Audiobook The Inferno, written by Dante. ‘Abandon all hope you who enter here’ (Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate) Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.