Ancient religious cults, code breaking, conspiracy theories and a good old fashioned mystery are all part of Dan Brown's lightweight but still entertaining novel 'The Da Vinci Code.
Conspiracy theories have always been popular and various novels dealing with this theme have been very successful. ... Read review
Harvard professor Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call while on ... more
business in Paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre, Jacques Saunière, has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police have found a series of baffling codes. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, begin to sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci – and suggests the answer to a mystery that stretches deep into the vault of history.
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Advantages: A good read Disadvantages: Lack of characterisation
...extraterrestrial plots to take over the world. However a new trend seems to be developing, many authors are looking to the past and older conspiracies involving historical secret societies with religious or occult traditions are becoming favoured backgrounds for many stories. Of course Dan Brown is not the first to do this and 'The Da Vinci Code' does not have the impact, the literary credentials or witty style of Umberto Eco's much better 'Foucault's ... ...THE STORY
In the dark galleries and corridors of the Louvre museum in the middle of the night a deadly confrontation takes place between Silas an Albino monk and the academic and curator of the Louvre Jacques Saunière. Saunière is the holder of an ancient secret that the extreme Catholic organisation Opus Dei desperately wants in order to obtain a great source of power. Saunière is left to die but in a desperate bid to alert other ... more
Ancient religious cults, code breaking, conspiracy theories and a good old fashioned mystery are all part of Dan Brown's lightweight but still entertaining novel 'The Da Vinci Code.
Conspiracy theories have always been popular and various novels dealing with this theme have been very successful. Until recently most conspiracy theories seemed to involve political intrigue or extraterrestrial plots to take over the world. However a new trend seems to be developing, many authors are looking to the past and older conspiracies involving historical secret societies with religious or occult traditions are becoming favoured backgrounds for many stories. Of course Dan Brown is not the first to do this and 'The Da Vinci Code' does not have the impact, the literary credentials or witty style of Umberto Eco's much better 'Foucault's Pendulum', which deals with similar themes.
THE STORY
In the dark galleries and corridors of the Louvre museum in the middle of the night a deadly confrontation takes place between Silas an Albino monk and the academic and curator of the Louvre Jacques Saunière. Saunière is the holder of an ancient secret that the extreme Catholic organisation Opus Dei desperately wants in order to obtain a great source of power. Saunière is left to die but in a desperate bid to alert other to his life's purpose before it is too late, he uses his last moments to devise a complex code involving works of art, secret messages and even the position of his own corpse. This code he hopes will only be deciphered by Robert Langdon an academic and expert in religious symbolism in art who was due to meet with Saunière that very night and by Saunière's Granddaughter Sophie Neveu a cryptologist working with the French police. The plan is partly successful but Saunière did not count of the involvement of Fache the tenacious police chief investigating Saunière's murder who vehemently believes the coded clues to be proof of Langdon's guilt in Saunière's murder.
Thus begins a desperate race against time as Langdon and Sophie struggle to uncover Saunière's secret and keep it safely away from Opus Dei's fanatical henchmen while at the same time trying to evade capture by the French police.
WHAT I THOUGHT
Dan Brown provides us with an engaging, diverting thriller but little more. The story is clever, there are plenty of the obligatory twists and turns, the pacing is excellent, in short it is a real page-turner. However it is not a great book. The characterisation is sloppy and lacks depth, the two lead characters as well as Silas the Albino assassin are no more than literary clichés we have met this combination before in countless other mediocre thrillers. Brown's writing style is very accessible but is really just a mean to an end in order to tell the story rather than being a feature of the book that can be appreciated on it's own right. For me he failed to bring to life the locations and especially in the early part of the book I failed to get a sense of Paris or the great building and artworks that were being described. I expected to be engulfed in a dark gothic atmosphere while reading the story with its emphasis on secret religious ceremonies and ancient pagan rituals but this failed to materialise. There was little richness or depth to the text and at various points I was reminded of reading some of the better Dennis Wheatley occult novels often adapted by Hammer studios in the 60's.
The major selling point of the book is its use of the myth surrounding Da Vinci and other famous artists and the long stated belief that many of the leading lights of the Renaissance and Enlightenment such as Botticelli and Newton were members of secret societies. These societies or brotherhoods were believed to have access to powerful forces and that generations of followers have kept this information secret from people who would abuse this knowledge. Brown in the same way that Eco did before him manages to merge reality (or at least real 'myths') with fiction. Opus Dei, also described as the catholic Church's mafia, does exist. The real Opus Dei organisation has its headquarters in New York. The Priory of Sion historically believed to be a sinister hierarchy of a vast network of secret societies that together make up an international secret brotherhood also plays a central feature of the book. In history this brotherhood has often been connected to the Templars, The Masons, the Rosicrucian heretics and the Cathars heretics, their influence has been speculated to reach from these ancient times to the modern day. Brown even names some of his characters after historical figures like the Abbé Bérenger Saunière the priest of Rennes-le-Château and a supposed member of a secret society rumoured to have made an important but as yet unknown discovery of immense value within the church at the beginning of the last century.
