cultural touchstone. Like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, The Divine Comedy speaks to us centuries after its creation and is considered an example of one of the finest works ever produced in its artistic field. For me, the most captivating quality of Dante Alighieri is his staggering influence on culture, religion, history, and the arts. In addition to codifying the early Christian vision of Hell, Dante’s work has inspired some of history’s greatest luminaries—Longfellow, Chaucer, Borges, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Monteverdi, Michelangelo, Blake, Dalí—and even a few modern video game designers. Despite Dante’s enduring influence on the arts, however, most of us today have only a vague notion of what his work actually says—both literally and symbolically (which, of course, is of great interest to Robert Langdon). A few years ago, I became very excited about the prospect of writing a contemporary thriller that incorporated the philosophy, history, and text of Dante’s timeless descent into The Inferno.
Q. Where did do your research for Inferno? How long did you spend on it?
A. Researching Inferno began with six months of reading, including several translations of The Divine Comedy, various annotations by Dante scholars, historical texts about Dante’s life and philosophies, as well as a lot of background reading on Florence itself. At the same time, I was poring over all the new scientific information that I could find on a cutting edge technology that I had decided to incorporate into the novel. Once I had enough understanding of these topics to proceed, I traveled to Florence and Venice, where I was fortunate to meet with some wonderful art historians, librarians, and other scholars who helped me enormously.
Once this initial phase of research was complete, I began outlining and writing the novel. As is always the case, when a book begins to take shape, I am drawn in unexpected directions that require additional research. This was also the case with Inferno, which took about 3 years from conception to publication.
With respect to the process, the success of these novels has been a bit of a Catch-22. On one hand, I now have wonderful access to specialists, authorities, and even secret archives from which to draw information and inspiration. On the other hand, because there is increased speculation about my works in progress, I need to be increasingly discreet about the places I go and the specialists with whom I speak. Even so, there is one aspect of my research that will never change—making personal visits to the locations about which I’m writing. When it comes to capturing the feel of a novel’s setting, I find there is no substitute for being there in the flesh...even if sometimes I need to do it incognito.
Q. What kind of adventure will Robert Langdon face this time? Can you give us any sneak peak at the new novel?
A. Inferno is very much a Robert Langdon thriller. It’s filled with codes, symbols, art, and the exotic locations that my readers love to explore. In this novel, Dante Alighieri’s ancient literary masterpiece—The Divine Comedy—becomes a catalyst that inspires a macabre genius to unleash a scientific creation of enormous destructive potential. Robert Langdon must battle this dark adversary by deciphering a Dante-related riddle, which leads him to Florence, where he finds himself in a desperate race through a landscape of classical art, secret passageways, and futuristic technology.
Q. What made Florence the ideal location for Inferno?
A. No city on earth is more closely tied to Dante Alighieri. Dante grew up in Florence, fell in love in Florence, and began writing in Florence. Later in life, when he was exiled for political reasons, the longing he felt for his beloved Florence became a catalyst for The Divine Comedy. Through his enduring poem, Dante enjoyed the “last word” over his political enemies, banishing them to various rings of Inferno where they suffered terrible tortures.
From Publishers Weekly
From Booklist
Review
“Fast, clever, well-informed.... Dan Brown is the master of the intellectual cliffhanger.” —The Wall Street Journal
“One hell of a good read.... As close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster.” —USA Today
“A diverting thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Brown isn’t just a novelist; he’s a crossover pop culture sensation.... Inferno is the kind of satisfying escapist read that summers were made for.” —The Boston Globe
“Harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.” —Daily News (New York)
“[Brown is] the planet’s most dastardly thriller writer.... Inferno moves with...velocity, excitement, and fun.” —The Independent (UK)
“An adventure ride through a literary text.... [A] sweeping spectacle.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A fast and furious race.” —The Plain Dealer
"A master of the breathless, puzzle-driven thriller.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“What Brown does in a way that appeals to millions of people around the world is tell stories that remind us there’s more to the world than meets the eye.” —The Huffington Post
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The memories materialized slowly . . . like bubbles surfacing from the darkness of a bottomless well.
