Whew! I finished! I was warned not to by my fellow book club members, who in turns said reading this novel, densely packed with historic and antiquated literary references, was like “taking vitamins” or “a reading assignment for college,” rather than a fun chick book club read; and who either quit reading it after a few chapters, or skipped to the end so they could discuss it last Wednesday night, or never picked it up to begin with. But as I have a contrary nature, all that bad press just... (show more)

Whew! I finished! I was warned not to by my fellow book club members, who in turns said reading this novel, densely packed with historic and antiquated literary references, was like “taking vitamins” or “a reading assignment for college,” rather than a fun chick book club read; and who either quit reading it after a few chapters, or skipped to the end so they could discuss it last Wednesday night, or never picked it up to begin with. But as I have a contrary nature, all that bad press just made me want to finish the book anyway, just to prove I could. At first, I was disgruntled that every single character was a middle-aged, bearded poet or publisher—not at all your typical, dashing, swashbuckling hero of modern novels—whose literary pursuits and Hawthornesque dialogue made for an appalling slow pace; but then the first hideous murder was discovered, with lots of vivid colorful details to capture my morbid interest just in time to keep plodding on. When I made it to about page 90, I was hooked, and by the end of this book, I felt every one of these eccentric, moody, intriguing men were dear old friends with whom I had been through a traumatic adventure together. I was proud of them all (hope that doesn’t give too much away), as well as myself when I made it, coughing and wheezing, to the last page. The plot cleverly paralleled Dante’s Divine Comedy, which their club was translating from Italian for the Americans for the first time in turbulent post-Civil-War Boston, pulled me along to what became a typically satisfying murder mystery, but dressed up with nice, big words. My favorite: elegiac. (show less)

I just finished reading this book about five minutes ago so the book is still so fresh in my mind. I have to say that Matthew Pearl's debut novel is unbelievably good but I also understand why there are people out there who don't like it in the first place. First off, this novel is not a minimalist novel which is very popular with many readers here in the United States. Settings, characters, and even the plot are explained in full and intricate detail that many of the paragraphs could be just... (show more)

I just finished reading this book about five minutes ago so the book is still so fresh in my mind. I have to say that Matthew Pearl's debut novel is unbelievably good but I also understand why there are people out there who don't like it in the first place. First off, this novel is not a minimalist novel which is very popular with many readers here in the United States. Settings, characters, and even the plot are explained in full and intricate detail that many of the paragraphs could be just the description of the setting itself. The second part on why this novel may not be so popular is the straying away from minimalist writing. The vocabulary is so sophisticated and how it is worded is so Neo-Old English that many people would be turned off. However for me, I have no specialization so I love every book I read - even if it may take me awhile to finish due to cliffnotes or recommendations or something within the plot that makes me reread a book that came prior to the book I am reading. ("A Lion Among Men" made me reread "Wicked" and "Son of a Witch" for example).

The characters themselves are quite entertaining and Pearl does a great job giving them different personalities. Also, I like how the crime solving part comes into part that the main characters are solving to what they know based on their expertise instead of all of sudden learning how to be great detectives. Since murders are done by parallel of the scenese in Dante's Inferno, the main characters are constantly going back to Dante's Inferno to learn more and more about the murders and eventually the killer.

I would suggest this novel to those who have a more sophisticated - either extroverted or introverted sophistication - style or appetite towards literature. This was such a wonderful read and I finished this novel in about two weeks at tops which is quick for the size of the novel as well as the size of its text. I also recommend this book to those who love a good crime novel as well as those who respect the mastery of "La Divina Commedia" by Dante. (show less)

Being a lover of Dante, this book drew me merely with its title. Plus, I haven't had a real good literary murder mystery in a while and it seemed like a good read. Set in Boston in 1865, a group of literary giants has taken it upon themselves to translate The Divine Comedy in to American English for the first time. The Dante Club includes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, J.T. Fields (a publisher), James Russell Lowell, and George Washington Greene. They are meeting w... (show more)

