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Matthew Pearl graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in English and American Literature in 1997. In 1998, he won the prestigious Dante Prize from the Dante Society of America for his scholarly work. He wrote the first draft of The Dante Club while attending Yale Law School, where he received his J. D. in 2000. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Dante Club, a New York Times Bestseller, is his first novel and is being translated into a dozen languages.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution groups Pearl with Jonathan Franzen, Manil Suri, Jonathan Foer and Richard Powers as having added to "the growing genre of novel being written nowadays -- the learned, challenging kind that does not condescend." Library Journal says "Pearl has proven himself a master." He's now working on another 19th century thriller with its roots in an exciting moment of literary history. His official website is www.thedanteclub.com.
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The Dante Club
In 1865 Boston, a small group of literary geniuses put the finishing touches on America's first translation of The Divine Comedy, and prepare to unveil the remarkable visions of Dante to the New World. The powerful old guard of Harvard College wants to keep Dante out, believing that the infiltration of such foreign superstitions would prove as corrupting as the foreign immigrants invading Boston harbor. The members of the Dante club--poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and publisher J. T. Fields--endure the intimidation of their fellow Boston Brahmins for a sacred literary cause.
But the plans of the Dante Club come to a screeching halt when a series of murders erupt throughout Boston. Only the scholars realize that the style and form of the killings are stolen directly from Inferno and its singular account of Hell's punishments. With the police baffled, lives endangered and Dante's literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
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Matthew Pearl's Summer Reading List
The Winter Queen
by Boris Akunin
My publisher was nice enough to send me this novel. I'm a strong believer in free books (unless it's my book -- come on, go out and buy it). Anyway, a thriller in 19th-century Russia sounds terrific.
A Weekend At Blenheim
by J. P. Morrissey
Another historical mystery, this one embedded in Edwardian aristocracy. I'm looking forward to it.
Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov
I meant to read this years ago and forgot.
P
by Andrew Lewis Conn
I don't know much about this since it hasn't come out quite yet, but it's retelling the story of Joyce's Ulysses. I could barely tell you how Joyce managed to tell the story, so I'm excited to see someone retell it.
Jaws
by Peter Benchley
THE summer read, right? I know I'm a little late, but I don't think I was born yet when it came out.
Author Note: Incidentally, I don't usually make a summer reading list so I'll have to try to remember the ones I picked out here.
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Summer Reading Lists
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