A veiled woman.
Robert Langdon gazed at her across a river whose churning waters ran red with blood. On the far bank, the woman stood facing him, motionless, solemn, her face hidden by a shroud. In her hand she gripped a blue tainia cloth, which she now raised in honor of the sea of corpses at her feet. The smell of death hung everywhere.
Seek, the woman whispered. And ye shall find.
Langdon heard the words as if she had spoken them inside his head. “Who are you?” he called out, but his voice made no sound.
Time grows short, she whispered. Seek and find.
Langdon took a step toward the river, but he could see the waters were bloodred and too deep to traverse. When Langdon raised his eyes again to the veiled woman, the bodies at her feet had multiplied. There were hundreds of them now, maybe thousands, some still alive, writhing in agony, dying unthinkable deaths . . . consumed by fire, buried in feces, devouring one another. He could hear the mournful cries of human suffering echoing across the water.
The woman moved toward him, holding out her slender hands, as if beckoning for help.
“Who are you?!” Langdon again shouted.
In response, the woman reached up and slowly lifted the veil from her face. She was strikingly beautiful, and yet older than Langdon had imagined—in her sixties perhaps, stately and strong, like a timeless statue. She had a sternly set jaw, deep soulful eyes, and long, silver-gray hair that cascaded over her shoulders in ringlets. An amulet of lapis lazuli hung around her neck—a single snake coiled around a staff.
Langdon sensed he knew her . . . trusted her. But how? Why?
She pointed now to a writhing pair of legs, which protruded upside down from the earth, apparently belonging to some poor soul who had been buried headfirst to his waist. The man’s pale thigh bore a single letter—written in mud—R.
R? Langdon thought, uncertain. As in . . . Robert? “Is that . . . me?”
The woman’s face revealed nothing. Seek and find, she repeated.
Without warning, she began radiating a white light . . . brighter and brighter. Her entire body started vibrating intensely, and then, in a rush of thunder, she exploded into a thousand splintering shards of light.
Langdon bolted awake, shouting.
The room was bright. He was alone. The sharp smell of medicinal alcohol hung in the air, and somewhere a machine pinged in quiet rhythm with his heart. Langdon tried to move his right arm, but a sharp pain restrained him. He looked down and saw an IV tugging at the skin of his forearm.
His pulse quickened, and the machines kept pace, pinging more rapidly.
Where am I? What happened?
The back of Langdon’s head throbbed, a gnawing pain. Gingerly, he reached up with his free arm and touched his scalp, trying to locate the source of his headache. Beneath his matted hair, he found the hard nubs of a dozen or so stitches caked with dried blood.
He closed his eyes, trying to remember an accident.
Nothing. A total blank.
Think.
Only darkness.
A man in scrubs hurried in, apparently alerted by Langdon’s racing heart monitor. He had a shaggy beard, bushy mustache, and gentle eyes that radiated a thoughtful calm beneath his overgrown eyebrows.
“What . . . happened?” Langdon managed. “Did I have an accident?”
The bearded man put a finger to his lips and then rushed out, calling for someone down the hall.
Langdon turned his head, but the movement sent a spike of pain radiating through his skull. He took deep breaths and let the pain pass. Then, very gently and methodically, he surveyed his sterile surroundings.
The hospital room had a single bed. No flowers. No cards. Langdon saw his clothes on a nearby counter, folded inside a clear plastic bag. They were covered with blood.
My God. It must have been bad.
Now Langdon rotated his head very slowly toward the window beside his bed. It was dark outside. Night. All Langdon could see in the glass was his own reflection—an ashen stranger, pale and weary, attached to tubes and wires, surrounded by medical equipment.
Voices approached in the hall, and Langdon turned his gaze back toward the room. The doctor returned, now accompanied by a woman.
She appeared to be in her early thirties. She wore blue scrubs and had tied her blond hair back in a thick ponytail that swung behind her as she walked.
“I’m Dr. Sienna Brooks,” she said, giving Langdon a smile as she entered. “I’ll be working with Dr. Marconi tonight.”
