Romance

Sylvain Reynard, Gabriel’s Inferno (2012)

July 26, 2021 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well-respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.

“When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

“An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel’s Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man’s escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible—forgiveness and love.” —Penguin Random House

The 2012 novel, set in Toronto, was adapted into a three-part series of films starring Giulio Berruti and Melanie Zanetti and directed by Tosca Musk. It was produced and released by Musk’s company Passionflix in 2020. The image above comes from the Amazon Prime Video page for the film. Gabriel’s Rapture (Part Two) and Gabriel’s Redemption (Part Three) are scheduled for release in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Contributed by Margaret Goodspeed

Draco’s Marriage Pact: The Dante Inferno (2020) by Day Leclaire

December 24, 2019 By Alexa Kellenberger FSU '22

The Dante Inferno: Draco’s Marriage Pact was written by Day Leclaire and will be published by DLI Publishing on April 17th, 2020.

“When Draco Dante experiences The Inferno with Dante family rival, Shayla Charleston, he isn’t the least opposed. In fact, he sweeps her off her feet and straight into his bed. What he doesn’t expect is for her to disappear after their one night of passion. Unwilling to let her go and with The Inferno burning in his veins, he spends months searching for her … only to discover Shayla is expecting his baby. Like, now!

“On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Shayla Charleston has three goals. 1. Make sure her grandmother is taken care of. 2. Take off for Europe with her new boss. 3. Experience a one-night stand. Instead, she ends up in bed with the one man she should avoid at all costs … a Dante, her grandmother’s nemesis. [. . .]

“Draco’s Marriage Pact is Book #7 in The Dante Inferno: the Dante Dynasty Series, a contemporary romance series by USA Today bestselling author and eleven-time RITA© (Romance Writers of America) finalist, Day Leclaire. This story features passionate Italian-American heroes, the scorching connection of The Inferno, and a sizzling romance between soul mates.” —Amazon

“Compagno di scuola” by Antonello Venditti (1975)

April 28, 2018 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

From the 1975 song “Compagno di scuola” by Antonello Venditti:

“E la Divina Commedia, sempre più commedia
al punto che ancora oggi io non so
se Dante era un uomo libero, un fallito o un servo di partito, o un servo di partito.
Ma Paolo e Francesca, quelli io me li ricordo bene
perché, ditemi, chi non si è mai innamorato
di quella del primo banco,
la più carina, la più cretina,
cretino tu, che rideva sempre
proprio quando il tuo amore aveva le stesse parole,
gli stessi respiri del libro che leggevi di nascosto
sotto il banco.”

Listen to the song on YouTube.

Lyrics from AngoloTesti.

Contributed by Alessandra Mazzocchi (Florida State University ’19)

Orhan Pamuk, “The New Life” (1998)

July 7, 2009 By Alexa Kellenberger FSU '22

“. . .’My book,’ [Pamuk] says, ‘is my attempt at being visionary through the experience of love. It has a tongue-in-cheek quality about the effect of love on one’s spirit. The intensity of desire is so overwhelming that the narrator is in a new world, in a new life. It’s about maturing through love, reaching a higher level of consciousness.’
The title is appropriated from Dante’s ‘La Vita Nuova,’ Pamuk allows. ‘Dante’s is an account of how he fell in love, along with autobiographical digressions about the effect of love.’ Although it’s impossible to neatly summarize a Pamuk book, ‘The New Life’ is also a meditation on the way literature can affect — or afflict — a nation.” [. . .] –Judy Stone, Orhan Pamuk

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