'' is a Novel written by American author Dan Brown and published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction (ISBN 0385504209). It is a worldwide bestseller with sales of more than 40 million copies (as of March 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the Detective , Thriller and Conspiracy Theory genres, the book is part two of a Trilogy that started with Brown's 2000 novel '' Angels And Demons '', which introduced the character Robert Langdon . In November 2004 , Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition", with 160 illustrations interspersed with the text.
The plot of the novel involves a Conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus . The Vatican knows it is living a lie but does so to keep itself in power. The novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the History Of Christianity . Fans have lauded the book as creative, action-packed and thought-provoking. Critics have attacked it as inaccurate and poorly written, and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei .
The book opens with the claim by Dan Brown that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate"; but this claim is disputed by many academic scholars in the fields the book discusses (see Criticisms Of The Da Vinci Code and the Further Reading list below). As widely noted in the media, there has been substantial confusion among readers about whether the book is factual. Numerous works have been published that explain in detail why any claim to accuracy is difficult to substantiate.
The plot is similar to that of Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco .
a few chapters from this book
The book concerns the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of "Religious Symbology" at Harvard University , to solve the murder of renowned Curator Jacques Saunière (''see'' Bérenger Saunière ) of the Louvre Museum in Paris . 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 famous drawing, the '' 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, including the '' Mona Lisa '' and '' The Last Supper '', figure prominently in the solution to the mystery.
'', by Leonardo Da Vinci .]]
The main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries:
- What secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?
- Who is the mastermind behind his murder?
The novel has several concurrent storylines that follow different characters. Eventually all the storylines are brought together and resolved at the end of the book.
The unraveling of the mystery requires the solution to a series of brain-teasers, including Anagram s and number puzzles. The solution itself is found to be intimately connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and to a mysterious society called the Priory Of Sion , as well as to the Knights Templar . The Catholic organization ''"Opus Dei"'' (a caricature of the real Opus Dei ) also figures prominently in the plot.
The novel is the second book of a trilogy by Brown in which Robert Langdon is the main character. The previous book, '' Angels And Demons '', took place in Rome and concerned the Illuminati . Although ''Angels and Demons'' is centered around the same character it is not necessary to read the book in order to understand the plot of ''The Da Vinci Code''. The next book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2006 or 2007, and the working title is '' The Solomon Key ''.
These are the principal characters that drive the plot of the story. It seems to be Dan Brown's style that many have names that are Pun s, anagrams or hidden clues:
- – A well-respected professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University . At the beginning of the story, he is in Paris to give a lecture on his work. Having made an appointment to meet Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre, he is startled to find the French police at his hotel room door. They inform him that Saunière has been murdered and they would like his immediate assistance at the Louvre to help them solve the crime. Unbeknownst to Langdon, he is in fact the prime suspect in the murder and has been summoned to the scene of the crime in order that the police may extract a confession from him. It might be no coincidence that a John Langdon was the real graphic artist who designed the Ambigrams in Brown's novel, '' Angels And Demons '', the first of the Robert Langdon trilogy.
- – the curator of the Louvre, head of the secret Priory Of Sion , and grandfather of Sophie Neveu. Before being murdered by Silas (an Albino Monk ) in the museum, he reveals false information to Silas about the Priory's Keystone , which contains information about the true location of the Holy Grail. After being shot in the stomach, he uses the last minutes of his life to arrange a series of clues for his estranged granddaughter, Sophie, to unravel the mystery of his death and preserve the secret kept by the Priory of Sion. Saunière's name may be based on Bérenger Saunière , a real person who was extensively mentioned in '' Holy Blood, Holy Grail ''.
