Dante’s Inferno is a 14th-century poem by Italian writer Dante Alighieri. It is the first part of the three-part epic poem, Divine Comedy. Inferno follows Dante as he becomes lost in the woods and is rescued by the ghost of the Roman poet Virgil. Virgil leads Dante through hell in an allegory for the human soul’s journey through the temptations of sin. Dante divides hell into nine rings. The closer Dante travels to the central ring, the greater the sins of the residents he encounters. The innermost ninth circle is for treacherous sinners, people who betrayed family, community, or their lords. Dante’s Inferno is an important work in Western literature as the poem is frequently cited, used as inspiration, or reimagined. Camus sets his story in Amsterdam so he can invoke the rings of Dante’s hell through Amsterdam’s ring-like canals. Clamence declares that he, his friend, and Mexico City are in the “last circle” named Cocytus (14). Camus situates his novel in the ninth circle of hell to complicate Europe’s history and Clamence’s story.

Amsterdam’s wealth was directly built on profits from the slave trade between the 17th and early 19th centuries. When the Dutch government outlawed the practice in 1814, the city declined.