Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell Challenge

No Longer Human (Junji Ito)

Junji Ito · 2019

Nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche.<br/><br/>Mine has been a life of much shame.<br/><br/>I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.<br/><br/>Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm-in-arm with death.<br/><br/>Osamu Dazai’s immortal—and supposedly autobiographical—work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Ito. The imagery wrenches open the text of the novel one line at a time to sublimate Yozo’s mental landscape into something even more delicate and grotesque. This is the ultimate in art by Ito, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche.

Anna Karenina (Wordsworth Classics)

Leo Tolstoy · 1997

Oblomov

Ivan Goncharov, Sheba Blake · 2017

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck · 2006

Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics)

Emily Brontë, Pauline Nestor · 2002

<b>Coming soon to the big screen is Emerald Fennell’s feature film “<i>Wuthering Heights</i>,” which captures the spirit of this epic love story and stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff.<br></b><br>Emily Brontë's only novel endures as a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence. The Penguin Classics edition is the definitive version of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor.<br><br>Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past. <br><br>In this edition, a new preface by Lucasta Miller, author of <i>The Brontë Myth</i>, looks at the ways in which the novel has been interpreted, from Charlotte Brontë onwards. This complements Pauline Nestor's introduction, which discusses changing critical receptions of the novel, as well as Emily Brontë's influences and background.

The Handmaids Tale

Margaret Atwood · 2017

Demons

Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1995

The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)

Alexandre Dumas père · 2003

Macbeth

William Shakespeare · 2003