Benjamin Galvin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Dante Club character | |
|---|---|
| 300 px| Font of book The Dante Club | |
| Benjamin Galvin | |
| Actual name/title | Benjamin Galvin |
| Aliases | Dan Teal (after Dante) |
| Nicknames | Ben Galvin Dan |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Birth | Around 1840-45 |
| Ancestry | English american |
| Relationships | Girlfriend, mother and father unknown |
| Enemies | Augustus Manning Artemus Healey Phineas Jennison Elisha Talbot Pliny Mead |
| Idols (later enemies) | Dante Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Oliver Wendell Holmes J.T.Fields James Russell Lowell |
| M.O. | Contrapasso, Personality disorder caused by war |
| Occupation(s) | Union soldier, Book shop helpmate |
| Current status: | Deceased im winter 1865/66 |
| Portrayed by: | Matthew Pearl (The Dante Club) (literally) |
Benjamin Galvin is the antagonist of Matthew Pearls novel The Dante Club. Benjamin, who after the war when he started to listen to George Washington Greenes proclamations of Dante, changed his name to Dan Teal (after Dante, since he could not spell "Alighieri") after his idol, realizing the Divine Comedy as more than a masterpiece, believing himself he was Dante (maybe helped by psychiatric problems received in the civil war), as Dante was a soldier he wanted to be, and made himself Dante by succeding into hell and punishing all those who worked against the Dante Club translating the work under Henry Longfellow. As judge Healey had refused taking action in his important position, not even fought against the club Galvin saw him as a terrible one of the neutral ones, attacking him once alone in his mansion, leaving him naked in his own garden immobile, wounded and covered with screwworms.
Elisha Talbot was (as he was revealed to more and more of the Inferno, the comedy was at this point only readable in english and though trying desperately to learn, the poor-born Benjamin paid a poor italian and Dante-lover to learn him, though unsuccessful, he learned the comedy as he advanced with the killings. Talbot had received money and position to work against the Dante club and Longfellow, which (in Bens/Teals eyes) made him a simonit, a one who has gotten a religious position cause of irrelevant services, such as work against the release of a literal art translation. Galvin spied on Talbot for days before digging a hatch down the catacombs of Boston catholic church (Dante made many of his accusations against catholic priests in common, which were severly punished in several of his circles in the Inferno), attacking the physically inferior Talbot as he walked through the underground on his way home, undressed him while fainted, put him upside-down in the pit, filled the rest with dirt and set his feet ablaze. Shortly after, probably even before Talbot's death another priest came in and killed the fire, however too late to catch Galvin.
A rich and charming young athlete and high member of Boston society, Phineas Jennison were upholding tries on other's orders (in particarly Manning's) to stop the Dante translation and still keeping it a secret and trying to "help" the Club, acting as their friend. About the time Washington Greene had read for Galvin and other soldiers from the war (as a kind of charity) of the sowers of discord, those who ripped things apart (such as religion, which Muhammad is punished for in the comedy, however this must be seen as out of Dante's eyes and not objective) Galvin knew what would be next. Though physically capable of defending himself and not facing a firearm, Jennison succumbs to panic while being kidnapped and taken to an old fort (fortress Malebolge) where he cuts him in half, though not over the entire body, as he show small signs of life when discovered two days later, he however dies emmidiately and leaves the police officers and Oliver Wendell Holmes in shock. After that, it didn't go long to the next but the Dante Club met Galvin/Teal in the book shop where he was working, however they had no idea he was the murderer, but soon they were on his trail. About to punish last victim Augustus Manning, who is threatening the entire project by denying Dante to the readers of America, he is considered the traitor and is visited by Galvin in nothern soldier uniform a late evening. Manning grabs a rifle but is beaten unconscious and when awaken he is tied, lying in a trailer driven by Galvin on the way out on a frozen lake. He and student Pliny Mead are placed naked in a hole in the ice (Cocytus) to freeze to death, but Lowell and Holmes interferes, fires against Galvin and saves Manning, Mead is taken up but dies of hypothermia. Galvin is surprised and greatly disappointed and hurt as they who he idolized worked against him and his art, against the poet's will - or whatever Galvin thought it was. He however quickly got used to it and started to look on them as his new enemies. Exposed, Galvin knew (or didn't consider) his end was drawn on close, he kidnapped Fields and Lowell and hid them, bound and gagged in a hideout in the catacomb where he had burned Talbot (with the intention to capture Holmes as well and force Longfellow to shoot them), but Holmes escaped him and outside Longfellow's house, he and Longfellow found themselves pointing guns at each other (Galvin "helping" Longfellow). Holmes suddenly aimed at Longfellow instead of Galvin and Longfellow began to crumble, and as the end started to shiver Galvin suddenly felt someone near, he twisted around and attacked but was shot twice by the half-recovered Manning (who resided closeby, a couple of days after his near death) and killed, lying in a pile of snow, bleeding from his white soldier shirt in his blue uniform, looking up at the sky.