In this respect Brown is certainly following in the footsteps of other like Umberto Eco that presented much the same conspiracy albeit with a masterful and witty twist in his superior 'Foucault's Pendulum'. For anyone familiar with these stories the background to 'The Da Vinci Code' will come as no surprise and while Brown manages to keep a sense of suspense throughout the novel the outcome and eventual revelations will not come as a great surprise to every reader.
Another aspect of the book, which I found unconvincing were the seemingly complex codes that our characters are faced with in order to unpick the mystery. To begin with Brown makes great use of noting the actual religious symbolism and hidden messages that are known to exist in many paintings by Da Vinci and others. Some of this I knew about before and some I did not but I believe that Brown has given us accurate accounts. I can't deny that Brown skilfully weaves these real life mysteries into his fiction but the problem for me came when Brown has to devise some secret codes for the purposes of the plot, to me they seemed too easy! Not necessarily for the reader but certainly for the characters that are supposed to be leading experts in the fields of symbolism and code breaking. Most of them amount to little more than anagrams and number sequences, you'd think that the people involved would have had a little more imagination.
The Da Vinci code has been a massive best seller across the world and I can see why. It is a good read. It is essentially a gripping thriller with an unusual twist of an often tried genre. It is a very lightweight read which will be accessible to most readers. Some of the chapter are only a couple of pages long so it is ideal for dipping into at odd moments of the day. Saying that 'The Da Vinci Code' is a great book to read while on a beach holiday or on along train journey would probably be doing it justice. It won't be a book that you return to again and again and after the initial thrill it is eminently forgettable. What it might do is inspire some readers to investigate a little further the myths and supposed secret societies that are at the core of the story. This is a fascinating subject purely because there is so much speculation and so little factual evidence. Obviously for a more in depth look at these theories and conspiracies there are better non-fictional accounts you could read. If you are looking for a more challenging and ultimately more rewarding fictional story that covers the same ground as this book but in a more eloquent and clever way then I again have to direct you to Umberto Eco's ingenious 'Foucault's Pendulum'. However if you want an easy to read mystery thriller with a slight difference that is a cut above the rest then the Da Vinci Code is certainly worth a try.
'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown (Paperback 560 pages-Published by Corgi Adult ISBN: 0552149519) is available from Amazon.co.uk for £5.59 (+p&p). For more information about the facts behind the story you could try Simon Cox's 'Cracking the Da Vinci Code' or Martin Lunn's 'Da Vinci Code Decoded'.
Advantages: A cracking good yarn Disadvantages: It's full of holes and poorly researched
~ ~ For the past few months American author Dan Brown has been topping the paperback bestseller lists here in Ireland, with all four of his published novels in the first four positions, the “Da Vinci Code” seemingly a permanent fixture at No. 1. To be honest, it’s not hard to see why, as all four novels are taut, exciting, and extremely well crafted conspiracy thrillers, and there’s nothing the reading public likes more than a damned good conspiracy ... ...the most celebrated and most recent of his novels, “The Da Vinci Code” (2003), Brown returns once more to the theme he successfully exploited in another of his novels, “Angels And Demons”, namely the Roman Catholic Church and, according to Brown at any rate, its multifarious and devious machinations to exploit the public and the entire world for its own evil purposes. In Angels and Demons we had the Catholic Church under attack from an ancient secret ...
the_mad_cabbie 31.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Advantages: Fascinating subject matter, gripping, fast-paced action Disadvantages: Some flaws in the plot which means it is not the classic it should be
...from well-respected museum curator at the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere, to meet after his lecture, and as Sauniere is reputed to be something of an expert on female symbology, the topic of a manuscript that Langdon has recently been working on, he is keen to meet the curator. He is somewhat disappointed when Sauniere fails to show up for the meeting, and resigns himself to having to return to Harvard without having met him. Events take a shocking turn, ... ...of the night. Sauniere has been murdered. It seems, however, that he had a message that he wanted to tell the world before his death, and he has attempted to pass this on through some shocking symbology and an intriguing message. Unfortunately for Langdon, he appears to have been implicated somehow in the death, and Bezu Fache, Capitane of the French Police, is keen to speak with him.
At the Louvre, Langdon meets Agent Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist ...
Pumpkin 31.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Advantages: Excellent flow to the story, superb settings, thought-provoking concept, action-packed Disadvantages: Sometimes goes off-track to explain symbolic and religious references in detail, some slightly predictable elements towards the end
...person, but neither am I the type to seek out a book such as The Da Vinci Code simply on the grounds of excited murmurings, that claim it ‘denounces Christianity’ and does other such naughty stuff.
