The Inferno · Chapters

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Chapter companions for The Inferno by August Strindberg.

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Chapter 1
Epigraph
The epigraph quotes a Latin phrase attributed to St. Remigius, urging the proud Segambre to bow his head, worship what he has burned, and burn what he has worshipped, setting a tone of conversion and reversal.
Chapter 2
The Inferno
The narrator describes his descent into a personal hell, marked by intense suffering, paranoia, and spiritual crisis. He recounts experiences of isolation, persecution, and supernatural occurrences, ultimately framing his ordeal as a form of divine punishment and a journey toward redemption.
Chapter 3
I: The Hand of the Invisible
The narrator, having parted from his wife at a railway station, experiences a mix of liberation and guilt. He pursues chemical experiments in his Paris room, believing he has discovered carbon in sulphur, but his hands become severely burned and infected. Isolated and in pain, he repudiates his wife and child in a cruel letter, leading to a demand for separation. After a miserable Christmas, his physical and financial condition deteriorates, and a woman from the Scandinavian colony arranges for his admission to the Hospital of St. Louis. There, under the care of a kind nun, he begins to recover, receives support for his chemical theories, and is moved by a letter from his wife expressing a desire to reunite.
Chapter 4
II: St. Louis Leads Me to Orfila
The narrator continues chemical experiments through winter, isolates himself, and reluctantly socializes with a bohemian artist circle. He becomes convinced of an invisible guiding hand, comparing it to Socrates' demon. A spring morning walk leads to a series of signs: a dyer's shield with his initials and a rainbow, then a book by Orfila confirming his hypothesis about sulphur's composition. He gains access to the Sorbonne laboratory, discovers sulphur is a compound of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and later finds monuments to Orfila, whom he regards as a protector.
Chapter 5
III: Paradise Regained
Strindberg recounts the summer and autumn of 1895 as among the happiest of his life, marked by successful experiments, unexpected provisions, and a growing but formless religious sensibility. He describes his isolation in Paris, his visits to the dead and to gardens, and his rejection of worldly pleasures. He reflects on the bankruptcy of science debate, his own scientific revisions, and the composition of Sylva Sylvarum and Churchyard Studies, which trace his return to a tentative belief in God and immortality.

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Epigraph

The Inferno

I: The Hand of the Invisible

II: St. Louis Leads Me to Orfila

III: Paradise Regained