1Reviews and everything / Da Vinci Code - Individual Reading

Alex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com

Group 501

A Book Report On The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown

“According to your faith, be it unto you”

Matthew 9:29

How do you find a great book these days? If it a bestseller, if it is read by millions more who download in through torrents and P2P networks, if it is gripping and controversial, then the book is virtually classics. Dan Brown’s The Da Vince Code definitely has all the markings. It is one of the best selling novels ever with over 80 million copies sold as of 2009. It has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, the book provoked a great deal of controversial emotions and reviews. Adored by some for the intricate plot full of narrative twists and deft ironies, it has been widely criticised for being contrived and also for a number of historical and scientific inaccuracies by others.

Dan Brown was born on June 22, 1964. He grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to writing. In 1996, his interest in code-breaking and covert government agencies led him to write his first novel, Digital Fortress, which quickly became the national bestseller. Then came the techno-thriller, Deception Point, centred on morality in politics, national security and classified technology. The son of a Presidential Award math professor and a professional sacred musician, Dan grew up surrounded by the paradoxical philosophies of science and religion. This knowledge inspired him to write Angels and Demons - a science vs. religion thriller. Dan’s wife Blythe - an art historian and a painter - collaborates on his research and accompanies him on his frequent research trips, their latest to Pris where they spent time in the Louvre for his thriller, The Da Vinci Code. The book achieved unprecedented success and in 2004 it was adapted for film by Columbia Pictures in 2006.

The novel is based on the controversial conjecture that there is a conspiracy within the Roman Catholic Church to cover up the true story of Jesus. Although a work of fiction, the book claims to be thoroughly researched. As a result, many readers, both catholic and non-Catholic are taking the book’s ideas seriously, while many facts described contradict the doctrines of Christianity. The book claims that Jesus is not God, he was only a man; Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, who was pregnant at the time he had been crucified and later gave birth to their daughter Sarah. That daughter gave rise to a prominent family line that is still present in Europe. The secret society Priory of Sion worships Magdalene as a goddess and is trying to keep the truth alive. The Catholic Church is aware of all this and has been fighting for centuries to keep it suppressed and it often has committed murder to do so. The Catholic Church is willing to and often has assassinated the descendents of Christ to keep his bloodline from growing. The truth has been suppressed by the Vatican for millennia to keep itself in power. They also feared the power of the sacred feminine and thought this would challenge the primacy of Saint Peter as an apostle.

Speaking about the plot and the title of the novel one can mention that the book considers the attempts of Robert Langton, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, to solve the murder of the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris Jacques Saunière. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the fact that Saunière’s body is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a Pentagram drawn on his stomach in his own blood. The interpretation of hidden messages inside Leonardo’s famous works (which relate to the concept of the sacred feminine) including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, stands out in the character’s quest for the truth. The main conflict in the novel revolves around two mysteries:

• what secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?

• who is the mastermind behind his murder and the murder of three other senechaux?

The novel has several concurrent storylines that follow different characters through different parts of the book. The revelation of the mystery requires the solution of anagrams and number puzzles. The solution itself is thought to be closely connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and with a mysterious society called the Priory of Sion, which defends the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, stands in opposition to the Priory of Sion and tries to destroy the bloodline.

The main characters in the story are:

• Robert Langdon, the main protagonist and a highly respected and intelligent professor at Harvard University. Together with Sophie, he unravels the mysteries of the Jesus bloodline.

• Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre, head of the secret Priory of Sion and grandfather of Sophie Neveu.

• Sophie Neveu, French National Police cryptographer, who later finds out that she is a descendant of the Merovingians, and a living descendant of the historical Jesus.

• Bezu Fache, captain in the Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire (DCPJ), the French criminal investigation police.

• Silas, an albino monk, a devotee of the Catholic organization Opus Dei, who practices severe corporal mortification (he is seen using a metal cilice and flogging himself) and murders Jacques Saunière.

• Leigh Teabing, the main antagonist, a British Royal Historian, a Knight of the Realm, Grail scholar, and friend of Harvard professor Robert Langdon.

Contemporary crusade with mystery, bloodshed and a battle for hearts and minds, Dan Brown’s work is a smart compilation of a novel and research. And that is one of the reasons why it is so grasping and encouraging. Another is that it touches upon ideas and beliefs that many consider axioms. For me the unflinching atmosphere of the novel is definitely gripping and belligerent, like a quest by the Knights Templar. Although some chapters seem prolix and too elaborate, on the whole the novel is interesting. I believe the ideas mentioned are not impossible. We may never know the truth but to me that was not the main point of the book. I think Dan Brown wanted to say that being not open to new ideas and following one particular doctrine, be it that of the Catholic church or any other, the main thing is about following it blindly, leads to hatred, bloodshed and violence. Don’t be dogmatic, think about stuff and, above all, stay open – that is the message I read. As you think, so shall you be! I like the book better than the movie because of the way I had imagined characters and the plot. The director did not manage to either surpass or create the same effect as my imagination did. I hope I will be able to read some more works by Dan Brown in future.

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