The Dante Club is an engrossing, intellectual murder mystery, complicated in its plot, with a surprising ending. Lovers of Dante will enjoy the discussions of his work and it's applications in the story. It's not a 'brainless' read, readers must pay attention, but it's well the effort.

Substance: Bending the facts about an historical curiosity to create a murder mystery, Pearl concocts a conspiracy around H. W. Longfellow's translation of The Divine Comedy, aided by O. W. Holmes, J. R. Lowell, J. t. Fields, and G. W. Greene. (So far have only finished Part I.)
Style: Muddy and pretentious, repetitive, and boring. ( )

Read: August 21-31, 2009

*******SPOILERS************

Synopsis: In 1865 Boston, a judge is found behind his house covered in blood, maggots, and blowflies. Shortly after, a reverend is found deep in underground tunnels beneath the church. He is buried head first, his feet on flames. African American patrolman and the Boston police are stumped.

An elite club of Harvard scholars and literary celebrities believes it must solve the murders in order to protect its namesake. The Dante club includes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields, who spend their time translating Dante's Inferno from Itallian. They fear that if the public makes a connection between the murders and Dante, that their project and Dante will be shunned and banned from Boston. They set out to find the murderer.

Pros & Cons: The first 100 pages or so were extremely slow and wordy. I enjoy reading a variety of genres and styles, but even I found it difficult to comprehend what was happening. I felt like a needed to be sitting in an ivy league library smoking a pipe and drinking scotch or whisky. The book finally became interesting once the club began to try to solve the mystery. The action and suspense were well written, and the descriptions of Dante and the murders were graphic. It was interesting to have such literary stars as the main characters. As intelligent and thought out as the beginning was, the ending falls short. The premise is good, but it feels quickly wrapped up. I feel like the solution to the mystery is perfect, just poorly written, and not along the lines with the rest of the book. ( )

Seems like I've been wanting to read this one for a LONG time & was finally able to get to it on audio. I'd heard so many raves about it, but I felt let down. I thought it was just "okay". As sick as it sounds, I really liked the descriptions of the murders the most & almost wished there were more of them in the story due to the uniqueness of each one. But ultimately, I found the story too drawn out and for some reason had a lot of trouble keeping the characters straight, despite the fact that they were almost all well-know writers, poets, publishers, etc. That may have been due in part because of the audio format, but perhaps also due to my ignorance in previous knowledge of these characters. Maybe...or maybe not. This is one instance where I think I may have gotten more out of an abridged edition, as I thought this story just dragged on a little too long. ( )

There really was a Dante Club, with many of Bosotn's 19th-century literary élite, that worked with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on his translation of the Divine Comedy.

In Pearl's mystery, which ranges throughout Boston and Cambridge, the Club tries to solve the murders of various Boston brahmins, murders that are very specifically, and down to the last detail, replications of the punishments of sinners described by Dante in The Inferno.

The solution is not satisfactory - it's complicated and quite a stretch - and I'm not terribly fond of books that attempt to place historical characters out of their milieu. That said, however, Pearl does a decent job of evoking the atmosphere of Boston in 1865, particularly the "town and gown" conflicts and the aftermath of the Civil War. And certainly you will learn a great deal about Longfellow and the other members of the Dante Club, probably more than when you had to memorize their poetry in school (or am I dating myself? do you have to do that now?).

Niente di trascendentale ( )

Synopsis:

The Dante Club is a club of famous poets from Boston who are working together on the translation of Dante's "La Divina Commedia" from Italian to English, arousing controversy for its contents among the Harvard Corporation. Additionally, some odd murders are shaking the entire city, and the poets happen to notice certain parallelisms between Dante's Inferno and the killings.

Personal Opinion:

Set amidst the post American Civil War, this is a story where no marines, detectives or intelligence officers are trying to investigate some murders. Instead, a group of intellectuals from Boston, all of them past their forties, draw some similarities between the crimes committed in their city and the work they are currently translating to English.