Langdon nodded weakly.
Tall and lissome, Dr. Brooks moved with the assertive gait of an athlete. Even in shapeless scrubs, she had a willowy elegance about her. Despite the absence of any makeup that Langdon could see, her complexion appeared unusually smooth, the only blemish a tiny beauty mark just above her lips. Her eyes, though a gentle brown, seemed unusually penetrating, as if they had witnessed a profundity of experience rarely encountered by a person her age.
“Dr. Marconi doesn’t speak much English,” she said, sitting down beside him, “and he asked me to fill out your admittance form.” She gave him another smile.
“Thanks,” Langdon croaked.
“Okay,” she began, her tone businesslike. “What is your name?”
It took him a moment. “Robert . . . Langdon.”
She shone a penlight in Langdon’s eyes. “Occupation?”
This information surfaced even more slowly. “Professor. Art history . . . and symbology. Harvard University.”
Dr. Brooks lowered the light, looking startled. The doctor with the bushy eyebrows looked equally surprised.
“You’re . . . an American?”
Langdon gave her a confused look.
“It’s just . . .” She hesitated. “You had no identification when you arrived tonight. You were wearing Harris Tweed and Somerset loafers, so we guessed British.”
“I’m American,” Langdon assured her, too exhausted to explain his preference for well-tailored clothing.
“Any pain?”
“My head,” Langdon replied, his throbbing skull only made worse by the bright penlight. Thankfully, she now pocketed it, taking Langdon’s wrist and checking his pulse.
“You woke up shouting,” the woman said. “Do you remember why?”
Langdon flashed again on the strange vision of the veiled woman surrounded by writhing bodies. Seek and ye shall find. “I was having a nightmare.”
“About?”
Langdon told her.
Dr. Brooks’s expression remained neutral as she made notes on a clipboard. “Any idea what might have sparked such a frightening vision?”
Langdon probed his memory and then shook his head, which pounded in protest.
“Okay, Mr. Langdon,” she said, still writing, “a couple of routine questions for you. What day of the week is it?”
Langdon thought for a moment. “It’s Saturday. I remember earlier today walking across campus . . . going to an afternoon lecture series, and then . . . that’s pretty much the last thing I remember. Did I fall?”
“We’ll get to that. Do you know where you are?”
Langdon took his best guess. “Massachusetts General Hospital?”
Dr. Brooks made another note. “And is there someone we should call for you? Wife? Children?”
“Nobody,” Langdon replied instinctively. He had always enjoyed the solitude and independence provided him by his chosen life of bachelorhood, although he had to admit, in his current situation, he’d prefer to have a familiar face at his side. “There are some colleagues I could call, but I’m fine.”
Dr. Brooks finished writing, and the older doctor approached. Smoothing back his bushy eyebrows, he produced a small voice recorder from his pocket and showed it to Dr. Brooks. She nodded in understanding and turned back to her patient.
“Mr. Langdon, when you arrived tonight, you were mumbling something over and over.” She glanced at Dr. Marconi, who held up the digital recorder and pressed a button.
A recording began to play, and Langdon heard his own groggy voice, repeatedly muttering the same phrase: “Ve . . . sorry. Ve . . . sorry.”
“It sounds to me,” the woman said, “like you’re saying, ‘Very sorry. Very sorry.’ ”
Langdon agreed, and yet he had no recollection of it.
Dr. Brooks fixed him with a disquietingly intense stare. “Do you have any idea why you’d be saying this? Are you sorry about something?”
As Langdon probed the dark recesses of his memory, he again saw the veiled woman. She was standing on the banks of a bloodred river surrounded by bodies. The stench of death returned.
Langdon was overcome by a sudden, instinctive sense of danger . . . not just for himself . . . but for everyone. The pinging of his heart monitor accelerated rapidly. His muscles tightened, and he tried to sit up.
Dr. Brooks quickly placed a firm hand on Langdon’s sternum, forcing him back down. She shot a glance at the bearded doctor, who walked over to a nearby counter and began preparing something.