Reading it between lessons in school, it became clear to me that Dan Brown’s novel was perhaps being misunderstood somewhat – I don’t know what kind of coverage its been getting in the media but various people I know have asked me ‘how does it disprove ... ...bafflingly of all; ‘is that the book with the vampires and stuff.’ Honestly, it’s bad enough when your friends keep asking these kinds of questions, but when the teachers join in too…
Sure, there are some remarkable claims made about the life of Christ and some interesting theories regarding the Holy Grail, but amidst all the furore, people appear to be forgetting that when all is said and done, The Da Vinci Code is still just a fiction novel at ...
tom1clare 08.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Advantages: Exciting, fast moving, thought provoking Disadvantages: Less than stellar character development
Dan Brown's latest effort, The Da Vinci Code, isn't a great book. All things considered, very few literary works merit such a distinction. Nonetheless, The Da Vinci Code is a highly readable volume based on a myriad of ancient and often mysterious themes. Brown does a credible job of intertwining those themes into a thoroughly modern adventure novel cum murder mystery, and at the same time he focuses a fair measure of intelligent discussion on the ... ...possibilities. The Da Vinci Code is not apt to find a sympathetic hearing among Christian fundamentalists. This book is based squarely on a series of premises hardly designed to curry favor either in Vatican City or in the Bible Belt of the American South. These include such delectable heresies as the notion that Jesus was mortal, not divine; speculation that the Four Gospels of the New Testament were canonized because of their political usefulness ...
BawBaw 06.03.2004 (03.04.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Advantages: Annoys religious fanatics. Will hold your attention to the end Disadvantages: Takes up a lot of space on the bookshelf
...organise my own thoughts on the book. However, read through if you can take any more and maybe you will find something interesting about the biggest publishing phenomenon since JK Rowling ruined the planet with Harry fucking Potter.
Religious leaders yield far too much power in modern day society. Those who refrain from using the bible or other sacred scripts as a step-by-step guide to living their daily existence quietly respect the power of religion ... ...business. Or, on the other hand, you might be an atheist like me and be completely morally corrupt.
Thats why I like the premise behind Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. For those of you who have been camping in the woods this past year or so, The Da Vinci Code embraces the religious conspiracy of The Bloodline of Christ. Conspirators across the world (and presumably Dan Brown) believe that Jesus might have had his dirty way with Mary Magdalene, spawning ...
DangerMouse2005 20.07.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
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Advantages: A good story with interesting sub-stories. Disadvantages: A little predictable
The Shakespeare Secret by J L Carrell is 'almost' to Shakespeare what the The DaVinciCode by DanBrown is to Leonardo DaVinci.
There are twists and turns galore and in that respect it is a very compelling read. However, being of that genre, the twists are generally expected. You start by trusting no one and expect the worst and therefore are not too surprised when some of your expectations are realised.
The sub-story about The Bard and the theories surrounding his existance were fascinating and intriguing and I enjoyed this aspect of the novel.
I did, however find the book unnecessarily 'wordy' and this restricted, for me, the flow. Personally speaking, I found some of the elaborate phrasing gratutious (and I write this as a person who is happy to use 20 words when one will surfice).
However, as a good story, good plot ...
Advantages: A super suspenseful thriller Disadvantages: Very violent and graphic
DanBrown is the author of the super successful fiction ' The DaVinciCode ', which was later made into an equally successful film.
DanBrown is an American novelist. His fictions feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols and codes, and have been translated into 51 languages world wide.
Angels and Demons is the prequel to The DaVinciCode telling us the story of Symbologist Robert Langdon's adventures in the Vatican city one year before his fateful visit to the Louvre in Paris ( in DaVinciCode )
In DanBrown's words ' Angels and Demons is the novel in which i first created the character of Robert Langdon and indulged his passion for Art, Symbology, Codes, Secret Societies and the gray area between the Good and the Evil. the riddles in angels and Demons are just as visually arresting as those in DaVinci 's ...
Advantages: interesting story line, action packed, attractive cover, lots of twists Disadvantages: drags on a bit towards end
a great read with lots of interesting twists and turns through out. after reading the davincicode by danbrown i thought he could not produce another book to compare in brilliance, but angels and demons stands proud. the whole plot and scene set in the vatican is very interesting. a mature read with lots of flare. packed with action and interesting little facts for the reader to chew on. theres even a little bit of romance for the ladies. the presentation of the book is very attractive, the fonts used and colours are very prominent and eye catching. towards the end of the book the story does drag a little, but nothing major as interest can still be maintained. This is definitely worth a read and i would recommend it to anyone. ...
Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of symbology, receives an urgent late-night call while in Paris: the curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and further. The curator, part of a secret society named the Priory of Sion, may have sacrificed his life to keep secret the location of a vastly important religious relic hidden for centuries. It appears that the clandestine Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect Opus Dei has now made its move. Unless Landon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever.
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