Pages From My Journal

Gabriel's Inferno - Book Review

In this present era, where we have access to so many great romantic and erotic novels, this is the first one, that's taken my breath away and made my heart stutter. It has made me realise that there is so much more than just fucking one another like animals.

Making love.

What's your first thought?

My first thought on making love revolves around naked bodies wound close together on a huge bed, pressing into each other and exploring every level of paradise through their bodies.

But you see, that's a thought. That is nothing more than an image, devoid of feelings and care.

Gabriel's Inferno, buried the concept of fucking (to most extent) in my head and changed my image of making love. What is love? Is it going weak-kneed, breathless and into an almost unconscious daze? Yes. But not just that. Its about kindness, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and thoughtfulness. And all of those things in huge quantities, with no exception.

This great novel is about how two wounded and broken souls with a chance of redemption, cross paths once in their youth and then lose contact. However, that one unforgettable rendezvous in a fragrant apple orchard is forever engraved in both their minds.

They meet again, like two forces colliding in the most exquisite fashion. It has its 21st century moments, in nightclubs and college classrooms. The language is simple mouth-watering, sure to make an avid reader's heart clench more than just a few times. But the heart of the plot revolves around Dante' Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Both the hero - Professor Gabriel Owen Emerson and heroine - Julianne Mitchell have a profound love for Italian literature and Dante'. Specifically Dante's meeting with Beatrice in Florence as depicted in Holiday's painting of them.

Dante' a complex minded lost artist, searching inferno, purgatory and paradise for Beatrice, the brown eyed, brown haired chaste angel, who he believes is his one and only means of redemption.

Does Gabriel find his Beatrice? Where does he find her? And how does he show her his love for him? Like Dante'? Or like a true angel-lover?

Find out.

I rate Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard 8/10

It's gripping, enlightening, full of love and message.

Favorite Lines:

"Tell me that you want me or get out."

"Even a fallen angel had his principles."

"Can you love without sin?"

"Not all scars mark the sin."

All these quotes belong to Sylvain Reynard and not to me. They are subject to copyright.