Dr. Brooks hovered over Langdon, whispering now. “Mr. Langdon, anxiety is common with brain injuries, but you need to keep your pulse rate down. No movement. No excitement. Just lie still and rest. You’ll be okay. Your memory will come back slowly.”
The doctor returned now with a syringe, which he handed to Dr. Brooks. She injected its contents into Langdon’s IV.
“Just a mild sedative to calm you down,” she explained, “and also to help with the pain.” She stood to go. “You’ll be fine, Mr. Langdon. Just sleep. If you need anything, press the button on your bedside.”
She turned out the light and departed with the bearded doctor.
In the darkness, Langdon felt the drugs washing through his system almost instantly, dragging his body back down into that deep well from which he had emerged. He fought the feeling, forcing his eyes open in the darkness of his room. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like cement.
As Langdon shifted, he found himself again facing the window. The lights were out, and in the dark glass, his own reflection had disappeared, replaced by an illuminated skyline in the distance.
Amid a contour of spires and domes, a single regal facade dominated Langdon’s field of view. The building was an imposing stone fortress with a notched parapet and a three-hundred-foot tower that swelled near the top, bulging outward into a massive machicolated battlement.
Langdon sat bolt upright in bed, pain exploding in his head. He fought off the searing throb and fixed his gaze on the tower.
Langdon knew the medieval structure well.
It was unique in the world.
Unfortunately, it was also located four thousand miles from Massachusetts.
Outside his window, hidden in the shadows of the Via Torregalli, a powerfully built woman effortlessly unstraddled her BMW motorcycle and advanced with the intensity of a panther stalking its prey. Her gaze was sharp. Her close-cropped hair—styled into spikes—stood out against the upturned collar of her black leather riding suit. She checked her silenced weapon, and stared up at the window where Robert Langdon’s light had just gone out.
Earlier tonight her original mission had gone horribly awry.
The coo of a single dove had changed everything.
Now she had come to make it right.
Chapter 2
I’m in Florence!?
Robert Langdon’s head throbbed. He was now seated upright in his hospital bed, repeatedly jamming his finger into the call button. Despite the sedatives in his system, his heart was racing.
Dr. Brooks hurried back in, her ponytail bobbing. “Are you okay?”
Langdon shook his head in bewilderment. “I’m in . . . Italy!?”
“Good,” she said. “You’re remembering.”
“No!” Langdon pointed out the window at the commanding edifice in the distance. “I recognize the Palazzo Vecchio.”
Dr. Brooks flicked the lights back on, and the Florence skyline disappeared. She came to his bedside, whispering calmly. “Mr. Langdon, there’s no need to worry. You’re suffering from mild amnesia, but Dr. Marconi confirmed that your brain function is fine.”
The bearded doctor rushed in as well, apparently hearing the call button. He checked Langdon’s heart monitor as the young doctor spoke to him in rapid, fluent Italian—something about how Langdon was “agitato” to learn he was in Italy.
Agitated? Langdon thought angrily. More like stupefied! The adrenaline surging through his system was now doing battle with the sedatives. “What happened to me?” he demanded. “What day is it?!”
“Everything is fine,” she said. “It’s early morning. Monday, March eighteenth.”
Monday. Langdon forced his aching mind to reel back to the last images he could recall—cold and dark—walking alone across the Harvard campus to a Saturday-night lecture series. That was two days ago?! A sharper panic now gripped him as he tried to recall anything at all from the lecture or afterward. Nothing. The ping of his heart monitor accelerated.
The older doctor scratched at his beard and continued adjusting equipment while Dr. Brooks sat again beside Langdon.
“You’re going to be okay,” she reassured him, speaking gently. “We’ve diagnosed you with retrograde amnesia, which is very common in head trauma. Your memories of the past few days may be muddled or missing, but you should suffer no permanent damage.” She paused. “Do you remember my first name? I told you when I walked in.”
Langdon thought a moment. “Sienna.” Dr. Sienna Brooks.
She smiled. “See? You’re already forming new memories.”
The pain in Langdon’s head was almost unbearable, and his near-field vision remained blurry. “What . . . happened? How did I get here?”
