Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Signet, $6). The first book in Dante's Divine Comedy can be characterized, in the most universal terms, as a forewarning in every age for the collective human consciousness.Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (Oxford, $10). Don Quixote is another universal story, because it contrasts the life we live with the one we erroneously dream we are living.Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (Vintage, $16).