Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful if not flawless read
Review: The leading literary lights of 19th-century Boston (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the poet James Russell Lowell, their publisher Henry Fields, and the hanger-on George Washington Greene) must solve a series of murders in which the victims are punished in detail as though they were sinning denizen's of Dante's inferno.I thoroughly enjoyed this historical/literary novel wrapped around a set of gruesome, almost Hannibal-Lecter-like murders (a similar amount of gore but without the cannibalism!). Pearl does a wonderful job bringing both the historical characters and Boston itself to life. Their love for Dante will rub off on you. I even believed Pearl when this literary Fantastic Five were rummaging around crypts and the like solving the crime. So it was a bit of a disappointment when the criminal did not, in the end, seem to be as thoughtful, well-drawn, or frankly as interesting as his pursuers. A great summer read, though, despite this; heartily recommended for all except those with queasy stomachs.
Rating:
Summary: An Erudite and Captivating Literary Accomplishment
Review: Mr. Pearl's 'Dante Club' stands as a testament to the author's unequivocal mastery of the genre of historical fiction. His writing is both erudite and captivating, matched only by his clever manipulation of the plot and admirable character development. In the spirit of Eco's "The Name of the Rose" and Pears' "An Instance of the Fingerpost", Matthew Pearl has managed to produce a polished work of suspense and intrigue while effectively maintaining the subtle backdrop of intellectualism. Juxtaposing the social and political realities of post-Civil War America with the insular academic environment of the Harvard / Cambridge literary 'elite' (Longfellow, Holmes, Russell, and Fields), Pearl creates a suspenseful thriller that will captivate the reader to the very end. One need not be familiar with the wonders of 'The Divine Comedy' to appreciate the magnificent accomplishment that this novel represents. 'The Dante Club' has firmly established Mr. Pearl's prowess as an author and I eagerly await his next contribution to the world of fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Falls Short at the End
Review: Which is too bad because I was thoroughly enjoying this book up until the last 50 or so pages. What is good about the book can be read in the other reviews so I'll just skip to what disappointed me in this story. Please don't continue reading if you don't want plot revealed. When the identity of the murdered is revealed it's quite anti-climactic. It's also wholly unbelievable to me. This book has well written characters. The entire plot revolves around the recreation of horrific punishments lifted from the pages of Dante's The Divine Comedy. The sequence of events is cleverly woven together heading towards the climax of the novel. So, how can the actual perpetrator of these crimes, who is introduced quite late in the story, be so poorly written? I would have been happy to read another 10 or 20 pages if that would have helped develop the character further. I didn't believe for a minute he was the actual killer and that left me disappointed in the ending.
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Mystery
Review: There are not enough mysteries with a real literary component. Matthew Pearl provides us one and we should be grateful. There are many enjoyable mysteries, but to read one that has both historical and literary ingredients is a real find. The Dante Club provides all of that and an interesting mystery as well.
I rate it right along side such other historical and literary mysteries as The Name of the Rose and The Alienist.
Rating:
Summary: The Boston Poets' Detective Club
Review: The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl had two things working against it in my mind when I started it: 1) abnormally high levels of hype, and 2) the fact that I generally avoid novels that fictionalize real people because the authors usually take too many liberties with history. Since I like Dante's Inferno and I like mystery, I took a chance on The Dante Club. The book lives up to the hype AND Pearl did his homework and so was able to weave a plausible mystery [at least as plausible as any mystery novel] into the real history of post-Civil War Boston and some of its most famous citizen-poets. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dante Club and strongly recommend it to fans of mystery, literary mystery, historical fiction, Dante's Inferno, and the Old Poets of Boston.
