Rating: 
Summary: More like "Unholy Bore" than "Divine Comedy"
Review: Like a very bumpy flight to Asia, "Dante Club" is both nauseating and boring, with long patches where you just want to stare out the window instead of turn pages. I never quite recovered from an extended maggot-fest in the first chapter, rendered in prose that unsuccessfully channels Thomas Harris of "Silence of the Lambs" fame. I stuck with it because I love Dante, and was waiting for some exegesis or at least a novel take on his masterpiece. However, there are far more burrowing larvae and rotting limbs in this book than glimpses of "The Divine Comedy." And Pearl manages the trick of having his 19th-century characters mouth 21st-century Harvard pomposity and cant on post-traumatic stress. I admire the author's obvious immersion in history of the period, but this book was much overpraised and the hype surrounding it will probably prevent the author from getting the training in fiction writing that he so badly needs.
Rating: 
Summary: Fans of Historical Fiction, take note.
Review: I found this book while looking randomly through the shelves at a local bookstore. I had never heard of it, but the cover caught my attention. I decided to go ahead and buy it; and boy, am I glad I did..
This book is, in my opinion, one of the BEST modern works of literature I have had the pleasure of reading. Matthew Pearl has a wonderful way with creating characters(based both in fact and fiction) and situations that completely come alive. The storyline is facinating..not to mention one of the most unique I have come across.
As someone with a devotion to historical fiction(Margaret George among one of my favourites), I have finally found an author who is more than adept at weaving history into something completely different.. yet totally believable.
To use the cliche, I couldn't put the book down until I had read every word. Now that I *have* put it down, I can't stop telling people how great this book was.
Mr. Pearl has found a lifelong fan of his work in me.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Good
Review: We were assigned this in our AP English class, and nobody in the class made it through without being forced. Unlike Dante's Inferno, which we were assigned before this book, it's not a page-turner. Dante seemed to believe in heaven and hell, and a lot of the sins he describes pervade our contemporary culture. I wish Pearl would have writtne something in the same spirit--something which took a chance in passing judgement. Maybe he will next time, and I bet it'll be a better read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great historical mystery
Review: I am a big fan of historical fiction, and I found this book a particularly delightful treat. I loved how Pearl made notable American writers into main characters in his book. Mid-Nineteenth century Boston made a lovely setting for the book: the renowned university, the remembrance of the recent war, and the rich literary scene. The audio book was very well done--the tapes began with a nice musical interlude that set the scene, and the narrator did a splendid job in reading. I really enjoyed how each character had a different voice, and you could tell who was speaking at all times. Also, at the end of the tapes there is a long section on Dante's Inferno that is read. Great intellectual thriller... I will definitely pick up Pearl's next book.
Rating:
Summary: The Dante Club
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Serial Killer Collides with American Literature Greats
Review: Matthew Pearl's debute novel places the reader inside a collision course of post civil war Boston, the hell of Dante's INFERNO, and the literati of New England. Its a fast paced thriller, which captures the post war corruptness and wretchedness of a city, which is plagued by unspeakable murders. One is able to peak into the personal lives and relationships of the likes of Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, among others. That's the fun part of this very original and diabolical plot. Be prepared to enter a literary "inferno" with no turning back. Its a definite page turner like no other. I am looking forward to more by Matthew Pearl.
Rating:
Summary: The characters were free
Review: The Dante Club is a delightful read about a fictional series of murders that shake the Cambridge literary circle of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow shortly after the end of the Civil War. The characters were free -- historical personages set into the fictional piece conceived by Matthew Pearl. I thought Pearl handled them well and made them seem quite human. The centerpiece of the story is Dante's Divine Comedy. If you have already read Dante, by all means, read this book and enjoy. If you have not yet read Dante, put this book down and read Dante immediately. Do not wait until you have learned Italian -- there are several excellent English translations available in inexpensive editions.
Rating:
Summary: Divine "Club"
Review: In mid-19th century New England, only a little gaggle of Italian immigrants spoke Italian. Most people, if they studied such languages, preferred the "dead" languages, not venturing into the world of more modern literature from countries like, oh, for example, Italy. That idea is the basis of talented Matthew Pearl's literate thriller "The Dante Club," a rich blend of Dante's epic poem and a gritty murder mystery. It's 1865, at Cambridge. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is working on the first English translation of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," and the other members of the Dante Club (J.T. Fields, James Russell Lowell, and Dr. Olivier Wendell Holmes) are backing him up in the face of controversy. Some people believe that this violent, powerful, foreign, implicitly Catholic work will somehow undermine the morals of Boston... or something like that. A judge is found dead, eaten alive by South American maggots and flies. Later a corrupt minister is found buried upside-down with horribly burned feet. Only a few men -- the Dante Club -- recognize these horrific crimes for what they are. They're based on punishments from Dante's "Inferno." No sooner has the Club scared away the man they think is the murderer, than another Dante-related death takes place. And if they don't hunt down the killer, both they and the Dante translation may end up dead... Matthew Pearl writes like someone a lot older than he is. It's hard to believe that "Dante Club" is his first book, given the smoothness of it. And like Longfellow, he's unafraid to tackle weighty issues: racial prejudice after the Civil War (a smart young black cop who assists the Club), the capacity for evil, the power of literature, and the religious and social prejudices of the time. Pearl does what seems impossible -- he juggles all these, never drops them, and never bogs down the book with them. Instead, it only makes a murder mystery an intelligent, thought-provoking novel. It takes a lot of guts and brains to link the Civil War in any way with the warring city-states of Dante's Italy, but Pearl does it. Not to mention making Longfellow one of his heroes -- a gutsy move if there ever was one. "The Dante Club" starts off rather shakily -- despite the gruesome murders, it takes the plot awhile to start racing. But when it does, it becomes horrific, suspenseful and quite detailed. Pearl's love of Dante is what keeps all parts of the book tied together. It's obvious he's as interested in the Divine Comedy as any member of the club, and he's at his best when his characters are passionately describing Dante's works. A nice detail is the Club itself. These guys aren't cops or detectives. They are poets, publishers and scholars. In the course of their investigation, they make mistakes, jump to conclusions and occasionally flip out. Dr. Holmes and James Lowell are the best characterized, but all the characters are nicely written. Longfellow is perhaps the most interesting, becoming obsessed with Dante's work after his wife's death. "The Dante Club" is a rare book, a mix of mystery, fact and fiction, historical novel and literary ode. Smart, smooth, polished and suspenseful, this is a bright debut for an excellent new writer.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Blend of both History and Fiction
Review: The Dante Club takes the reader to the world of 1865 when America's most famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is creating the first American translation of Italy's most famous poet Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedia. While in this translation process, a string of murders are mirroring the very acts that Dante wrote about. This intriguing murder mystery is a tightly woven (fictional) historical narrative that puts the reader in the center of Boston society. A well researched book, it is every bit as gripping as the more recent (and well known) The Da Vinci Code, only much better written and thought out. A great story even for those that have never read Dante's voyage through hell and heaven.
Rating:
Summary: Over-reaching
Review: Pearl is so in love with Dante, as will be evident if you read his bio, that he has to let everybody know how good Dante is. Unfortunately, he sacrifices the story to tell you just how much he really Really REALLY L*O*V*E*S Dante. Well, great, and so do I, but this could have been a much tighter, better book with the help of a good editor to tone that aspect down.
Also, Pearl gives away a good chunk of the plot fairly early on with a literary conceit that was so obvious I couldn't really believe he was going to make me, or his hyper-intellectual characters, sit through another 180 pages to prove it out. Gee, maybe the cast of this book wasn't so bright after all!
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