This is an interesting humanities and arts book that uses the love of Paolo and Francesca in Dante's Inferno as a motif of impossible romantic love and interprets the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, and Chess and Beatrice through painting (Pre-Raphaelite, Symbolism, Victorian art), literature (medieval literature, bards, Romanticism), and music.
Now, let's briefly introduce the contents of each chapter.



Paolo and Francesca - Kiss

This chapter begins with Dante meeting Paolo and Francesca in the second circle of Hell and being so shocked by their passionate love story that he faints.
And the love story between Paolo and Francesca is told in an interesting way through pictures and medieval literature.
kiss.
What does a kiss mean to a lover?
The author finds the kissing scene in Galeotto's book to be the spark that leads to Paolo and Francesca's passionate love.
Lovers are stimulated by the sweet kisses of the male and female protagonists in the novel and unconsciously seek out each other's lips.
And they fell into an eternal love affair that lasted until hell.
In this way, the author unfolds the love story of lovers using the kiss that calls for love as the motif of this chapter.

Lancelot and Guinevere - Heroes

King Arthur is a name very familiar to us.
This chapter deals with the fiery love between Lancelot, a knight who swore loyalty to King Arthur, and Guinevere, Arthur's wife.
Just as Paolo and Francesca's love blossomed through a kiss, these lovers also share a kiss using a secret method suggested by Galeotto, Lancelot's friend who acted as a go-between for their love.
And he begins to cross the dangerous bridge of love with his other half.
As can be seen from the subtitle, 'Hero', the author has allowed us to look back on the medieval view of love through the knight Lancelot, who is called a hero in this chapter.
It also contains the story of Charlotte, another legendary woman who admired Lancelot and the love affair surrounding the jousting tournaments that were popular in the Middle Ages.
The story of the Holy Grail in the Bible symbolically portrays the human agony and pain of Lancelot, who rejected obedience to God, a symbol of morality, and ultimately chose love.

Tristan and Isolde - The Elixir of Love

Lancelot and Guinevere wasn't the only great romance of the Middle Ages.
The love story of Tristan and Isolde, which appears in this chapter, is just as heartbreaking and sorrowful.
Tristan and Isolde become enchanted with each other not by kissing, but by drinking a 'love potion'.
And it shows a strong and unbreakable love that ends when one person dies and the other person leaves this world.

This chapter introduces the medieval magic potion known as the "elixir of love," and explains how these elements of magic and sorcery capture the human instinct to dream of romantic love.
And the background of the emergence of the bard who sang of love and their role in medieval society are also introduced in an interesting way through Tristan.
In particular, this chapter well describes the eccentric love affairs of musicians Wagner and Mathilde, Pre-Raphaelite painters Rossetti and Jane, and Jane's husband William Morris, in addition to Tristan and Isolde.
Their love, which encompasses both spiritual and physical love, will move readers as deeply as the love of Tristan and Isolde.

Dante and Beatrice - The Crystallization of Love

Now the story returns to its origins, starting from Dante's .
What did his lover Beatrice mean to Dante?
How could I have been so unable to forget a woman and spent my entire life loving only her?
The author seeks the answer in Stendhal's 'The Determination of Love'.
In this way, Dante was able to obtain Beatrice, the object of his absolute love and the source of inspiration for art, by purifying his polluted soul through the 'crystallization of love'.
And by meeting Beatrice in Purgatory, one can achieve the consummation of absolute spiritual love.
Furthermore, in this chapter, the author explains the love between Dante and Beatrice by comparing it to that of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Rossetti and his model Elizabeth Siddal, showing in an interesting way that Dante and Rossetti idealized and deified their lovers through the crystallization of love. The author concludes the book by summarizing the meaning of romance and the value of love for modern people.