Book Review: The Dante Club

Set in 1865, The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl is the exploration of a hypothetical serial killer drawing inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy, as translated by the famous poets of the time, to punish his victims. The Dante Club is the poets' name for their group working on the translation and then on finding the murderer. The club itself is based on a real group that translated The Divine Comedy in 1865, comprised of poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Unfortunately, that sounds more exciting than most of the book turned out to be. This is the debut novel from Mr. Pearl and I think he will do good things, if he can tighten up his pacing. There is a bizarre "Foreword" which relates to nothing and appears to be an unsuccessful attempt to set the mood. The book is graphic in describing the death scenes but includes nothing unreasonable. There were sub-plots, side stories, and philosophizing that could have been left out to focus the book more on Dante's poetry and the mystery at hand. It seemed that these were included for understanding the mood of the times more than from any need for them in the plot.

Once the set-up was out of the way the pace did pick up, but it was a long time coming. After about 250 pages, I wasn't enjoying the novel but it had intrigued me enough that I had difficulty putting it down. I'm still wasn't quite sure who'd been doing the deeds but I found myself thinking more and more about it when I wasn't reading, which is certainly a mark of a good book. Unfortunately, I never liked or felt involved with the protagonists.

Much of the action centers on the activities and behaviors emanating from Harvard College. Harvard is referred to as "The Corporation" throughout the novel, which is obviously meant as a derogatory term when taken in conjunction with the backbiting and extortion to which its directors -one particular - stoop. One hopes that the potrait of "business as usual" at this institution was exaggerated for effect as most of the attitudes and actions associated with Harvard are petty at best and illegal at worst.