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The Dante Club: A Novel
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Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Author: Matthew Pearl
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Author: Matthew Pearl
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Average Customer Rating:
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The Dante Club: A Novel Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345490384
ISBN: 034549038X
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2006-06-27
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product Release Date: 2006-06-27
Studio: Ballantine Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345490384
ISBN: 034549038X
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2006-06-27
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product Release Date: 2006-06-27
Studio: Ballantine Books
Editorial Review of The Dante Club: A Novel
The New York Times Bestseller
Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante’s Inferno. Only an elite group of America’s first Dante scholars—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields—can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante’s literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante’s Inferno. Only an elite group of America’s first Dante scholars—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields—can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante’s literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews of The Dante Club: A Novel
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Spectacular Mystery
Review: Three unlikely sleuths, the real-life poets Lowell, Holmes, and Longfellow, investigate a series of brilliant murders inspired by Dante's Inferno, which is at the present of the story being translated to English by Longfellow himself So this means the murderer is amongst them somehow. A sheer work of brilliance set in post-Civil War times making for one fantastically enjoyable read. Highly recommended for all detective thriller fans.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: So-so murder mystery
Review: No spoilers
The Dante Club is basically the definition of a so-so murder mystery. Basically, the foremost experts in the study of Dante's Divine Comedy work together to try to stop a murder who punishes his victims in real life, the same way Dante punishes sinners in his poem. The problem with this book is that it does absolutely nothing to stand out from any other murder mystery. While reading this, I found myself reading just for the sake of getting to the end, and not because I really cared about any of the characters, what happened to them, or who the killer was and why he was doing what he was doing. Although I can't say that I was actually bored at any point in this reading, I can say that I just wasn't particularly interested either.
The bottom line is that this book can be skipped over. Furthermore, if you like the premise of this book (Dante's poem being invoked for murder and using it to figure clues out) I HIGHLY recommend The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi. You can check out my review of it for more details, but think how Dan Brown used da Vinci's works to get clues behind something major, and that's what Asensi does with Dante. It's one of my favorite books of the genre, and I suggest checking it out over The Dante Club anyday.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Poet's step is quiet and solemn
Review: Matthew Pearl's 'The Dante Club' is an enthralling and entertaining piece of literature. Set in nineteenth century Boston, readers are immediately introduced to such famous literary figures as Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and George Washington Greene. Readers are also introduced to murder most foul as one of their contemporaries is found on his own property, stripped bare, with a fatal head wound, and a black flag marking the spot where he lay as the very life seeped from his body.
The celebrated poets/historians who are the protagonists of this work busy themselves with a weekly meeting of their 'Dante Club' as Longfellow works to complete the first American translation of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. As bodies beging to pile up around them, the men discover that the murderer, their 'Lucifer', patterns his kills after the words of Dante himself in the Divine Comedy. Once this is realized, the men know that they must work to unmask the killer before he strikes again. But as they investigate the work of this fiend, they discover that, somehow, he is always one step ahead of them.....committing another murder in the style of the Dante Canto they intend to work on at their next meeting of the Dante Club.
Full of historical detail and period manners, author Matthew Pearl certainly earned his keep in presenting a thrilling, well paced and plotted novel that brings to life not only some of the most famous literary minds of nineteenth century Boston, but their surroundings and daily lives as well. Pearl has crafted a dark, sinister tale of murder and mystery to ensnare readers as much as it ensnared the men investigating the crime.
Not to be passed up by readers who truly enjoy well-written historical mysteries and dark tales of even darker deeds. A fantastic find, and a work that I will most definitely recommend to others.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not great but not terrible
Review: This is the author's first novel and it shows. He's a little too impressed with himself and that shows too, making it hard to take the narrative seriously at times. The murders were horrifyingly disgusting which is good or bad depending on your tastes (I liked it). This is a hard book to get into but it is fairly entertaining if you're not expecting too much. Coincidences abound. The solution made me think, "Wait, what? Really? That person? Well alright. I guess I can go with that." If you have a long commute it's good for passing the time. I basically enjoyed it once I put all the rave reviews out of my head.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A great idea that loses momentum
Review: For a popular fiction novel, it was quite good. At the beginning, I was really into the mystery and tried to solve it along with the heroes of the story.
The idea of having a killer copy Dante was intriguing, and the scenes where the bodies are found are full of detail and gruesome to imagine. I also liked the idea of having four of America's literary giants try and solve a mystery.
After a while, the story got kind of boring and I wanted it to be over. I kept reading because I wanted to know who the killer was. The killer was not at all who I suspected.
