Recently Read: The Dante Club

I recently finished reading The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl.  It’s an interesting mix between mystery novel, biography, and literary analysis.  The novel tells the story of 4 19th century literary figures (writers and publisher) chasing down a murderer by exploring Dante’s Divine Comedy. 

I enjoyed how well biography and literary analysis were intertwined with plot in this novel.  The plot kept the other two from boring me, and biography and literary analysis gave the standard “whodunit” genre a fresh perspective.  While relaxing to a good mystery story, I learned about several writers’ lives, their perceptions of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and their writing as well.

I didn’t enjoy the chapter at the end in which everything must be explained either because 1) the reader is too stupid to figure it out or 2) the author was too lazy to tie up his loose ends another way. 

Overall, a relaxing and intriguing read. 

Good fiction + Interesting biography + a bit of literary analysis = Time well spent