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The Dante Club | 
 enlarge | Author: Matthew Pearl
Creator: C. Lewis Watkins
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: £12.70
Buy Used: £0.33
You Save: £12.37 (97%)
Used (14) Collectible (3) from £0.33
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 606370
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0375505296
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780375505294
ASIN: 0375505296
Publication Date: February 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Mmm...could have been better April 30, 2008
The basic premise of this book was excellent and had the makings of a really good read. However, I was quite disappointed with the finished result. It was quite frustrating because it was simply too long and bogged down with unnecessary prose. Although I am a fan of thrillers and have read my fair share of grisly murders, these bordered on the grotesque but I guess were a good reflection of the author's interpretation of Dante's original verse. It was obvious throughout that the author thoroughly knew his subject and wrote with an eloquence that reflects his scholarly ability. That said however, this book at times bordered on the dull and lulled me into such a torpor that by the time the murderer was revealed I really wasn't that interested anymore. I'm unlikely to read anything else by Pearl for these reasons.
The amateur detective society translates Dante October 5, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's 1865, the Civil War has just ended, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the other members of the Dante Club are translating Dante's "Divine Comedy" for the 600th anniversary of Dante's birth. When a pair of murders occur that seem to take their inspiration from the tortures in "Inferno", the Dante Club decides to investigate. What is revealed is that 19th century poets make poor detectives and boring characters. Longfellow is treated liked some kind of poet-god, Holmes is a whiny little bore, and Lowell and Fields are interchangeably nondescript. In fact, none of the key characters other than Oliver Wendell Holmes are developed very much and Holmes is not an especially likable person.
Although using historical figures in a mystery can be interesting, the problem is that since we know that none of the members of the Dante Club were murdered by a serial killer in 1865, it's hard to create much sense of danger. Normally, an author will add additional fictional characters, make us care about them, and then put them in danger so that only the heroes of the story can save them. But Pearl doesn't go this route, instead putting his main characters at risk but this doesn't create any real tension. In fact, Pearl seems to realize this so the danger he places his characters in is quickly dispelled. The book starts off fairly well for the first chapter but then drags as Pearl introduces the Dante Club. A big problem is the dialog. Here is a random sample:
*Lowell mumbled, "Did not Dante himself once write that no poetry can be translated? Yet we come together weekly and gleefully murder his words." "Lowell, peace," gasped Fields...*
Perhaps Boston poets did speak this way in the 1860's but it makes for tedious reading. In the acknowledgments, Pearl reveals that much of the dialog is taken from essays written by the various members of the Dante Club. Since people don't speak the same way that they write, perhaps this is the source of Pearl's problem. After struggling through the first hundred pages, the book finally starts to move as the mystery deepens and our heroes start their investigation. But the story quickly begins to drag again as the "detectives" reveal their incompetence.
Which leads us to the denouement of the story in which all is not revealed. The holes in the solution to the mystery are vast and the "detectives" make no effort to fill them. So the story seems mostly an excuse to discuss some issues with the translation of Dante. The murders are brutal but poorly described. Boston of 1865 could have been an interesting character (as New York City is in "Ragtime" and "The Alienist: A Novel") but instead Boston is barely described. In fact this is the key to the book's failures... Pearl isn't a very good descriptive writer which is critical in fiction but especially in a mystery.
I should add that the book has a foreword which gives away a key plot point (one of the few of interest in the first part of the book). Skip the foreword and return to it later... you'll thank me.
 Sometimes less is more March 13, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The author undoubtedly knows his stuff when it comes to 19th century American history, not to mention his Dante and the concept of the story, which has already been outlined in previous reviews, is a promising one. I feel though that the author is perhaps too eager to show just how much research has been done and too much time and effort is spent on unecessary narrative and developing unecessary characters. I feel that you could easily lose a sizable proportion of this book without harming the overall storyline. These diversions, for me, drag on the main story and detract from what could otherwise have been an excellent read.
 "I do not profess to understand this strange pattern, but we cannot escape its implication" December 17, 2006
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
"The Dante Club", Matthew Pearl's first novel, is the kind of book that manages to combine suspense, history and literature successfully, engaging the reader and making him care about what is going to happen next.
The story takes place in 1865 Boston, where a group of friends that include poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writer and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes and poet James Russell Lowell, among others, decide to form a Dante Club in order to produce an English translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy". Many people are against this endeavour, as they believe Dante's "Divine Comedy" to be dangerous reading material, but our academics are steadfast in their devotion to Dante. However, they begin to get nervous when a madman that seems to be delivering the punishments Dante Alighieri talks about in his "Inferno" (= "Hell", one of the three books in which the "Divine Comedy" is divided) starts killing people in Boston. Trying to avoid a death blow to Dante's reputation even before the American public can read his translated works, the members of the Dante Club decide to catch the killer by themselves. That is easier said than done, but makes for a very entertaining book.
From my point of view, "The Dante Club" is a perfect choice for Dante's fans, but also for those that just want to buy something interesting to read in their spare time. If you already love Dante, you will enjoy the way in which Matthew Pearl makes the "Divine Comedy" an integral part of this book; if you are new to Dante's works, you will learn about him and his books at the same time you read an original whodunit. In any case, you are highly likely to love "The Dante Club". Of course, recommended!
Belen Alcat
Needs some perseverance but eventually pays off December 1, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is the first book I have read by this author. I was attracted to the book as I did not know much about Dante. I was impressed with the author's CV and thought that the book may be a worthy introduction. The setting of Boston in the late 1880s was also attractive but, again, I knew little of the poets of that time.
Unfortunately the start of the book reads more like a whos who for poets. I was increasingly frustrated and confused with the number of characters who had 3 names. Not only that - to add to confusion 2 of the leading protagonists wives were called Fanny! Maybe if I had been more aware of the poets of this time this would have been less of a problem.
I felt that it took well into the second section of the book until I could feel substance and warmth from these characters. It was also then that the plot started to take off. When this did the book got exciting!
However - despite the long start and introduction, I thought that the end was rushed. Much more could have been made of the climax I had long been waiting for. It felt like Mr. Pearl had got fed up!
Nevertheless - I did like this book. I now feel educated about the period and the poets of that time. It was a well written book. I was able to put myself at that place and time in my head and even at some points feel the penetrating cold of a Boston winter in which a Lucifer is abode.
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