“I think you should rest, and maybe—”
“How did I get here?!” he demanded, his heart monitor accelerating further.
“Okay, just breathe easy,” Dr. Brooks said, exchanging a nervous look with her colleague. “I’ll tell you.” Her voice turned markedly more serious. “Mr. Langdon, three hours ago, you staggered into our emergency room, bleeding from a head wound, and you immediately collapsed. Nobody had any idea who you were or how you got here. You were mumbling in English, so Dr. Marconi asked me to assist. I’m on sabbatical here from the U.K.”
Langdon felt like he had awoken inside a Max Ernst painting. What the hell am I doing in Italy? Normally Langdon came here every other June for an art conference, but this was March.
The sedatives pulled harder at him now, and he felt as if earth’s gravity were growing stronger by the second, trying to drag him down through his mattress. Langdon fought it, hoisting his head, trying to stay alert.
Dr. Brooks leaned over him, hovering like an angel. “Please, Mr. Langdon,” she whispered. “Head trauma is delicate in the first twenty-four hours. You need to rest, or you could do serious damage.”
A voice crackled suddenly on the room’s intercom. “Dr. Marconi?”
The bearded doctor touched a button on the wall and replied, “Sì?”
The voice on the intercom spoke in rapid Italian. Langdon didn’t catch what it said, but he did catch the two doctors exchanging a look of surprise. Or is it alarm?
“Momento,” Marconi replied, ending the conversation.
“What’s going on?” Langdon asked.
Dr. Brooks’s eyes seemed to narrow a bit. “That was the ICU receptionist. Someone’s here to visit you.”
A ray of hope cut through Langdon’s grogginess. “That’s good news! Maybe this person knows what happened to me.”
She looked uncertain. “It’s just odd that someone’s here. We didn’t have your name, and you’re not even registered in the system yet.”
Product details
- ASIN : 0385537859
- Publisher : Doubleday; First Edition (May 14, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780385537858
- ISBN-13 : 978-0385537858
- Item Weight : 1.7 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.37 x 1.64 x 9.52 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #61,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #768 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- #2,275 in Thriller & Suspense Action Fiction
- #6,250 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
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Inferno
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About the author

Dan Brown is the bestselling author of Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and most recently, Inferno. Three of his Robert Langdon novels have been adapted for the screen by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks. They have all been international blockbusters.
His new Robert Langdon thriller, Origin will be out on 3rd October 2017.
Dan Brown is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he has taught English and Creative Writing. He lives in New England.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book intelligent, informative, and enjoyable. They also appreciate the clever use of paintings, symbols, and other artefacts. Readers describe the geographical tour as very interesting and consistent with what they remember from the places they've been. They describe the plot as incredibly interesting, scary, and non-stop. Opinions are mixed on the descriptiveness, pacing, and characterization. Some find the historical and architectural detail compelling, while others say it's too much.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the plot fascinating, engrossing, and suspenseful. They also appreciate the constant cliffhangers, twists, and turns. Readers also mention that the history of Florence is fascinating. They appreciate the author's attention to detail and descriptive powers.
"...generation readers has once again struck with his powerful pen, a mesmerizing and wonderful fiction, worth reading many times...." Read more
"...The "moral" of the story is topical and will get you thinking about real world issues - unlike the Da Vinci Code or the Lost Symbol, and if read..." Read more
"...At times exciting, slow, intelligent, sophomoric, surprising and frustrating, this novel was better than the The Lost Symbol,..." Read more
"...will be tricky to direct, since the plot's convoluted and often implausible premises, combined with its mad-dash action will present problems of..." Read more
Customers find the book intelligent, enjoyable, and brilliant. They also say the novel starts out strong and is challenging but highly rewarding. Readers also mention that the book is well written and edited.
