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A review by selenajournal
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
5.0
The Dante Club is a wonderful debut novel from Matthew Pearl. It is the story of the Fireside Poets - Henry Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell - who initially form the Dante Club to assist Longfellow in finishing the first American translation of Dante Alighieri's Commedia Divina.
The book starts off with the gruesome murder of Judge Healy, probably the most intense beginning to any book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The reader finds Healy left out in his own back yard, naked, his clothes folded neatly and left to the side, his head nearly eaten out by maggots... it is a scene to behold.
And one that seems oddly familiar to the Dante Club. Was it not Dante himself who saw the Opportunists in the Inferno with a white flag next to them and maggots and wasps constantly picking at their flesh? With more people in high places dying, the Dante Club notices the pattern and begins an investigation to find their "Lucifer."
In conjunction to their hunt for "Lucifer," the Dante Club faces the dastardly Harvard School who is hell-bent on making sure that the Dante Club's dream of publishing the translated poem never becomes realized.
Pearl creates a well-researched book with rich historical details that perfectly capture post Civil War America. Having read the above description, you can tell that the book is extremely graphic, so it is not recommended for the light of heart. And as far as mysteries go, this one will keep you on your toes up until the very end.
(Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10 and only because once we did find out who Lucifer was there was an entire chapter of expository writing explaining why this was so and how this person got so screwed up - I kind of wanted that left to the imagination).
The book starts off with the gruesome murder of Judge Healy, probably the most intense beginning to any book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The reader finds Healy left out in his own back yard, naked, his clothes folded neatly and left to the side, his head nearly eaten out by maggots... it is a scene to behold.
And one that seems oddly familiar to the Dante Club. Was it not Dante himself who saw the Opportunists in the Inferno with a white flag next to them and maggots and wasps constantly picking at their flesh? With more people in high places dying, the Dante Club notices the pattern and begins an investigation to find their "Lucifer."
In conjunction to their hunt for "Lucifer," the Dante Club faces the dastardly Harvard School who is hell-bent on making sure that the Dante Club's dream of publishing the translated poem never becomes realized.
Pearl creates a well-researched book with rich historical details that perfectly capture post Civil War America. Having read the above description, you can tell that the book is extremely graphic, so it is not recommended for the light of heart. And as far as mysteries go, this one will keep you on your toes up until the very end.
(Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10 and only because once we did find out who Lucifer was there was an entire chapter of expository writing explaining why this was so and how this person got so screwed up - I kind of wanted that left to the imagination).