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The Outhouse Book Club discussion for "The Dante Club" by Mathew Pearl.  Welcome to all who have read the book!









Cover Blurb:

1865 Boston, a small group of literary geniuses puts the finishing touches on America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and prepares to unveil the remarkable visions of Dante to the New World. The powerful old guard of Harvard College wants to keep Dante out—believing that the infiltration of such foreign superstitions onto our bookshelves would prove as corrupting as the foreign immigrants invading Boston harbor. The members of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and publisher J. T. Fields —endure the intimidation of their fellow Boston Brahmins for a sacred literary cause, an endeavor that has sustained Longfellow in the hellish aftermath of his wife's tragic death by fire.

But the plans of the Dante Club come to a screeching halt when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only the members of the Dante Club realize that the style and form of the killings are stolen directly from Dante's Inferno and its singular account of Hell's punishments. With the police baffled, lives endangered and Dante's literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find a way to stop the killer.

The brunt of the burden falls to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose unique literacy in both poetry and medicine continues to pull him into the center of the struggle. An outcast policeman, Nicholas Rey, the first and only black member of the Boston police department, places his future on the line after discovering the secrets of the Dante Club. Together, they find the key to the murders where they least expect it: closer than they could have imagined.


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Written or Contributed by: The Outhouse Book Club


http://173.199.169.70/index.php/reviews/book-reviews/13476-outhouse-book-club-the-dante-club.html/

[misac]

I had a hard time reading this but not because it was bad or anything. It took me two weeks to get through it.

I liked it overall but it took too long to get things moving along. And when things were moving along there was some insights/exposition that I thought was unnecessary.

I liked the story jumping back and fourth from the poets to Rey. It left me wanting more of what I wasn’t reading. It helped keep the suspense up.

I kind of wanted to read the Divine Comedy after reading this.

[misac]

Also, the first murder was really gross.

[David Bird]

The Dante Club

By Matthew Pearl
Published by Random House, 2003

The Dante Club is set in Boston in 1865, in the months following the American Civil War. America’s great poet, Longfellow, is joined by a select group of famous friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, J. T. Fields and George Washington Greene, to produce the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. it’s a project that faces a great deal of opposition from the Harvard Corporation, which is trying to derail it. To make matter worse, a series of grisly murders, each modeled on a punished described in Dante’s Inferno, rocks Boston. Can the Club stop the murders and, more importantly, save their translation project?

Matthew Pearl’s first novel is an interesting concept, but suffers from an only okay execution. It seemed to spend a long time getting on its feet, in spite of the first murder happening early in the book, and I was constantly nagged by doubts about facts presented in the story. For example, it takes place in winter--the murderer attempts to kill two people in the frozen Charles River--but Cochliomyia hominivorax, or screw-worm fly, is an important part of the mystery and is seen buzzing about throughout the story. How could this tropical insect be flying around a New England winter? I realize it was imported from Southern swamps, but the cold alone should have caused it to become dormant. And what about the loss of funding to veteran halls? The war had only ended that spring. I doubt all the troops had even been demobilized at the time the story is supposed to have happened and already the funds are drying up? Nitpicking? I don’t think so. These things took me out of the story. Actually, I wasn’t drawn much into the story. The only chapter I really found engrossing was when we were told the history of the killer. I don’t think that was because he was an interesting character, he wasn’t really; rather it was because it was told in a condensed, straightforward manner. Too much of the rest of the novel is spent weaving a tangled web of clues and misdirection, little of it really paying off.

The best thing to come out of the novel is that I have decided to put Dante on my to-read list. In looking at different translations, however, I did discover that British translations were available in the US at the time this story takes place. What Longfellow and company were actually trying to create a specifically American literature, with specifically American translations. This is the generation that introduce America’s peculiar spelling habits (color instead of colour, for example). Scholarship was a poor second to nation building. Oh, I also discovered that Greene was the group’s language scholar. You wouldn’t know that from this book.

[~Alima~]

I didn't care for the book that much. I had a hard time with the flow and the execution. The parts that were detailed had me visualizing pretty well, but then sometimes I was completely lost to the "who, what. when, where. and why." I loved the depiction of ray and his role in law enforcement. The fact he wasn't "supposed" to carry a firearm or arrest a white person, yet he still got through to people on a personal level.
Hmm, I'm falling aseep. Willl explain more tomorrow

[S.F. Jude Terror]

I'm still not done with this though I'm reading it right now. It's having a tough time keeping my interest (kind of confusing narrative, difficult to keep track of what's going on). I've got it with me at the hospital today to pass the time, so may finish it, but so far not too sure that reading it will be less boring than just sitting here and staring at the wall.

[bkthomson]

I'm still not done with this though I'm reading it right now. It's having a tough time keeping my interest (kind of confusing narrative, difficult to keep track of what's going on). I've got it with me at the hospital today to pass the time, so may finish it, but so far not too sure that reading it will be less boring than just sitting here and staring at the wall.

I'm sure we can come up with ways to entertain you Jude.

[Allen]

I thought it was a decent book. Not bad, not great. The fact that I am a certified Dante geek, having written papers and delivered lectures on different aspects of the Divine Comedy, probably helped me enjoy the book more than people not as familiar with the work. I was able to really enjoy the nerdier aspects of the book, like the debate on whether the great denier was Celestine or Pontius Pilate. Those are actual debates that people still have.

Part of the problem is anytime you are using real people as characters, you can kind of lose the character development aspect of the story. I almost think it would have been better had Pearl used his own characters, and this showed with Rey. I never got a sense of who Longfellow was, or who Greene was. And people like Lowell and Holmes seemed to lack dimensions a bit.