Being a lover of Dante, this book drew me merely with its title. Plus, I haven't had a real good literary murder mystery in a while and it seemed like a good read. Set in Boston in 1865, a group of literary giants has taken it upon themselves to translate The Divine Comedy in to American English for the first time. The Dante Club includes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, J.T. Fields (a publisher), James Russell Lowell, and George Washington Greene. They are meeting with considerable consternation and opposition - mainly from the halls of Harvard, still a religious school at this point and vehemently against anything Catholic. As they begin to translate the third book - Inferno - two prominent men in Boston are murdered horrifically and violently, and in ways which mirror the torments for specific sins in Dante's nine circles of hell. The city's first black police officer, Nicholas Rey, is assigned to assist the chief of police in these cases and holds a key piece of evidence with no frame of reference. The Dante Club takes it upon themselves to help the police as much as possible without becoming formally involved for fear of having Dante banned by Harvard. As they do their best to catch the murderer before the police, they throw themselves and their loved ones ever deeper into harm's way.

Now, going into this book, I expected several murders but I did not expect them to be so graphic and explained in such detail. I'm not sure why it surprised me, considering how terrible the torments in the Inferno are. It did take me aback, and force me to read the book slower than I normally do - bits and pieces at a time so that I didn't get too freaked out before bed or too grossed out to go on at all. This mystery novel dances along the line of being just a little too much for me. As for the mystery part - I'm usually pretty good at figuring out whodunit, but this one had me totally stumped. Which is a good thing, right? My only other complaint is that some of the characters were so similar that I began to get them confused with others, but that might be my own fault as opposed to the author's.

If you are a big Dante fan and a big mystery fan, this might be a good book for you to check out. Just be forewarned that when the author says brutal murders, he means brutal. And described fully. But overall a great book. (show less)

I think it is pretty fun to read about historical figures and events in a context outside of a textbook. I enjoyed reading the book and was partial to the Boston setting since I grew up around there. The murder plot was well written but I think the author tried to make a couple of points about society during the time period that weren't really clear; the uptick in violence after the end of the Civil War and a city dealing with the black man's changing place in society. The copy I read had ... (show more)

I think it is pretty fun to read about historical figures and events in a context outside of a textbook. I enjoyed reading the book and was partial to the Boston setting since I grew up around there. The murder plot was well written but I think the author tried to make a couple of points about society during the time period that weren't really clear; the uptick in violence after the end of the Civil War and a city dealing with the black man's changing place in society. The copy I read had an interview with the author at the end that explains this but otherwise I wouldn't have picked it out. I think he could have developed the charachter of Officer Rey and included him more in the story instead of just using him when necessary to drive the plot forward. Other than that, it's easy to read, even if you don't have a vast knowledge of the time period or the famous poets. (show less)

Well two or three years ago I purchased both the Poe Shadown and the Dante Club at the same time. I had heard good things about both and mixing fiction with literary history seemed intriguing to me.

I read the Poe Shadow first because Edgar Allen Poe is my favourite poet and also one of my favourite "old" authors.

The book was boring beyond all belief, and so it has taken me this long to work up to reading this one.

On the bright side this book is more interesting than the... (show more)

Well two or three years ago I purchased both the Poe Shadown and the Dante Club at the same time. I had heard good things about both and mixing fiction with literary history seemed intriguing to me.

I read the Poe Shadow first because Edgar Allen Poe is my favourite poet and also one of my favourite "old" authors.

The book was boring beyond all belief, and so it has taken me this long to work up to reading this one.

On the bright side this book is more interesting than the other, on the down side it is still largely boring.

I did like that the author did not fall in the trap of making all of the characters similar, each had their own personality.

I also appreciate the author's apparent respect for Dante Divine Comedy itself, even if my read through the Inferno didn't glean such profound thoughts as the author attributes to it.