- – the granddaughter of Jacques Saunière. She is a French Government Cryptographer , who studied at the elite Royal Holloway, University Of London Information Security Group. She was raised by her grandfather after her parents were killed in a car accident when she was a girl. Her grandfather used to call her "Princesse Sophie" (as is revealed later, she and her grandfather are descendants of the Merovingians ) and trained her to solve complicated word puzzles. As a girl, she accidentally discovered a strange key in her grandfather's room inscribed with the initials "P.S.". Later, as a college student, she made a surprise visit to her grandfather's house in Normandy and observed him participating in the Hieros Gamos , a sex ritual. The incident led to her estrangement with her grandfather for ten years until the night of his murder.
- – a captain in the Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ), the French criminal investigation police. Tough, canny, persistent, he is in charge of the investigation of Saunière's murder. From the message left by the dying curator, he is convinced the murderer is Robert Langdon, whom he summons to the Louvre in order to extract a confession. He is thwarted in his early attempt by Sophie Neveu, who knows Langdon to be innocent and surreptitiously notifies Langdon that he is in fact the prime suspect. He pursues Langdon doggedly throughout the book in the belief that letting him get away would be career suicide. "Bezu" is not a common French personal name, but "le Bezu" is the name of a Castle in Rennes-le-Château with Cathar associations; Rennes-le-Château is the town in which Bérenger Saunière served as Catholic Priest . When we first encounter Fache, he is compared to an ox; note that "Bezu" is an anagram (and the Spoonerism ) of Zebu (''zébu'' in French), a type of ox. ''Fâché'' is French for "angry", but "Fache" is also a reasonably common French surname, although it is pronounced differently from ''fâché''.
- – an albino devotee of Opus Dei who practices severe Corporal Mortification . He was orphaned in Marseille as a young man, fell into a life of crime, and was imprisoned in Andorra in the Pyrenees until freed by an earthquake. He finds refuge with a young Spanish priest named Aringarosa, who gives him the name Silas and who eventually becomes the head of Opus Dei. Before the beginning of the events in the novel, Aringarosa puts him in contact with the Teacher and tells him that the mission he will be given is of utmost importance in saving the true Word of God. Under the orders of the Teacher, he murders Jacques Saunière and the other three leaders of the Priory of Sion in order to extract the location of the Priory's ''clef de voûte'' or "keystone". Discovering later that he has been duped with false information, he chases Langdon and Neveu in order to obtain the actual keystone. He does not know the true identity of the Teacher. He is reluctant to commit murder, knowing that it is a Sin , and does so only because he is assured his actions will save the Catholic Church.
- – the worldwide head of Opus Dei and the patron of the albino monk Silas. Five months before the start of the narrative, he is summoned by the Vatican to a meeting at an astronomical observatory in the Italian Alps and told, to his great surprise, that in six months the Pope will withdraw his support of Opus Dei. Since he believes that Opus Dei is the force keeping the Church from disintegrating into what he sees as the corruption of the modern era, he believes his faith demands that he take action to save Opus Dei. Shortly after the meeting with the Vatican officials, he is contacted by a shadowy figure calling himself "The Teacher", who has learned somehow of the secret meeting. The Teacher informs him that he can deliver an artifact to Aringarosa so valuable to the Church that it will give Opus Dei extreme leverage over the Vatican. The name "Aringarosa" seems to be the (approximate) literal Italian translation of " Red Herring " ("aringa rossa"; "aringa rosa" means, literally, "pink herring"), although this is not the expression used in Italian for "red herring" in its figurative sense. It could have a loose relation to "A Ring Around The Rosies" (A-Ring-a-Rosa) where Rosa could refer to the rose line, or the various other rose symbology in the novel.
- – a shadowy figure who drives the plot of the story. He has learned not only about the plight of Opus Dei, but also the identities of the four leaders of the Priory of Sion, who in turn know the location of the keystone. He contacts Aringarosa and agrees to supply him with a fantastic artifact that will give Opus Dei great power, namely documents that, if released, would destroy the Church. Aringarosa, acting out of self interest and piety, agrees to his offer in order to save both Opus Dei and the Church. The Teacher uses Silas, Aringarosa's protectee, to carry out his plans.