Original as the plot is, the story does not fail to entertain the reader. It may be a little slow-paced, though, especially during the first hundred pages. Moreover, the characters, despite their dinstictive profile, are kind of blurry, to the extent that you can even confound them owing to their lack of depth. They seem to act as a whole being.

Nevertheless, the mistery is managed with care and somehow you can't help but keep on reading for you can't easily put down the book. From my point of view, The Dante Club is the classic thriller that entertains you without becoming more than just a pure entertainment. Since I regard thrillers as a good way to spend time, I would surely recommend this one to anyone looking for nice suspenseful stuff (knowing it's not a stunning read!), as it accomplishes its main aim. Henceforth: ( )

I loved this book, and bought it purely from reading the back of the jacket. I really enjoyed the way Pearl uses fact and then combines that with a great murder mystery, and I was even tempted to read Dante's 'Inferno' after finishing this book.
There are some really gruesome scenes, which just goes to show that even before the advent of film and tv, Dante was able to give readers of 'The Inferno' a pretty nasty vision of hell.
All in all a great read, kept me enthraled for hours (only took me a couple of days to read) and have read it again since, and will most probably do so again. ( )

I had high hopes for this novel, but ultimately it fell a little flat. I love historical fiction with real characters, and this one has literary figures Oliver Wendell Holmes, Longfellow, and others. The setting is Boston, and murders that copy punishments from Dante’s Inferno are occurring at the same time that Longfellow is translating the Inferno to English. The literary figures become reluctant detectives.

But I think the author has real problems with the omniscient narration. I am not an inexperienced reader, and I had difficulty following the thread of the narration at times, especially when exciting events were taking place. It is not always clear whose eyes we are viewing a scene through, or even what is actually happening.

It’s still an entertaining read though, and the literary allusions are very well done. ( )

Listened on audio. Good story with a mystery that keeps you going. Makes you want to learn more about Dante and Longfellow. ( )

Scary

I loved this book even though it grossed me out about every 30 pages. That says a lot! It is very well written and is a great mystery novel. ( )

Maybe it is because I am from the Boston area, enjoy history and love literature that I found this such an entertaining read. We see Boston and Cambridge circa 1865 and encounter such captivating characters as Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translating Dante’s Inferno and investigating the murders in the area that may well have something to do with their work. This novel gives us as a backdrop a Cambridge and Harvard who’s streets I have walked and the Longfellow homestead that I have visited. I was tickled as I not only recognized places, but recalled my readings of Dante. I enjoyed this book! I am currently waiting for a fellow moocher to send me "The Poe Shadow" I hope it's as fun as his other book. ( )

Exalting and uplifting, as well as depressing and gruesome at the same time... ( )

On the heels of the Civil War's end, a number of grisly murders begin occurring near Boston. These murders are not only shocking in their cruelty but also because the victims are chief citizens of the town (a judge, a minister, etc.) -- not the usual targets of miscreants. At the same time, some of the greatest literary minds of New England are working on the first American translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. When the members of the Dante Club look closer at the murders, they realize that the murders are copycats of the punishments seen in Dante's hell. They realize that they are the only ones who can find the murderer, and a race against the clock begins as they try to stop the murderer from striking again. On the plus side, this book contains lively characters engaged in an intriguing and suspenseful plot. On the down side, the narrative is gruesome in detail at times and very jumpy, which is sometimes simply jarring, other times a bit difficult to follow, and a few times feels like important details were left out. However, as I mentioned above, the suspense will keep you turning the page, waiting to see what will happen next, and trying to figure out the mystery along with the Dante club. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. I had not heard much about the book, but picked it up while browsing in a bookstore near Harvard. It looked suitable enough given the circumstance, so I picked it up. The book presents an interesting mystery, but the circumstances surrounding the mystery were what I really enjoyed -- the Holmes/Lowell/Longfellow group parsing through Dante's Inferno. The author does a fine job describing the nineteenth century setting. It has been several years since I read the book, and I would place it on a list of books to possibly read again. ( )

Good book, with the culprit being unexpected and doing things for unexpected reasons.