I thought some moments in the story unbelievable. Why would the rest of the Dante Club keep secrets from G.W. Greene, if only for the convenience of suspense?
So, the book loses momentum after the novelty of the situation wears off. Casual readers may enjoy this book, but I can't imagine true bibliophiles (especially fans of the Boston Brahmins) liking it.
Review Summary: Spectacular Mystery
Review: Three unlikely sleuths, the real-life poets Lowell, Holmes, and Longfellow, investigate a series of brilliant murders inspired by Dante's Inferno, which is at the present of the story being translated to English by Longfellow himself So this means the murderer is amongst them somehow. A sheer work of brilliance set in post-Civil War times making for one fantastically enjoyable read. Highly recommended for all detective thriller fans.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: So-so murder mystery
Review: No spoilers
The Dante Club is basically the definition of a so-so murder mystery. Basically, the foremost experts in the study of Dante's Divine Comedy work together to try to stop a murder who punishes his victims in real life, the same way Dante punishes sinners in his poem. The problem with this book is that it does absolutely nothing to stand out from any other murder mystery. While reading this, I found myself reading just for the sake of getting to the end, and not because I really cared about any of the characters, what happened to them, or who the killer was and why he was doing what he was doing. Although I can't say that I was actually bored at any point in this reading, I can say that I just wasn't particularly interested either.
The bottom line is that this book can be skipped over. Furthermore, if you like the premise of this book (Dante's poem being invoked for murder and using it to figure clues out) I HIGHLY recommend The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi. You can check out my review of it for more details, but think how Dan Brown used da Vinci's works to get clues behind something major, and that's what Asensi does with Dante. It's one of my favorite books of the genre, and I suggest checking it out over The Dante Club anyday.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Poet's step is quiet and solemn
Review: Matthew Pearl's 'The Dante Club' is an enthralling and entertaining piece of literature. Set in nineteenth century Boston, readers are immediately introduced to such famous literary figures as Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and George Washington Greene. Readers are also introduced to murder most foul as one of their contemporaries is found on his own property, stripped bare, with a fatal head wound, and a black flag marking the spot where he lay as the very life seeped from his body.
The celebrated poets/historians who are the protagonists of this work busy themselves with a weekly meeting of their 'Dante Club' as Longfellow works to complete the first American translation of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. As bodies beging to pile up around them, the men discover that the murderer, their 'Lucifer', patterns his kills after the words of Dante himself in the Divine Comedy. Once this is realized, the men know that they must work to unmask the killer before he strikes again. But as they investigate the work of this fiend, they discover that, somehow, he is always one step ahead of them.....committing another murder in the style of the Dante Canto they intend to work on at their next meeting of the Dante Club.
Full of historical detail and period manners, author Matthew Pearl certainly earned his keep in presenting a thrilling, well paced and plotted novel that brings to life not only some of the most famous literary minds of nineteenth century Boston, but their surroundings and daily lives as well. Pearl has crafted a dark, sinister tale of murder and mystery to ensnare readers as much as it ensnared the men investigating the crime.
Not to be passed up by readers who truly enjoy well-written historical mysteries and dark tales of even darker deeds. A fantastic find, and a work that I will most definitely recommend to others.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not great but not terrible
Review: This is the author's first novel and it shows. He's a little too impressed with himself and that shows too, making it hard to take the narrative seriously at times. The murders were horrifyingly disgusting which is good or bad depending on your tastes (I liked it). This is a hard book to get into but it is fairly entertaining if you're not expecting too much. Coincidences abound. The solution made me think, "Wait, what? Really? That person? Well alright. I guess I can go with that." If you have a long commute it's good for passing the time. I basically enjoyed it once I put all the rave reviews out of my head.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A great idea that loses momentum
Review: For a popular fiction novel, it was quite good. At the beginning, I was really into the mystery and tried to solve it along with the heroes of the story.
The idea of having a killer copy Dante was intriguing, and the scenes where the bodies are found are full of detail and gruesome to imagine. I also liked the idea of having four of America's literary giants try and solve a mystery.
After a while, the story got kind of boring and I wanted it to be over. I kept reading because I wanted to know who the killer was. The killer was not at all who I suspected.
I thought some moments in the story unbelievable. Why would the rest of the Dante Club keep secrets from G.W. Greene, if only for the convenience of suspense?
So, the book loses momentum after the novelty of the situation wears off. Casual readers may enjoy this book, but I can't imagine true bibliophiles (especially fans of the Boston Brahmins) liking it.