- – president of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank Of Zurich . He is informed of Neveu and Langdon being wanted by the Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire by a security guard who recognized them from a television news report he had been watching before they had entered the bank. When Neveu and Langdon arrive Vernet met with them, his only plan in mind to get rid of them before the police arrive. They inform him that Jacques Saunière, a longtime account holder at the bank, has died and that Neveu now possesses the depository key, a Gold Key , to the account but did not know the account number. He is incapable of helping with the account information and leaves Neveu and Langdon alone to buy time from the police. Neveu and Langdon access the bank account with the key and figure out the account number after examining one of Saunière's clues he left behind, and retrieved a Rosewood box from Saunière's safety deposit. When Vernet returns he is shocked to learn Neveu and Langdon figured out the account number. He is motivated to help them escape undetected for a primary reason: he does not want the bank to get bad publicity since Saunière was a close friend of his. Acting as a bank driver, he bluffs his way past the police in one of the bank's trucks with Langdon and Neveu concealed in the cargo-hold. He later attempts to retrieve the rosewood box he believes they had stolen from Saunière after he hears on the radio Langdon is wanted for the murder of three others, the three other high ranking members of the Priory of Sion, the sènèchaux, and turn them in but he is thwarted by Langdon, who steals the truck and escapes with Neveu to the nearby château of his friend, Sir Leigh Teabing.
- – British Royal Historian, a Knight Of The Realm , Grail scholar, and friend of Robert Langdon. Independently wealthy, he lives outside Paris in a Château , where Langdon and Neveu take refuge after escaping from the Depository Bank of Zurich with the rosewood box containing the keystone. He reveals the "real" interpretation of the Grail to Neveu (see below). After they are discovered at his home simultaneously by Silas and the French police, the three of them flee with his chauffeur Rémy, flying to England in his private jet. They take Silas with them bound and gagged. After Neveu solves the combination lock of the keystone, he interprets the enclosed riddle as meaning they should go to the Temple Church in London to find the next hidden clue that will let them unlock the second combination lock of the keystone. Note that Sir Leigh's name is an anagram of the surnames of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh — authors of '' Holy Blood, Holy Grail '', a book which espouses very similar beliefs to Sir Leigh's.
- – manservant and chauffeur to Leigh Teabing. After flying with Teabing, Langdon, and Neveu to England, he drives them to the Temple Church in London. Unbeknownst to the others, he is in fact working for the Teacher. While they are inside the Temple Church, he rescues Silas, who was tied up by the other three. Armed with a pistol, he enters the church before the others can locate and solve the riddle supposedly hidden there. He takes Teabing hostage and demands the keystone from Langdon. When Langdon gives him the keystone, he and Silas flee in his car with Teabing as hostage. Rémy Martin is a famous brand of Cognac , and cognac plays a role in Rémy's fate.
- – a Lieutenant in the Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ). He is Fache's second-in-command in the case. Mostly a disappointment to Fache, Collet tries to redeem himself throughout the novel, but is also motivated by his own craving for glory and fear of risking his career by ignoring Fache's orders. By the end of the investigation Collet manages to share in the spotlight and to save Fache undue embarrassment by crediting him for the arrest of the Teacher while also claiming that his misguided intent to arrest Neveu and Langdon was a ruse to draw out the real killer. By the end of the book Fache says of him, "A good man, that Collet."
- – he is giving a guided tour of Rosslyn Chapel to Langdon and Neveu when he sees the Rosewood box they are carrying and realizes that it seems to be an exact duplicate of a box owned by his grandmother, who is the head of the trust that oversees the chapel. He is revealed to be Sophie's brother.