"...has once again struck with his powerful pen, a mesmerizing and wonderful fiction, worth reading many times...." Read more
"...For all that, it is a good summer book with a great deal of material on some of the world's artistic masterpieces...." Read more
"...The novel starts out strong, with our favorite symbologist, Robert Langdon, waking up with amnesia and a bullet crease to the skull in Florence,..." Read more
"...This is an intelligent novel in which we learn more about not only Dante, but also Michelangelo and his famous statue of David; the Doge's..." Read more
Customers find the book intelligent, great, and fast-paced. They also appreciate the clever use of paintings, symbols, and other artefacts. Readers say the characters are complex and brilliant. They say the plot has an excellent message to the world.
"...At times exciting, slow, intelligent, sophomoric, surprising and frustrating, this novel was better than the The Lost Symbol,..." Read more
"...Overall, 'Inferno' is a thoroughly enjoyable and intelligent read...." Read more
"...Inferno was a very quick read for me, as I'm sure it will be for most people...." Read more
"...Brown does a fantastic job of keeping readers off balance as one never knows who to trust or who is lying, who is telling the truth and who is..." Read more
Customers find the book very informative, intelligent, and interesting. They also say the socio-economic elements are thought provoking, and the author expertly researches his locales. Readers also mention that the book is entertaining and encouraging, with relevant population questions.
"...The author’s outstanding talent in his research abilities and zeal to pursue world history through art and architecture is absolutely unmatched as..." Read more
"...While the socio-economic elements are thought provoking, the methodology that is used to convey them is sometimes a little preachy, and similar to..." Read more
"...At times exciting, slow, intelligent, sophomoric, surprising and frustrating, this novel was better than the The Lost Symbol,..." Read more
"...Intelligent, and thrilling. We never know what's going to happen next. All 100+ chapters of 'Inferno' keep us on the edge of our seat...." Read more
Customers find the geographical tour very interesting and consistent with what they remember from the places they visited. They also appreciate the superb locations, history, literature, and writing style. Readers say the book serves as an incomparable travelogue, and they get a strong sense of place.
"...Pros: Some of the greatest places of interest in art and architecture across Italy, Venice and Turkey have been widely described with a lot of..." Read more
"...There are some serious positives... I loved the locales, and the author does his usual thorough guide-book coverage of the venues the characters..." Read more
"...and familiar to Dan Brown's writing style, this is worth taking an adventure into Italy and finding appreciation to the country's well preserved art..." Read more
"...Great history, culture, geography: a typical Brown effort...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention that the author does what he does best by creating a fast-paced, symbolic treasure hunt that keeps them curious and moving. They also say the book is a great read and perfect for a long flight. However, some customers feel the pace of the story suffers and the character development suffers.
"...At times exciting, slow, intelligent, sophomoric, surprising and frustrating, this novel was better than the The Lost Symbol,..." Read more
"...I enjoyed Inferno’s suspense and fast pace...." Read more
"...The shifts are not seamless. The pace of the story suffers. And worst of all, character development suffers. No character is developed well...." Read more
"...To Mr. Brown's credit is his ability to write an exciting, fast-paced novel...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the descriptiveness. Some mention that it keeps them invested, has plenty of historical and architectural detail, and a nicely crafted characterization of Langdon. They also appreciate the background on Dante Alighieri and cultural themes to a mainstream audience. However, others say that it's too descriptive, wordy at times, and ignorant throwaway statements. They are disappointed that there was no map of the sites included in the book.
"...repetition, lectures on art history, disjointedness, redundancy, and flat prose...." Read more
"...And it is based in exotic medieval locations with so much art/architecture/history/trivia commentary, you could use this as a guidebook while..." Read more
"...He has a terrible habit of overstating and restating details, as if he doesn't trust his readers to remember in Chapter 14 something that happened..." Read more
"...It is a brilliant literary strategy.I was awed by the amazing architecture and wondrous scenes of people going about their business...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the characterization. Some mention that the author is very good at creating interesting characters, while others say that there is zero character development. They also say that all women are described by their appearance only.
