The book could have been alot more interesting, at least to me, considering the premise (Dante) and the characters (a bevy of Bostonian Brahmins). But it fell short. There was too much emphasis on creating psychological portraits of the major characters, and the “thriller” part of the novel was formulaic and pretty predictable. (That part was kind of like CSI… the one who did it is the one person they interviewed in the first ten minutes of the show that you never heard any more about.)

I did like the snippets of asides and glimpses into the publishing world of the time (like the snide comment about Poe). It was his knowledge of the times and the people concerned that saved the novel from being horrible. Pearl probably could have written a really stimulating nonfiction work instead of wasting everyone’s time with this novel.

Rating: 4*/5

This was a Valentine’s Day gift.