My other problem with the story is a general complaint with a lot of mystery stories. It was almost impossible to really guess the culprit. So many clues aren't discovered until quite late in the book.

But I thought the descriptions, especially of the individual murder scenes, were vivid and well-done. I think the exploration of academic politics was pretty spot on. And I thought it was an entertaining story. I wasn't ever really bored with it.

[David Bird]

I thought it was a decent book. Not bad, not great. The fact that I am a certified Dante geek, having written papers and delivered lectures on different aspects of the Divine Comedy, probably helped me enjoy the book more than people not as familiar with the work. I was able to really enjoy the nerdier aspects of the book, like the debate on whether the great denier was Celestine or Pontius Pilate. Those are actual debates that people still have.

Then I'd like to pick your brain on the subject of translations. What would you say is the best English translation available? I am thinking of reading it. What about the best one volume edition?

[Allen]

Then I'd like to pick your brain on the subject of translations. What would you say is the best English translation available? I am thinking of reading it. What about the best one volume edition?

The vast majority are published in three volumes, in large part just because you need an edition with extensive notes. I don't know of single volume editions very much.

I really like Robert Durling's edition from Oxford University Press, though I don't know if Paradiso is available in paperback yet. They can probably be gotten from a good library, at least through interlibrary loan.

[S.F. Jude Terror]

I've read Dante a few times, so it's not that which makes it boring for me. It's the problems you mentioned with the characters. It seems like every chapter they introduce five new characters, and they don't spend much time developing any of them. The police station scene in the beginning was brutal to follow, I just had no clue what was going on. The first meeting of the Dante Club we see, things were finally getting interesting, and then bam, right back to pages upon pages making the point that Holmes is insecure. We get it. Then we meet five more characters. Ugh. I'm still not halfway done, so maybe it picks up.

[Allen]

I've read Dante a few times, so it's not that which makes it boring for me. It's the problems you mentioned with the characters. It seems like every chapter they introduce five new characters, and they don't spend much time developing any of them. The police station scene in the beginning was brutal to follow, I just had no clue what was going on. The first meeting of the Dante Club we see, things were finally getting interesting, and then bam, right back to pages upon pages making the point that Holmes is insecure. We get it. Then we meet five more characters. Ugh. I'm still not halfway done, so maybe it picks up.

Yeah, I think he really made a mistake there. It would have been better had he just created all new characters and let them develop naturally.

[misac]

The Dante Club

By Matthew Pearl
Published by Random House, 2003

The Dante Club is set in Boston in 1865, in the months following the American Civil War. America’s great poet, Longfellow, is joined by a select group of famous friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, J. T. Fields and George Washington Greene, to produce the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. it’s a project that faces a great deal of opposition from the Harvard Corporation, which is trying to derail it. To make matter worse, a series of grisly murders, each modeled on a punished described in Dante’s Inferno, rocks Boston. Can the Club stop the murders and, more importantly, save their translation project?

Matthew Pearl’s first novel is an interesting concept, but suffers from an only okay execution. It seemed to spend a long time getting on its feet, in spite of the first murder happening early in the book, and I was constantly nagged by doubts about facts presented in the story. For example, it takes place in winter--the murderer attempts to kill two people in the frozen Charles River--but Cochliomyia hominivorax, or screw-worm fly, is an important part of the mystery and is seen buzzing about throughout the story. How could this tropical insect be flying around a New England winter? I realize it was imported from Southern swamps, but the cold alone should have caused it to become dormant. And what about the loss of funding to veteran halls? The war had only ended that spring. I doubt all the troops had even been demobilized at the time the story is supposed to have happened and already the funds are drying up? Nitpicking? I don’t think so. These things took me out of the story. Actually, I wasn’t drawn much into the story. The only chapter I really found engrossing was when we were told the history of the killer. I don’t think that was because he was an interesting character, he wasn’t really; rather it was because it was told in a condensed, straightforward manner. Too much of the rest of the novel is spent weaving a tangled web of clues and misdirection, little of it really paying off.

The best thing to come out of the novel is that I have decided to put Dante on my to-read list. In looking at different translations, however, I did discover that British translations were available in the US at the time this story takes place. What Longfellow and company were actually trying to create a specifically American literature, with specifically American translations. This is the generation that introduce America’s peculiar spelling habits (color instead of colour, for example). Scholarship was a poor second to nation building. Oh, I also discovered that Greene was the group’s language scholar. You wouldn’t know that from this book.

The British translation was mentioned in the story.

I think I agree about the chapter set during the war was the best chapter.

[misac]

I didn't care for the book that much. I had a hard time with the flow and the execution. The parts that were detailed had me visualizing pretty well, but then sometimes I was completely lost to the "who, what. when, where. and why." I loved the depiction of ray and his role in law enforcement. The fact he wasn't "supposed" to carry a firearm or arrest a white person, yet he still got through to people on a personal level.
Hmm, I'm falling aseep. Willl explain more tomorrow

Yeah, it took me like 2/3's of the book to sort out the poets.

[misac]

I've read Dante a few times, so it's not that which makes it boring for me. It's the problems you mentioned with the characters. It seems like every chapter they introduce five new characters, and they don't spend much time developing any of them. The police station scene in the beginning was brutal to follow, I just had no clue what was going on. The first meeting of the Dante Club we see, things were finally getting interesting, and then bam, right back to pages upon pages making the point that Holmes is insecure. We get it. Then we meet five more characters. Ugh. I'm still not halfway done, so maybe it picks up.

It picked up for me between the second and third murders.