I read Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club when the book was new. I liked the idea of real-world poets -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell -- in a historical mystery as protagonists trying to solve a serial murder. The book gave a snapshot of its time (1865), and I felt it was a window into the responsibility of public notoriety. It also helped me learn about the individual poets; for instance, I had no idea that America’s first translation of The Divine Comedy was led by Longfellow. (I guess it never came up in conversation.)
The Dante Chamber is sort-of a sequel, but you don't need to have read the first book. The second one doesn't really spoil the first novel, either, if you read them in reverse order (and I rather expect you will want to).
Yet again, it's poets to the rescue, though in London rather than Boston. It's a few years later (1869 or 1870), and the "team" is Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, and a reluctant Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Christina's brother -- the artist and writer Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- is missing. And at the same time, seemingly-unrelated people die, publicly, with not-at-all-subtle clues tying their deaths to The Divine Comedy.
Christina is sure that her missing brother is the next victim. The police think it's more likely that he's the murderer. That sets the poets to looking for literary clues to predict and prevent the next horrific death... and to find out who really is behind it.
It works. Darnit, it WORKS. Even if you've never read Dante (whispering: don't tell anyone, but I haven't), the story captures the worldview of each of these well-known historical figures, or at least drapes them in a believable scenario. Dante Gabriel Rossetti certainly was always a hellion from his time in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. (The story takes place some years after the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal, and presumably before Rossetti took up with Jane Morris, wife of his longtime friend William Morris. Really, you could lose yourself in the drama of it all.) Even before we find out what Rossetti is up to, the description of his behavior and household (with lots of random animals) adds to his... charm? Well, whatever it was that made the guy so bizarrely special.
The Dante-flavored mystery does not disappoint. All my whodunnit guesses were wrong.
This is not, however, a quick page-turning novel or a beach read. The storytelling does require your attention; it's not fluff. I say that to set your expectations correctly, not to dissuade you! This is a really enjoyable -- and very different -- historical novel.
I really enjoyed this. I think you will, too.
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2018
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Top reviews from other countries
- Kevin G. ConroyReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2018
I dont know what has happened Matthew Pearl
