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The Dante Club: A Novel
by Matthew Pearl
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780345490384 |
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)
"In case Jerry Bruckheimer is reading this, here's the pitch: It's Super Friends meets 19th-century American literature! Matthew Pearl's debut novel, The Dante Club, is an audacious and captivating, if flawed, new book that imagines a string of unspeakable murders in Boston, each influenced by Dante's Inferno....Pearl's Dante scholarship is truly admirable, and hats off to anyone who's this passionate about the crazy Florentine — or, indeed, to anyone who's this passionate about anything." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
The New York Times bestseller!
Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante's Inferno. Only an elite group of America's first Dante scholars — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields — can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante's literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
Review:
"[A] gripping debut....Expertly weaving period detail, historical fact...complex character studies, and nail-biting suspense, Pearl has written a unique and utterly absorbing tale." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review:
"Ingenious use of details and motifs from the Divine Comedy, and a lively picture of the literary culture of post-bellum New England, distinguish this juicy debut historical mystery....Great fun figuring out whodunit and why: a devil of a time." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review:
"The detective story is well plotted, and Pearl's recreation of the contentious world of mid-19th-century academia is engrossing, even though some of its more ambitious elements...are somewhat clunky....[A]n ambitious and often entertaining thriller that may remind readers of Caleb Carr." Publishers Weekly
Review:
"[A] dazzler of a debut novel...a creative combo of edge-of-your-seat suspense, fully imagined characters, fictional and real, and an evocative, well-researched, well-realized setting that immerses the listener in another time and sensibility....Smart, exciting entertainment." BookPage
Review:
"A fascinating, erudite, and highly entertaining account of a remarkable moment in American literary history." Iain Pears, author of An Instance of the Fingerpost
Review:
"This first-rate thriller breathes such life into the genre that the term 'thrilling' genuinely applies. Matthew Pearl not only succeeds with a deft and elegant plot, but delivers an eloquent and quirky message for our times about the value of literary heroes. In The Dante Club we are privileged to meet the most unlikely quartet of sleuths." Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Lost
Review:
"Pearl...is at his best when discussing The Divine Comedy but is less suited to the generic demands of the thriller, which leads to obvious, and gruesome, B-movie plotting." The New Yorker
Review:
"[A]n absorbing and dramatic period piece. Using historical figures in a mystery setting is not a new idea...but Pearl has proven himself a master." Library Journal
Review:
"[I]ngenious....Mr. Pearl, with this captivating brain teaser as his debut novel, seems...to have put his life's work on the line in melding scholarship with mystery. He does justice to both." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review:
"Though polished and well crafted, the book does occasionally suffer from excess verbiage....Pearl's great service to Dante ultimately resides in his talent of integrating The Divine Comedy into the flow of his characters' lives." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"The book is endlessly clever — it even has a carriage chase that will come in handy if the novel comes to the screen. Pearl pokes fun at politicians and at academics like himself." Houston Chronicle
Review:
"Matthew Pearl is the new shining star of literary fiction — a heady, inventive, and immensely gifted author. With intricate plots, classical themes, and erudite characters...what's not to love?" Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code
Review:
"This novel is as erudite as it is bloody....The Dante Club is a unique, ambitious, entertaining read, a historical thriller with a poetic streak." The Baltimore Sun
Synopsis:
This gripping debut novel weaves historical facts concerning a literary club that actually existed into "complex character studies and nail biting suspense. A unique and utterly absorbing tale. "--Booklist"
About the Author
Matthew Pearl graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in English and American Literature in 1997, and in 2000 from Yale Law School, where he wrote the first draft of The Dante Club. In 1998, he won the prestigious Dante Prize from the Dante Society of America for his scholarly work. He is also the editor of the new Modern Library edition of Dante's Inferno, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Dante Club is his first novel. He can be reached via his website, www.thedanteclub.com.
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Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780345490384
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Ballantine Books
- Author:
- Subject:
- Authors
- Subject:
- Insects
- Subject:
- Mystery & Detective - Historical
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Edition Number:
- Reprint ed.
- Publication Date:
- June 27, 2006
- Binding:
- Mass Market Paperbound
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 424
- Dimensions:
- 6.90x4.42x1.00 in. .49 lbs.
