Though I’m very late to reviewing this one, I really enjoyed it! It kept me interested, and I would recommend it to anyone who dabbles in this genre.

Clearly I'm not the only person who is fascinated by the hell found in literature. Editor Scott G. Bruce has put together a collection here of a wide variety of hellish representations, most of them unfamiliar to me, which made for a real fascinating read.

We start off with the classics of Greek literature, and while some of these should be familiar (selections from Homer's <em>Odyssey</em>, Plato's <em>Phaedo</em>, and Virgil's <em>Aeneid</em>) it is especially nice to get these (as well as portions of Hesiod's <em>Theogony</em> and Senecca's <em>The Madness of Heracles</em>) together to get this over-view of hell from this time period.

Then it's on to the Christian views of hell - those most familiar to me to many of us. Here we have sections of the <em>Apocalypse of Paul</em>, the Gospel of Luke, and the <em>Gospel of Nicodemus</em>.

The Early Middle Ages are represented by <em>Dialogues</em> of Gregory the Great, two selections from Bede's <em>Ecclesiastical History of the English People</em>, and <em>The Voyage of Saint Brendan</em>. It is interesting to see how the Christian view of hell changes from the biblical writings and onward.

There are three sections from the <em>Vision of Tundale</em> and then the High Middle Ages are specifically represented with "Lessons in Horror" from the Elucidarius of Honorius of Autun, "Preaching Pain" from a Medieval Priest's Manual, <em>Dialogue on Miracles</em> by Caesarius, and Thomas Aquinas's <em>Summa Theologica</em>.

And of course you can't have a book about Hell in literature without Dante's Inferno being represented!

An interesting period, c. 1500-1700, is represented here with works that were quite unfamiliar to me: "The Sharp Pangs of a Wounded Conscience" (a sermon by William Dawes), "Into That Eternal Furnace" from Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti's <em>Hell Opened to Christians to Caution Them from Enter into It</em>, and a portion of John Bunyan's <em>The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternall </em>(sic)<em> Judgement</em>. Followed by two additions representing the 19th century: "Hell is for Children" by John Furniss and Austin Holyoake's <em>Heaven &amp; Hell: Where Situated?</em>

These last two piece's give us a pretty classic impression of the "Fire and Brimstone" kind of sermon's that are often remarked upon in film, television, and literature representing this era. The "Hell is for Children" piece by Furniss (what a perfect name!) seems really atrocious to the modern reader.

Up to this point everything is kind fascinating from a historical perspective. At this point, editor Bruce makes some really tough choices, giving us hell that isn't so much a specific place that bad people go, but a hell that is much more of a here and now, suffered by the good as well as the bad.

The first of the modern pieces is "The Death Factories" from Vasily Grossman's "The Hell of Treblinka." A recollection of the atrocities of a German extermination camp, this was the only work that I had a difficult time reading. ...Difficult because of the <em>nature</em> of what I was reading. I have a pretty strong constitution, but this really tore at me.

"Fire in the Sky" from the "Testimony of Yoshitaka Kawamoto" is a brief recounting from a child survivor of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. Though horrific, this didn't impact me as much as the previous work most because of the distanced nature of the telling.

"The Sum of Suffering" from William Blake's "A Sentence Worse Than Death" was at first quite impressive. Blake was a manner of writing that easily paints a picture of his bleak life in prison solitary confinement ... for the rest of his life. I was moved during my reading of this, but afterward, upon reflection, I noted that he never once, during this segment of a longer work, mention, acknowledge, or show remorse for the eternal suffering of the family of the man he murdered. This reminded me that we can easily get caught up in rhetoric (especially when it's well done) without noticing how one-sided it might be.

The last little bit is simply a mention that the United States war on terror interrogators employ their own hell-on-earth tactics, specifically the use of mix-tapes. That's right. By playing offensive songs to prisoners, at deafening volumes, repeatedly and without end, prisoners are subjugated to a torture, a hell, that is hard to imagine for many of us. What songs are on that mix-tape? Well, some pretty harsh songs, of course, like songs by Deicide, Drowning Pool, and Marilyn Manson. But also on that mix-tape...? Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Barney and Friends' "I Love You" song!

I am really glad I read this, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in short works, and the fascinating, changing way we have viewed Hell through the centuries.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Penguin Book of Hell</em>, edited by Scott G. Bruce, is a remarkable collection of our images of hell, from the early days of Greek literature to our modern views of hell on earth.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very curious book. The author is a classist who has written extensively on this topic and others similar. The concept of Hell is embedded in almost every culture. Where did this concept come from and how has it been interpreted through the years? Most people understand the concept, but here we are introduced to its origins and how the tradition has been maintained. He starts with the Greeks then it mostly comes from Christianity and biblical texts. What's interesting in his approach is that it starts as a sort of origin story and ends with almost ridiculous examples. The last part of the first section, Hell is for Children, is almost comical in its attempt to scare. In this process, he exposes the use of Hell as a compliance and recruitment tool for the Christian Church. You don't want to spend eternity in Hell, do you?

