Rating: 
Summary: Boring, Boring, Gone
Review: I love well written books, some badly written books, this one is out of the ballpark when it comes to BORING. I have always finished a book, until now, this was the worse book I have attempted to read in 30 years.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and educative!
Review: Fiction, suspence, science, literature, poetry and history come together in this well-researched and brilliantly written novel that satisfies readers' appetites on many levels. Whether you chose this novel because of your familiarity with Dante's Comedia or simply chose it hoping for a good read, you will walk away from this experience intellectually and culturally enriched while being thoroughly entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: Four 1/2 stars . . .
Review: I did not read this novel, but listened to the audiobook. As read by Boyd Gaines, it was thoroughly engrossing and entertaining. I enjoyed every minute of it and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and/or mysteries.
Rating: 
Summary: Good plot !
Review: I appreciated the plot of this book very much and look forward to the author's next novel. Fans of Dante will find it a irresitible buy. While reading it, I began to feel that the Victorian affectations in dialogue detracted from it's appeal. I would recommend it for a leisurely read.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I am one of those people who always gives a book a fair chance to impress or entertain me. Even if I am bored, I'll keep reading in the hopes that it will get better. This one didn't, and after getting halfway through it, I had to put myself out of my misery. I was so disgusted with it that I threw it in the trash rather than passing it on to someone else.Before you decide that it must have been just too highbrow for me (the last person I told I hated it replied, "Danielle Steele must be more your speed"), let me say that I teach literature and my area of expertise is the Renaissance. Let me also say, to anyone who thinks of attacking from the opposite direction, that I enjoyed Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST. And Ian McEwan, Gunter Grass, Ha Jin, Toni Morrison, and Henry James number among my favorite authors--a pretty eclectic bunch, I'd say. Dante is not the problem, nor is the idea of a mystery involving well-known persons. It is Pearl's boringly pretentious style. He is much more impressed with his own cleverness than I could ever be with this book. Some reviews I've read marvel that this is a first book; I say, "It shows." I'm told the ending makes it worth sticking with; but as Carly Simon said, "I haven't got time for the pain"--especially when there are so many excellent books out there I'm dying to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Historical Who-Dun-It!
Review: I was a little disheartened to read reviews of this book on Amazon professing the ease at which other readers figured out the culprit in this book based on Dante's Divine Comedy. I was left guessing until the very end! I assure you that most readers will share my experience. If anything, after finishing the book you will proclaim, "I should've known!" This is a truly well-written book based partly in fact - "The Dante Club" really did exist. While the situation is entirely fictionalized, Matthew Pearl does an excellent job of weaving fact and fiction into an easy-to-read, page-turning novel. This book has sparked my interest in reading the Divine Comedy again. If you have not read Dante for quite some time - or never at all - wait until after reading "The Dante Club." Pearl does a good job of explaining all you need to know about Dante to understand the plot of this novel, plus it makes the novel slightly more mysterious if you don't quite know what is around the corner.
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: i may just be a Dante fanactic, but i enjoyed this book very much. having just read the Inferno, i was so excited to find all the things i remembered from it in this book. i think matthew pearl did a great job with the story line while giving more information about dante. all in all, i learned a lot and enjoyed myself while reading this book. i would recommend it to people who have already read the Inferno though.. i would imagine much of the story would be lost without having read it.
Rating:
Summary: "A Fable for the Critics"
Review: Borrowing a title that Pearl attributes to the works of his character, the poet and teacher Robert Lowell, I see "The Dante Club" as a 'fable' for Dante scholars. Pearl has depended on the 'light-heartedness' of a who-dunn-it mystery to interpret some gruesome images in "The Divne Comedy." I feel that I've read a well-crafted book that makes light of historical realism. I don't, however, feel that I've read the original, Dante's own "Divine Comedy." (As I admit regretfully, I've not yet read Dante.) Pearl's novel is a tentalizing lure to discover Dante in a specific historical moment. It comes across as a fabulus tale of presenting Dante to 'our' America who is always seeking its own identity and unity.
Rating:
Summary: The Dante Club
Review: AMAZON REVIEW - MATHEW PEARL FOR THE DANTE CLUB Matthew Pearl's recent novel, The Dante Club, combines history, suspense, and mystery in a truly unique reading experience. Famous, well known characters such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr Oliver Windell-Holmes and James Russell Lowe are intricately woven into a plot which develops around their translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Their plant to translate this classic video work is disrupted however, when events of Dante's work begin to be mirrored by similar events in Boston. The murder of prominent citizens modeled after their translation make them suspect. These noted historical authors work closely with a black police officer, Nicholas Ray, to prove their innocence and solve the murders. The description of Boston in 1865 in the technique used by Mathew Pearl to weave the history of the civil war and racial relations into this time period is pure and genius. The vivid description of the Boston street scene at this time in history is reminiscent of Caleb Carr's description of New York City in his book the Alienist. This book is a must for any reader who enjoys historical fiction and I would strongly recommend it to them.
Rating:
Summary: incredibly drawn out story
Review: The first two canticles were far too drawn out and, at times, quite boring. Pearl's character development leaves something to be desired. Was anyone else annoyed by how he kept using the characters full Christian names all the time? "Oliver Wendell Holmes entered the room", " Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sat down.", etc. Just didn't click with this author. Much better reads out there...
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