- – she is, in fact, Marie Chauvel, the wife of Jacques Saunière and Sophie Neveu's grandmother. The docent is Sophie's brother. Believing that they had been targeted for assassination by the Church for knowing the powerful secret of the Priory of Sion, she and Saunière agreed that she and Sophie's brother should live secretly in Scotland . Only Sophie's parents were in the car at the time even though the whole family was supposed to be there. Saunière told the authorities that Sophie's grandmother and her brother were in the car. She tells Neveu and Langdon that although the Holy Grail and the secret documents were once buried in the vault of Rosslyn Chapel , they were removed to France by the Priory of Sion only several years ago. Reading the parchment inside the second keystone, she realizes where the Grail is now hidden, but refuses to tell Langdon, saying he will figure it out eventually on his own. According to her, the Priory of Sion never intended to reveal the secret of the Grail according to any set timetable. She believes that such a revelation is unnecessary anyway, since the true nature and spiritual power of the Grail is emerging into the world without the location of the actual artifact being revealed. She also informs Sophie Neveu of her true identity through her bloodline.
- Jacques Saunière was the head of the Priory Of Sion and therefore possessed the knowledge of the "keystone", which in turn reveals the location of the Holy Grail , as well as documents which would shake the foundation of Christianity and the Church . He was killed in order to extract this information from him and eliminate the members of the Priory of Sion.
- The reason that Sophie Neveu disassociated herself from her grandfather is that she witnessed him participating in a pagan sex ritual ( Hieros Gamos ) at his home in Normandy , when she made a surprise visit there during a break from college.
- The message Saunière wrote with an alcohol restoration marking pen on the floor before dying contained the extra line "P.S. Find Robert Langdon ". This was the reason Bezu Fache suspected Langdon of being the murderer. Fache had erased this line before Langdon arrived so that Langdon would not be aware that the police suspected him. Sophie Neveu saw the entire text of the message by accident when it was Fax ed to her office by the police. Sophie realized immediately that the message was meant for her, since her grandfather used to call her "Princesse Sophie" (i.e. "PS") when she was a girl. From this she also knew Langdon to be innocent. She informs him of this secretly when they are in the Louvre by telling him to call her personal Voicemail box and listen to the message that she had left there for him.
- The other three lines of Saunière's blood message are anagrams. The first line are the digits of the Fibonacci Sequence out of order. The second and third lines ("O, draconian devil!" and "Oh, lame saint!") are anagrams respectively for "Leonardo da Vinci" and "The ''Mona Lisa''" (in English). These clues were meant to lead to a second set of clues. On the glass over the Mona Lisa , Saunière wrote the message "So dark the con of Man" with a curator's pen that can only be read in Ultra-violet light. The second clue is an anagram for '' Madonna Of The Rocks '', another Da Vinci painting hanging nearby. Behind this painting, Saunière hid a key. On the key, written with the curator's pen, is an address.
- The instructions that Saunière revealed to Silas at gunpoint are actually a well-rehearsed lie, namely that the keystone is buried in the Church of Saint-Sulpice beneath an Obelisk that lies exactly along the ancient "Rose Line" (supposedly the former Prime Meridian (as defined by the French--not internationally) which passed through Paris before it was redefined to pass through Greenwich , although the actual Paris Meridian does not pass through the actual Church of Saint-Sulpice). In reality, the message beneath the obelisk simply contains a reference to a passage in the Book Of Job which reads "Hitherto shalt thou go and no further". When Silas reads this, he realizes he has been duped.
- The keystone is actually a Cryptex , a cylindrical device invented by Leonardo Da Vinci for transporting secure messages. In order to open it, the combination of rotating components must be arranged in the correct order. If forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar will rupture and dissolve the message, which was written on Papyrus . The Rosewood box containing the cryptex contains clues to the combination of the cryptex, written in backwards script in the same manner as Leonardo's journals. While fleeing to England aboard Teabing's plane, Langdon solves the riddle and finds the combination to be "S-O-F-I-A", the ancient Greek form of Sophie's name, also meaning wisdom.