Rating: 
Summary: New Insights into Dante's World
Review: Matthew Pearle's novel is a brisk post-Civil War whodunit interspersed with thoughtful insights into Dante--his world, his drive to tell his story, his faith. Pearle uses intriguing historical aspects in weaving his story, including a trio of well-known New England poets, the political machinations involved in the running of Harvard College, and Boston's first Negro policeman, an eminently likeable character. Whether one is a lover of mystery novels or of Dante, The Dante Club is a good read--clever, thought-provoking, fast-paced.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Historical Recreation
Review: This novel is a must read for those of us who love literature and the art of literary translation. I admit that I have read only a little over half the novel, not because I find it boring; quite the opposite: I find it too wonderful to want to finish it in haste. Slowly, slowly I read with exquisite pleasure -- quite the opposite of those in Dante's hell who suffer exquisitely forever -- or at least a long time. The novel is set in post Civil War Boston. Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell and their publisher are the "private" detectives as well as the most prominent members of the Dante Club, a club dedicated to translating Dante into English. In a kind of Borgesian world where fact and fiction overlap, the detectives are challenged by a serial murderer who has decided to translate Dante's Inferno into a horrific reality. Who is this murderer and how far will he succeed in translating Boston into Dante's inferno? You and I will have to continue reading to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: So much I read about The Dante Club (but not, however, all that I read) led me to believe that this was another thinking-person's mystery along the lines of Caleb Carr's terrific The Alienist from several years back. It is, but it isn't. It is a well-written historically-based murder mystery with a clever premise, written by an obviously brilliant Dante scholar. But the novel is lacking a certain something to make it really great. It doesn't ever come together--I found nothing to make me care about what happened, nothing compelling me to keep reading. I see from other reviews that many others absolutely loved this novel and I am sure that many reading this review will agree with them. If you haven't read the novel yet, don't be surprised if it's not as good as the hype machine would have you believe.
Rating:
Summary: The Dante Club
Review: I found this book to be quite interesting and very thoroughly researched. The book gives an interesting insight into the city of Boston at a time when public patronage of the arts and literature allowed poets to achieve celebrity status, as well as the tensions that existed among the various economic, religious and racial groups that made up the population of the city. However, it is obvious that this is the author's first novel as his character development is quite shallow and leaves the reader with an abiguous feeling toward the main players at best. He has spent a great deal of time fabricating a very intricate plot, but unfortunately it is at the expense of giving the reader any emotional attachment or feelings about the people in the story. I also noted some minor flaws in his social portrayal of some of the neighborhoods in Boston for 1865 (the Back Bay was only beginning to be built and had not yet become the fashionable address in 1865 as he portrays; the South End WAS actually a new and fashionable neighborhood in that year, etc.), but that does not really affect the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Smart Mystery Merges Fact and Fiction
Review: A well-known judge of Boston is found naked in his own backyard except for a coat of maggots that devours him. A white flag waves next to his head. Why? That's what the members of the Dante Club will find out.
At first the premise of The Dante Club sounds dry: Four scholars meet weekly to translate the Divine Comedy. Add to that four gruesome murders and you've got a page-turner.
Novelist Matthew Pearl's biography is impressive in itself: This Harvard undergrad wrote the first draft of The Dante Club, his first novel, while still in Yale Law School. An expert in Dante, he has won prizes and is editor of an printing of the Inferno. Pearl uses his knowledge of Harvard and Dante to craft Boston just after the Civil War.
The year is 1865, and publisher J. T. Fields, well-known poets Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell, and the even better-known Henry Wadsworth Longfellow meet weekly to translate Dante. These actual literary giants of their time beg to be made fun of'and Pearl does so nicely. Their dream to publish the first American translation of the Divine Comedy is first sabotaged by the evil forces at Harvard, who fear that Dante's explosive words could break the reputation of the school. But the Dantean four can deal with that. The real threat comes when a series of murders begins to eerily resemble the punishments of Dante's Inferno.
In their decision to pursue the killer, they are joined by Nicholas Rey, a fictional character based on the first African American policemen in America. Rey proves to be more intelligent than the armchair sleuths and rises above racism from not only his employer, but from the criminals he is employed to catch.
The search takes a surprising turn when the amateur detectives realize that the killer was lying right under their educated noses.
I recommend this novel both to the bookish snob, who will appreciate the portrayals of the poets and the clever allusions to Dante, as well as to the mystery lover, who will love the fast-paced quest for the killer and the dramatic and deadly twist.
Being both types of reader, I forgave Pearl for his cartoonish and undeveloped characters and rushed through his glittering prose. Pearl's sometimes poetic language conflicts with his adherence to the supermarket thriller's plot. But he deserves a little leeway for his first novel.
Pearl also snuck fact into his fiction: Any American history buff will appreciate the vignette of the Civil War soldier, the plight of Nicholas Rey, and the clash between Protestantism and Catholicism in America. The murders are based on the real rise in homicide after the war.
All in all, The Dante Club provides a potpourri of genres that will glue most readers to the page.
| 
