The Dante Club

The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl

In Boston in 1865, as the Civil War comes to an end, a group of America’s most celebrated literary figures meet regularly at the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Together with Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, publisher J. T. Fields and historian George Washington Greene, Longfellow is working on the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, in the face of opposition from Harvard’s conservative establishment, which sees Dante as dangerous and foreign.

Then a series of gruesome murders shocks the city. A prominent judge is found dead, his body infested with insects, and a minister is buried upside down with his feet set on fire. The members of the Dante Club realize, to their horror, that the killings mirror the punishments described in Dante’s Inferno. Because the translation has not yet been published, only a small number of people could know the details, which makes the club members themselves potential suspects.

The Dante Club, the debut novel by Matthew Pearl, follows the poets as they set out to solve the crimes before more people die and before Dante’s reputation in America is destroyed. They are joined by Nicholas Rey, the first Black police officer in Boston, who is conducting his own investigation in the face of prejudice.

Rich in historical detail about Boston, literary life and the aftermath of the Civil War, the novel combines a suspenseful murder mystery with a celebration of literature and its power.

Intelligent and atmospheric, The Dante Club is a compelling read for fans of historical mysteries. It contains graphic violence.