- The keystone cryptex actually contains a second smaller cryptex with a second riddle that reveals its combination. The riddle, which says to seek the orb that should be on the tomb of "a knight a pope interred", refers not to a medieval knight, but rather to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton , who was buried in Westminster Abbey , and was eulogized by Alexander Pope (A. Pope). The orb refers to the apple observed by Newton which led to his discovery of the Law Of Universal Gravitation , and thus the combination to the second cryptex is "A-P-P-L-E".
- The Teacher is actually Sir Leigh Teabing. He learned of the identities of the leaders of the Priory Of Sion and bugged their offices. Rémy is his collaborator. It is Teabing who contacts Bishop Aringarosa using a phony French accent to hide his identity and dupes him into financing the plan to find the Grail. He never intended to hand the Grail over to Aringarosa but was simply taking advantage of ''"Opus Dei's"'' resolve to find it. Instead he believed that the Priory of Sion intended to renege on its vow to reveal the secret of the Grail to the world at the appointed time, and thus he was planning to steal the Grail documents and reveal them to the world himself. It is he who informed Silas that Langdon and Sophie Neveu were at his chateau. He did not seize the keystone from them himself because he did not want to reveal his identity to them. His plan to have Silas break into his house and seize the keystone was thwarted when the police raided the house, having followed the GPS device in the truck Langdon had stolen and having heard Silas's gunshot. Teabing leads Neveu and Langdon to the Temple Church in London knowing full well that it was a blind alley. Rather he wanted to stage the hostage scene with Rémy in order to obtain the keystone without revealing his real plot to Langdon and Neveu. The call Silas receives while riding in the limousine with Rémy is in fact Teabing, surreptitiously calling from the back of the limousine.
- In order to erase all knowledge of his work, Teabing kills Rémy by giving him Cognac laced with Peanut powder, knowing Rémy has a deadly allergy to peanuts. Teabing also anonymously tells the police that Silas is hiding in the London headquarters of ''"Opus Dei"''.
- In Westminster Abbey , in the showdown with Teabing, Langdon secretly opens the second cryptex and removes its contents before destroying it in front of Teabing. Teabing is arrested and led away while fruitlessly begging Langdon to tell him the contents of the second cryptex and the secret location of the Grail.
- Bishop Aringarosa and Silas believed they were saving the Church , not destroying it.
- Bezu Fache figures out that Neveu and Langdon are innocent after discovering the bugging equipment in Teabing's barn.
- Silas accidentally shoots Aringarosa outside the London headquarters of ''"Opus Dei"'' while fleeing from the police. Having realized his terrible error and that he has been duped, Aringarosa tells Bezu Fache to give the Bearer Bond s in his brief case to the families of the murdered leaders of the Priory of Sion. Silas dies of fatal wounds.
- The final message inside the second keystone actually does not refer to Rosslyn Chapel , although the Grail was indeed once buried there, below the Star Of David on the floor (the two interlocking triangles are the "blade" and "chalice", i.e., male and female symbols).
- The docent in Rosslyn Chapel is Sophie's long-lost brother.
- The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel, is Sophie's long-lost grandmother, and the wife of Jacques Saunière. She is also the woman who participated in the sex ritual with Jacques Sauniere.
- Even though all four of the leaders of the Priory Of Sion were killed, the secret is not lost, since there is still a contingency plan (never revealed) which will keep the organization and its secret alive.
- The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small Pyramid (i.e., the "blade", a male symbol) directly below the ''inverted'' glass pyramid of the Louvre (i.e., the "chalice", a female symbol, which Langdon and Sophie ironically almost crash into while making their original escape from Bezu Fache). See La Pyramide Inversée for further discussion.
Narrative paradox: The novel portrays characters reacting with total amazement and disbelief when told the "true" story of the Grail and of Mary Magdalene, while also presenting this "truth" as something so well-known that there is no serious dispute amongst academics about it. Dan Brown also seems to suggest that the "secret" is so widely shared that it has been conveyed in numerous publicly available books and art works throughout history, while still remaining unknown to the general public.
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