The Poe Shadow

The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl

Uniquely talented Matthew Pearl has produced another New York Times Bestseller in The Poe Shadow. After reading his previous thrilling work of literary historical fiction in The Dante Club, I couldn’t wait to see what else this novelist had up his sleeve. I was sad though that circumstances beyond my control have caused a 7-month delay of finishing this much desired book when I started it way back in January. Finally reaching the last page, I can know add it to my blog.

Quentin Clark is an attorney of 1849 Baltimore where news of Edgar Allan Poe’s death has shocked him, even if no one else had cared. After becoming a fan of this widely unknown writer, Clark began a correspondence with Poe to work as a legal aid in clearing his name of the false press statements about Poe’s drunken habits. Once Poe ends up dead under mysterious circumstances, Quentin Clark continues the work he promised Poe to make sure people know the truth about Poe’s life and death. This proves more difficult than expected under the conditions and Quentin must seek outside help. Mr. Clark decides to travel to France in order to find the real life inspiration for Poe’s dramatic mystery hero, C. Auguste Dupin. Since there are multiple possibilities believed for this inspiration, it becomes a contest to figure out the truth of Poe’s death first in order to prove which one is the real Dupin of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter.” Quentin’s devotion leads to the diminishing of his law practice as well as his romantic relationship with an almost fiancé as he tries to deal with issues involving the popularly rising temperance movement, the Baltimore slave trade and even international conspiracies and assassination attempts. The investigation of one death leads to another and Quentin begins the telling of his story on trial.

Matthew Pearl’s novel is interesting enough during adventure sequences, but sadly these are rare. From crawling in hospital tunnels meant for dead bodies in order to eavesdrop on information, to hanging on the ledge of a city monument to evade French mobsters, those portions of the story are captivating and action packed. (There is even a swordfight!) The details in Pearl’s writings are what make him a great storyteller, but in The Poe Shadow, their use can also cause his downfall. There is much information and back-story that goes into planning a mystery-thriller, yet the presentation of these necessary facts is mainly involved with two men sitting and talking to each other. These back-stories are highly creative and crucial to the novel, but the explaining dialogue scenes appear too frequently for my taste. Forty percent of the time the conversation is about what has happened in the past, the other sixty percent is about what might have happened in the past and why they think so. The reader finds him or herself forcing the continued reading, waiting for the next enjoyable scene from Pearl’s fantastic pen (or keyboard) that eventually comes but fades too quickly into yet another dialogue of the previous events. There is no doubt that Pearl possesses a unique talent for historical fiction that serves him well and will most likely continue to do so (maybe in his 2009 The Last Dickens). It was the triumph of making it through the novel to the end that makes it possible for me to praise the book as a whole, even though some specific story-telling characteristics during the process appear wildly unattractive.

The Poe Shadow is a beautifully written piece of work that earns Matthew Pearl gold stars for originality, creativity, voice and style. It is a brilliant piece and stands on its own but there is the general feeling that it might have stood a little taller with a few changes. As it is, it surely would be next to nothing without Pearl’s previous success with The Dante Club that drew me and, I’m sure, others like me to his piece. I would recommend this novel to fans of Matthew Pearl, fans of Edgar Allan Poe, fans of mystery thrillers or fans of historical pieces.

“It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything.”
- Lord Henry P. Brougham

The Dante Club

So starting a book review blog during my busy junior year may have been a little too ambitious. However, even with the amount of coursework I have, I am determined to share my opinions of books for the masses, or at least the small amount of readers this blog gets. I will now be mixing in some “reviews” from previous Facebook reading projects, to make sure that every Monday will have something to offer.
This is from “Caught Reading: Summer Project 2007.”

The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl

“An interesting historical fiction mystery that starts out a little rough but finishes strong. This book was very hard to get into since the first 50 pages were more or less for character analysis and laying the foundation for the rest of the novel, but once it gets into the mystery of it (and people start dieing), it keeps you at the edge of your seat. Four Boston writers in 1865 (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields) are working on translating Dante's "Inferno" with much literary criticism from those who don't think Dante's writings are appropriate in proper society. But when multiple murders start occuring, the writers get swept into the mystery after discovering that the events are mimicking gruesome scenes taken directly from Dante's work. It is up to the intellectuals to save the day since they are the only ones capable of making any sense of it all. If you can struggle through the beginning of the novel (which I admit was hard) you will be rewarded for your efforts by going through the amazing and exciting process of finding a serial killer in historical Boston.”

I still think this book is a good one to share, which must say something about its quality. Personally, being an English major, I liked the literary aspects they were able to take to “epic” proportions. The beginning takes a while only because you need some time to understand the politics of the university administration and untangle a cast of seemingly similar professor characters. The action in this book is thrilling, and not what you would expect from older teachers. It is both physically and mentally active. The main characters stick to their passion of translating Dante even to the point of almost losing their jobs, but their work leads them to the cat-and-mouse chase of a mass murderer. They want to inspire others through this epic poem, but one character becomes far too inspired to the point of reenactment. Only those with literary knowledge are able to solve the mystery, which is inspiring to us English majors. But the best part is that you don’t have to be a literature expert to understand the novel or its references. The author gives readers the exact amount of knowledge needed about Dante’s work through the comprehensible dialogue that also helps readers just feel smart for knowing anything about Dante.

I think it says enough that I have chosen to re-share this book; I would definitely recommend it to any book lover who just likes to know that someday everything they read will help pay off. Maybe not to the point of catching a murderer, but I hope all this reading will help mold me into a cultured individual… someday.

“A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”
- Abraham Lincoln