"...The overall plot was interesting, and the villain was reasoned, if crazed, allowing the author to take on a controversial topic...." Read more
"...He is a flat, never changing character who can be expected to be the same in nearly every scenario...." Read more
"...He also is very good at creating interesting characters. Robert Langdon is a character I don't mind returning to again and again...." Read more
"...It’s a great story with intriguing characters, twists and turns that will compel you to reread previous chapters, and tantalizing pieces of history..." Read more
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Robert Langdon, the American professor, highly talented and expert in mythological symbols of the old world is called upon by the World Health Organization (WHO) to break the secret code of the famous painting of Dante’s Map of Hell also referred as La Mappa dell’Inferno, to unveil a dangerous plot by a renowned genetic engineering scientist Bertrand Zobrist, to destroy human race. The plot opens in Florence, Italy and winds up in Istanbul, Turkey passing through a series of twists and turns in tracing the final destination of the secret place and date where the scientist proposes to release the dangerous virus to the world, in a Sunken Palace somewhere in the middle of the world. In this journey, the reader is taken through a beautiful journey in gaining exquisite knowledge of Dante Alleghieri’s famous work “The Divine Comedy” composed in early 1300s, wherein he describes his great journey through the various stages of the so-called Hell in Christian religion. This great composition is the most widely read and respected in the world. Dante’s interpretation of his Hell and the Great Plague of Europe in the 1300s (also referred as Black Death) were contemplated to arrive at a disturbing fact that the World is over-populated as of now and needs to downsize the existing population by some means as fast as possible to help the human race to continue for some more centuries. This called for Bertrand’s wild and brilliant idea of creation of highly virulent air-borne vector virus that if enters the human body renders him/her infertile forever. This according to the scientist is the only immediate solution to curb the ever increasing human population that shall lead to widespread calamities, famines, starvation deaths and disasters in the near future. His great leadership on the Transhumanist movement whose fundamental tenets is that we as humans have a moral obligation to participate in our own evolutionary process and use our technologies to create healthier, stronger and intelligent human beings without waiting for the long periods of natural evolutionary process. However, Robert Langdon with the help of WHO and Sienna Brooks, lover of Bertrand Zobrist and a highly intelligent doctor do find the place and date of the release of virus. But will they be able to save the world? One must read this wonderful work of Dan Brown to catch the excitement!
Pros: Some of the greatest places of interest in art and architecture across Italy, Venice and Turkey have been widely described with a lot of information on the history and significance of each and every great monument built that stands as a mark of human intelligence in the ancient period. The author’s outstanding talent in his research abilities and zeal to pursue world history through art and architecture is absolutely unmatched as of today. The reader will remain hypnotized and carried right into the middle of the scenes as long he/she is reading the book.
The description of Piazza Del Duomo, the statue of David, Vasari’s paintings, cylinder seals, Death masks, the Medici, Palazzo Vecchio’s Hall of Five Hundred, Boboli gardens, Buontalenti Grotto, the Vasari Corridor, Uffizi Gallery, Mappa Mundi, the church of Dante, the Baptistry of San Giovanni, Gates of Paradise, The Rod of Asclepius, the grandeur of Vatican city, the Doge’s Palace, St.Mark’s Basilica, the Transhumanist Philosophy, the cupola of San Simeone Piccolo, story of St. Lucia’s bones, the origin of the word ‘quarantine’, the Grand Canal of Venice, the Venetian Gothic Architecture, the Byzantine architecture, the history of Horses of St.Mark’s, the Pala d’Oro, the Bosporus Waterway of Istanbul, the mosque of Hagia Sophia (considered as the eighth world wonder), Istanbul’s 300 yr old Spice Bazaar, the tomb of Henricus Dandalo, the Sunken Palace and finally the Dante Symphony by Franz Liszt are some of my interesting topics for study in this book.
Cons: The fact that the great American professor was mentally manipulated through a series of illusions by the World Health Organization to help them decode the secret lying behind in Dante’s painting to save the world was not acceptable to me. Though Bertrand’s vision and cause is worth a standing ovation, the means he chose to achieve the goal seemed to be wrong.
My favourite quote in the book :
“The decisions of our past are the architects of our present”
My rating is 5 out of 5
Will it please his cohort of current readers? Probably. Will it top The DaVinci Code as a cultural phenomenon? Probably not.
