The Dante Club: A Novel

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It's a hit!

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 anti... (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)

 

 

by Adriane Collier DeVries

No, it's a flop!

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 fic... (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)

 

 

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  A complex novel of nineteenth century literary Boston. The interweaving of Dante's Divine Comedy into a serial killer thriller is ingenious but the premise involves extensive exposition by conversation. I found this sense of overhearing the story to be rather distancing. So, although I was interested, I will not be reading Pearl's other novel.

   

  by Theo Clarke on Aug 03, 2007 at 10:36PM

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  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)

   

   

  by Jan-Michael Turla on Dec 04, 2009 at 03:48AM

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