Product Description

It is Boston in the year 1865. A small group of elite scholars prepares to introduce Dante's vision of hell to America. But so does a murderer. The literary geniuses of the Dante Club - poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and publisher J. T. Fields - are finishing America's first translation of "The Divine Comedy". The powerful old guard of Harvard College wants to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of such foreign superstitions will prove as corrupting as the immigrants invading Boston Harbor. The members of the Dante Club fight to keep their sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realises that the gruesome killings are modelled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno. With the police baffled, lives endangered and Dante's literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find a way to stop the killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75069 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

The Advertiser, March 13, 2004
"If you liked The Name of the Rose, The Dante Club is your book... In a word: unputdownable."

Times Literary Supplement, January 30, 2004
"Pearl's scholarly background is evident in the erudite detail he weaves into his fictional narrative, adding texture and complexity"

The Observer, December 21, 2003
"The momentum of his plot is irresistible... a most inventive page-turner."

Customer Reviews

"I do not profess to understand this strange pattern, but we cannot escape its implication"
"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

The Dante Club - Astonishing
Every once in a while a novel comes along and is simply stunning in every way. The last novel I was this excited about was Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and in my opinion this novel is just as good as. For those of you like me who knew nothing (and I mean nothing) about Dante, this novel offers a fascinating introduction of Dante and his work. Think of the combination, we have Dante, an insightful look into 19th Century history, a setting in smouldering Boston that you can almost smell, a killer on the loose more sadistic than any other indiviudal I have come across in print, a group of unlikely heroes using 19th century detective work, and you have a mix that is simply unbeatable. I simply could not put this book down. I read it waiting for public transport, travelling on public transport, getting off public transport, walking to and from work, and last thing at night. Give it a try, you'll have bitten every fingernail off, by the time you get to the last chapter.

The Dante Club
This book probably falls into the category of a thriller, but it is oh so much more. It is literate and poetic, but in a dynamic way. There are threads of poetry running from Dante to Longfellow and his friends who are some of the greatest minds of their day.

They are the most unlikely of heroes, but I loved their characters. They may be getting on a bit in years, but they are clever, brave and resourcful in tracking down the fiend who murders his victims using methods of punishment taken from Dante's inferno. These are also people who have a great friendship and affection for each other and you feel part of that circle of friends.

I had many theories as to the identity of the murderer, but I truly didn't guess who it was until the exciting climax of the book.

I did not want the book to end and I have been making up for that by reading poems by Longfellow that I had forgotten that I knew. These include his wonderful translation of the Divine Comedy.