In fact the most interesting thing about this book is that it makes me want to reread Inferno and move on to the other books.

That being said the story in this one is not particularly clever, or entertaining.

I do not think I will be returning to a Matthew Pearl books in the future. (show less)

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... (show more)

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. (show less)

I liked it but didn't love it. I kept wondering throughout that if I had read Dante's Divine Comedy would I understand or like it better. I wouldn't say you need to read it (Comedy) as I followed the book just fine I just wondered if things would flow better.
All in all, it was a slow read for me, I had to semi-make myself finish it but it was good - there were some sections that I felt had no need to be in there and wondered why they were - they didn't add or take away from the story.
I li... (show more)

I liked it but didn't love it. I kept wondering throughout that if I had read Dante's Divine Comedy would I understand or like it better. I wouldn't say you need to read it (Comedy) as I followed the book just fine I just wondered if things would flow better.
All in all, it was a slow read for me, I had to semi-make myself finish it but it was good - there were some sections that I felt had no need to be in there and wondered why they were - they didn't add or take away from the story.
I like the mystery and didn't catch on to the killer til they revealed him/her.
I was kinda hoping they would tie up the whole Holmes and Holmes Jr. thing but he kind of left that open. I guess I wanted a happy ending with them, I don't know.
In the end I did enjoy it but not enough to run out to buy his other books anytime soon. (show less)

The storyline of THE DANTE CLUB is very interesting - real historical figures of 1865 Boston work together to solve a fictional string of gruesome murders - and the author does a nice job of crafting a story that allows him to include at least a high-level discussion of Dante and his Inferno. Unfortunately, the plot seems forced at times and the language is often quite stilted. It may very well be that this is how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes would actually have conv... (show more)

The storyline of THE DANTE CLUB is very interesting - real historical figures of 1865 Boston work together to solve a fictional string of gruesome murders - and the author does a nice job of crafting a story that allows him to include at least a high-level discussion of Dante and his Inferno. Unfortunately, the plot seems forced at times and the language is often quite stilted. It may very well be that this is how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes would actually have conversed, but it does not lend itself to an easy read. The novel also starts out quite slowly as Pearl establishes the setting and the characters. It is not until about 55 pages in that you feel the pace starts to pick up a bit.

Nevertheless, the story is quite compelling, and you find yourself eager to plow through the flowery prose to see where it will lead. The descriptions of 1865 Boston and its denizens are quite detailed and the author provides at least a glimpse of such a wide array of characters that you have no shortage of potential suspects to consider, but try as I might I could not find any characters with whom I could really identify.

I am a fan of both American history and of murder mysteries, If this describes you as well, then you will probably enjoy The Dante Club, as I did. However, I can give it only a tepid recommendation. (show less)

[insert non-spoiling summary of the book here... also know as "go read that part on Wikipedia"]

Having said that, I think I enjoyed this book. In fact, the more days that pass between when I finished it, and when I think about it, the unfavorable parts of the books are easily forgotten, and the twisted story is certainly still stuck on my mind. I remember the pace of the book being very jerky. There would be a few chapters of an intense pace that I would breeze right through, ... (show more)

[insert non-spoiling summary of the book here... also know as "go read that part on Wikipedia"]

Having said that, I think I enjoyed this book. In fact, the more days that pass between when I finished it, and when I think about it, the unfavorable parts of the books are easily forgotten, and the twisted story is certainly still stuck on my mind. I remember the pace of the book being very jerky. There would be a few chapters of an intense pace that I would breeze right through, because I couldn't put the book down. Then there would be a few chapters that were difficult to get through.
I go back and forth on the ending. At times, I think it was really well done, but other times, I think it was more of a thing random pulled out of thin air when the author realized he had to actually finish the book.
I noticed others had problems with the gore... whatever. If you can read an anatomy book, you can read this. It's certainly something I could see them turning into a movie; and if they did, it would be about as "gross" as Se7en. (show less)