Disappointing read: Like many of the other reviewers, I was intrigued by the premise of this book and so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Having read the book I now wish I hadn't bothered, as I found it hard-going from the start and the ending offered little in the way of reward. The book seems to be dragged down by a lot of unnecessary detail about the members' of the Dante Club personal lives - which I didn't feel added anything to the novel.
On the positive side, I did find the descriptions of life as a soldier in the Civil War (which is relayed towards the end of the novel) interesting, but still not enough to redeem the rest of the book, hence the '**' rating. ( )

When I picked this up, I reasoned that it would either be like The Alienist, which I really liked, or like The Da Vinci Code, in which case it would be hilarious. Alas, it was neither, and it turns out that what lies between those two extremes is seriously boring. Much better written than TDVC, but Pearl has no gift for making characters' passions compelling: none of the endless talk about Dante makes Dante seem interesting or appealing, or even makes the reader understand why the characters are so interested and obsessed. And all the characters speak with exactly the same voice, so that I kept losing track of who was present in any given scene, because the dialogue is exactly the same whether it is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a black policeman, or a drunk Italian. Perhaps his second book is more mature. I will not be finding out.

Who would have thought that a poet (Dante) could ignite such passions in 19th century Boston? This is a clever thriller/historical novel that casts poets such as Longfellow and Lowell as hero crime fighters. While the Dante inspired murders are a bit gruesome, the cleverness of the tale holds your attention. ( )

This is a high concept mystery novel in which the great literary figures of Civil War era Boston attempting to translate Dante for an American audience are forced to solve the Dantean murders of high-profile Bostonians. A weakness of this book is how every character – good and evil – uniformly shares the author’s obsession for Dante. The book seems to be a bit worshipful of Longfellow, although that may be true to the times (as opposed to now when Longfellow may be recognized as a crappy poet). The other characters are very well developed, especially the black police officer Rey. Other than that the details are great capturing the time and the characters well (although I don’t know enough of the history of the time to accurately separate fact from fiction). Pearl builds up the suspense well and teaches a lot about Dante, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Fields, Greene, and post Civil War Boston. I liked it a lot.

“He told me that when a Boston man reaches the pearly gates, an angel comes out to warn him: ‘You won’t like it here, for it is not Boston.’” (p. 50) ( )

I really enjoy Mathew Pearl's writting however there is something about this book that makes it extremely difficult to get through the first few chapters. To be honest I had to put the book down and away a few times. It became a bit of a fight to get through the beginning

This was an immensely satisfying, if at times gruesome, read. Pearl gives us a good look at historical Boston, Harvard, and some great literary figures of the day while also providing a mystery that also gives a fair “romp” through Dante’s Inferno. The Dante Club, centered on Longfellow when he was translating Dante as a way to cope with his wife’s death, was a fact and Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields, the publisher, were members of the club that met every Wednesday night to discuss the translation. The murders are fictional but the author says, “…they reflect a very real, new sense of violence that had to be confronted at all levels of American Culture [immediately following the Civil War, which is when the novel is set]. Nicholas Rey, as the first Afro-American policeman in Boston, is also fictional, but Pearl states that Rey’s situation comes from Pearl’s research into the historical circumstances of non-white police in the 19th century. This is a wonderful historical novel and may become a “classic.” Therefore, I listed it in “fiction” rather than “mysteries.” ( )

This is an intelligent thriller based on historical characters surrounding the translation of Dante's Inferno and a rash of fictional serial murders based on the nine levels of Hell. I really enjoyed the interlacing of the process of translation, politics associated with the translation and solving the murders. The story is well written with good character development and thorough, but not overwhelming description. ( )

mystery set in post-Civil War Boston with Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as the literary sleuths