What to read after The Divine Comedy?

Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece is a visionary journey that takes readers through the torment of Hell. This first part of Dante's Divine Comedy is a lot of things: a moving human drama, a magnificent protest against the ways in which men have thwarted the divine plan. An incredible path through the most universal values--good and evil, free will and predestination. It represents allegorically the beginning of the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".