It is definitely a `Robert Langdon book'. Much of the plot consists of Langdon running around Florence and Venice, hand in hand with an attractive, intelligent woman who is younger than him. They will see many magnificent works of art, particularly architectural works. Each will have a deep history and each will have aspects, quirks, symbols and secrets that Robert Langdon will explain to us. The plot is quite complex and the ongoing commentary on Dante's Inferno (and the rest of the Divine Comedy) will hold the reader's interest.
The story (keeping spoilers to a minimum): Langdon wakes up in a Florence hospital with amnesia and a wound to the head. He escapes through the offices of a young doctor, as individuals are attempting to either kill him or at least keep him from pursuing his quest. The quest is to discover a plot perpetrated by a very rich and very intelligent but potentially quite mad, neo-Malthusian scientist, who is concerned about overpopulation and grand ways to abruptly curtail it. The scientist has hired a secret firm directed by `the provost' (this will be an odd choice of title, to most academics), who is running interference for the scientist and facilitating his plans. The provost, however, is not fully aware of the nature of the scientist's plans and after the scientist commits suicide and the nature of those plans becomes clear, the provost has second thoughts.
Simultaneously, the plans are a great concern to a woman who heads the World Health Organization. Either she or the provost (this is not immediately clear at the novel's outset) has, at his or her disposal, a small group of darkly-clad shock troops who are also after Langdon.
The chief mysteries are: what is the scientist's plan? Why does Langdon have amnesia? Who is after him and why? Who is on his side and who isn't? Will he be able to foil the now-dead scientist's plan? And, ultimately, who can he trust, since the characters may not all be what they pretend to be?
The art history/architectural/Dantean materials are all interesting and, Brown claims, all quite true. The Dantean materials, however, are not as integral to the plot as the title would suggest. The title also refers to the scientist's plan and that is the central plot element in the book, not some new, canny, revolutionary reading of the Divine Comedy.
Bottom line: this is not a book in which religion, theology or intellectual history play a central role. It is a `mad scientist' book, though the scientist might not actually be mad.
It is also not a terribly plausible book. At some points we almost feel as if we have walked onto the set of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (if Napoleon Solo were an art historian). The factual content is very imposing and impressive, but, sentence-by-sentence, the writing can be crude and nearly comic.
The book will meet the expectations of most Dan Brown readers and it will hold nearly every reader's attention. It will doubtless be made into a movie, but that movie will be tricky to direct, since the plot's convoluted and often implausible premises, combined with its mad-dash action will present problems of integration and continuity. Unless the material is handled very skillfully (and perhaps seriously tweaked), I would expect some gasps of incredulity from the audience.
For all that, it is a good summer book with a great deal of material on some of the world's artistic masterpieces. While it is not up to the standard of The DaVinci Code it will not challenge or shock any religious sensibilities.
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I am impressed by the quality of storytelling that Dan Brown puts into his books. Many years ago I read his The Da Vinci Code, was blown away by it’s content and abandoned my daily newspaper to read novels instead. Inferno has the same intensity as The Da Vinci Code and the storytelling dazzled me again. My interest was maintained throughout as there are tonnes of background to enjoy. I got so much reading pleasure from this very long read that runs to 528 pages.
I enjoyed this thrilling adventure which has lots of twists and turns together with many lies, plenty of deception and a lot of reasoning. This conspiracy develops at a good pace and Dan Brown quotes numerous examples from the past to back up his novel. Inferno was written in 2013, long before Covid-19 but it makes you wonder considering all the references to China in this story and what happened in 2020 globally in real life. Inferno is an intelligent read that poses the scary question of what mankind can do about overpopulation and the future of our planet and species. Along the way the reader learns a lot about art, history, numbers, religion and symbols.
I enjoyed reading Inferno and found it very entertaining. I liked how Robert was able to find hidden secret passages and there was even a hint of romance between Robert and Sienna Brooks. Looking back I consider Inferno to be an OUTSTANDING 5 star read. This book has it’s critics but I found it fun and very engaging.
Reviewed in Italy on March 10, 2021

