Then it changes and we see sights that are worse than anything even Dante imagined. The Holocaust, the dropping of the Atomic bomb, solitary confinement for years, and more are gone over in detail through first-person accounts. It makes a farce of the first part of the book. Hell on Earth is far worse than anyone could have imagined. And for what? Did those people who died deserve this Hell? Where is God in all of this? The book has a good accompaniment with Silence by Shusaku Endo. What is the fat of the faithful when they face atrocity after atrocity and are only met with silence from God.

Fascinating work that gives a lot of food for thought.

As a collection of how the Western World has depicted Hell in various forms through literature, this book succeeds. The collection of well known and obscure texts provides something for everyone that is looking to understand, even a little bit more, of how society has used, pictured, and continues to be fascinated with the idea of a hell and eternal punishment for humanity.

This isn’t something I usually pick up to read, but the description of “three thousand years of visions of hell” weirdly intrigued me. I love historical and anthropological studies of our past as a species and the cross-cultural analyses that go along with them.
This book sets up the chronological interpretations of hell throughout time in a fairly straightforward way. My only concern was the frequent inclusion of raw material, while interesting and relevant, that more or less required the reader to make their own interpretations of the literature.
Overall, this was a decent study of the place of eternal damnation as described in the Judeo-Christian texts.

This book took me right back to my world religion class in college! I believe there was a History channel program on Hell as well. Anyway, it's a wonderful refresher on the history and concept of Hell. An in depth historical look at one of mankinds least favorite, yet fascinating, places! It was a fun ride!

This book was thoroughly researched, but seems to fall into the trap of equating pre-Christian concepts of the underworld with Hell. While there are certainly some elements that can be comparative, they are not synonymous. I appreciated the content that stayed within the realm of Christian mythology and how the term, the place, and the mythos have entered every day parlance.

Scott G. Bruce curated an excellent anthology of stories and writing about Hell that spans from the ancient world to the present. I enjoyed seeing how interpretations of Hell changed over time. The medieval and early modern thoughts about a very real Hell were horrifying. Modern writing and ideas about Hell were even scarier because the hellscapes were happening on Earth, perpetrated by other people.
There were a few uneven spots in the book. It would have been great to see more pre-modern/modern/postmodern selections. It also would have been a nice contrast to see non-Christian ideas from later than antiquity.
Overall, this was a well-thought-out anthology with strong introductory material before each section.

When a topic like Hell floats into a conversation, it's a great thing to be able to move beyond aphoristic sort of "Hell is other people" comment, and have some material to really dig into. This book, with its historically wide net, gives the reader plenty to chew on and consider. Especially important are the 20th Century passages where Bruce allows the idea of Hell to expand beyond its imaginative and theological roots and encompasses human-made hells including solitary confinement and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

A great compendium of writing on hell and hellish places from ancient Greece and Rome through early and later Christianity, as well as the more literal hells of the Shoah and other genocides. The excerpted texts are presented with backgrounds about their authors and time periods, and offer fascinating information about how people have conceptualized hell in different social, political, and geographical contexts.

When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it, since I am currently studying the concepts of good and evil in both the ecclesiastical and secular sense. I was not disappointed by this book at all. there is a wide variety of literature samples included in this book and interesting notes about where origins of the beliefs came from.

This is the kind of book that you can read from beginning to end, or skip sections and come back later and you still get the same effect. As a research tool, this book is fantastic. I found that there was a lot of relatively obscure and difficult to find material in here and that made this worth reading and also worth making a permanent addition to my library.

Excellent, well-compiled and edited. Recommended.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Penguin Book of Hell provides a rich tomb regarding, well, Hell and the various iterations throughout history. In addition to writings of the different eras, there are also brief analyses regarding the pieces.

Very interesting topic. This book is informative, but I thought there would be much more commentary and analysis on the writings about hell.. I needed more.

I'd have also liked to see more information and current views about hell (19th century and forward), but I still enjoyed the book.

This book works well as a reference work, but works equally well as a fascinating read in its own right.

Very good anthology of readings centered on Hell. Won’t use in my classroom as the readings aren’t as diverse as I’d like in terms of time period. Surely there were a few more modern pieces about hell that could have been included? I suppose I could pair with a modern novel or something, but I would have to really consider how I could use it.