
The Dante Club
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Narrated by:
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John Siedman
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By:
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Matthew Pearl
In 1865 Boston, the members of the Dante Club, poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields, are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions onto American bookshelves will prove as corrupting as the immigrants living in Boston Harbor.
As they struggle to keep their sacred literary cause alive, the plans of the Dante Club are put in further jeopardy when a serial killer unleashes his terror on the city. Only the scholars realize that the gruesome murders are modeled on the descriptions from Dante's Inferno and its account of Hell's torturous punishments. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante's literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and outcast police officer Nicolas Rey, the first black member of the Boston police department, place their careers on the line in their efforts to end the killing spree. Together, they discover that the source of the murders lies closer than they ever could have imagined.
The Dante Club is a magnificent blend of fact and fiction, a brilliantly realized paean to Dante, his mythic genius, and his continued grip on the imagination.
©2006 Matthew Pearl. All rights reserved. (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks America. All rights reserved. Audioworks is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Expertly weaving period detail, historical fact (the Dante Club did indeed exist), complex character studies, and nail-biting suspense, Pearl has written a unique and utterly absorbing tale." (Booklist, Starred Review)
"Absorbing and dramatic...Pearl has proven himself a master." (Library Journal)
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Outstanding
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There is quite a list of main characters that are well performed, however due to the number of them towards the end they became confusing for me to follow each
I liked the story and appreciated the historical flavor. It wasn’t what I was expecting but still entertaining
Give it a whirl
An interesting story
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highbrow suspense
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On the other hand, whether or not historically accurate, the "amateur detectives", four members of the Boston literati,came across interestingly and with sufficient characterization to avoid being simply puppets manipulated for the purposes of making it "historical". It is well written and well read. The setting conveys the feel of 19th Century Boston and Harvard to one who knows little of its specifics. How an expert would react I do not know. It it is not a puzzle mystery, where all clues necessary for the reader to solve the puzzle are presented. In keeping with current practice, the mystery is solved with information that is discovered by the amateur sleuths that cannot have been known to the reader. I accept this contemporary convention though devotees of the "classic", early Ellery Queen type books,will be perturbed.
Overall, it is solid fare that kept me engaged throughout the book. I do believe it would have been better if the cause of my concerns had been eliminated but I can still recommend it to anyone, whether or not familiar with the poets most of us only read in school.
Interesting, but..
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A Great Listen
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It helps if you are familiar with Dante
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Great listen!
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I can't stop listening to this book!
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Fantastic book, I enjoyed every word.
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Still Awesome
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