"Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked."
—The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Title: The Dante Club (The Dante Club #1)
Author: Matthew Pearl
Page Count: 372 (Paperback)
Synopsis:
Boston. 1865. A small group of elite scholars prepares to introduce Dante's vision of hell to America. But so does a murderer.
The literary geniuses of the Dante Club - poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and publisher J. T. Fields - are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy. The powerful old guard of Harvard College wants to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of such foreign superstitions will prove as corrupting as the immigrants invading Boston Harbor. The members of the Dante Club fight to keep their sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realises that the gruesome killings are modelled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno. 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.
Thoughts:
Very interesting read. There were definitely some slow parts which made it hard for me to finish the book quick but I still enjoyed the book. I haven't read The Divine Comedy yet although we have it at home for years lmao so I don't know how that could affect each person's reading experience. I thought it was brilliant to incorporate real people and some happenings to the novel. Even though I know some of the people in the story, I am not too familiar with how they were in real life so, in my case, I was not confused nor irked if some liberty were taken by the author to develop his story. I got intrigued with how the characters actually were in real life but as I was reading, I just took the story and the characters as it was told.
Aside from being slow at times, my only concern were some bits and parts where I wonder if such remarks and actions were necessary to represent a group (e.g. Patrolman Rey always being looked down on. I can understand that the purpose is to show readers what it was like during those times and how disgusting the treatment is but Another is a remark Field's made about himself about his weight. Was that necessary? What's the purpose? Was it meant to be funny?).
Overall, I still really like and recommend the book. It's very entertaining and made me want to read The Divine Comedy which I think is a plus because it shows how effective the story was for me as a reader.
Aside from being slow at times, my only concern were some bits and parts where I wonder if such remarks and actions were necessary to represent a group (e.g. Patrolman Rey always being looked down on. I can understand that the purpose is to show readers what it was like during those times and how disgusting the treatment is but Another is a remark Field's made about himself about his weight. Was that necessary? What's the purpose? Was it meant to be funny?).
Overall, I still really like and recommend the book. It's very entertaining and made me want to read The Divine Comedy which I think is a plus because it shows how effective the story was for me as a reader.
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