The Da Vinci Code mastermind, Dan Brown, is no newcomer to the genres of mysteries and thrillers. Dan Brown is the novelist of four mystery-thriller novels. Each of his works includes a combination of, “extensive research, complex, intricate plotting, and intriguing conspiracy theories with breathless, edge-of-the-seat action.” Brown’s four novels include Digital Fortress (1998), Angels and Demons (200), Deception Point (2001), and The Da Vinci Code (2003). In each of Brown’s novels the reader is met with a prologue in which a corpse is found in an extremely awkward position. In each case the homicide victim embodies a riddle that becomes the plot or layout for the rest of the novel. In Digital Fortress, the beginning of the book informs readers of successive murders, and Deception Point kicks off with a “Canadian geologist being hurled from a helicopter to his death.” Angles and Demons also follows suit when a scientist, Leonardo Vetra, is discovered dead in his lab, as well as in The Da Vinci Code when Jacques Sauniere, the curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris is found murdered. Brown’s four novels also “conclude with an epilogue that brings each novel full circle.” The epilogue is always present after a tryst between hero and heroine has occurred นิยายอีโรติก.
This can be seen in Digital Fortress, when there is a romantic encounter that was postponed since the beginning of the opening chapter. This encounter in the Smoky Mountains precedes an epilogue linking Tankado to his alienated father who is in existence on the other side of the earth. Deception Point closes in a similar fashion in that its female and male protagonists, Rachel Sexton and Michael Tolland complete a tryst. This precedes an epilogue in which, “Ekstrom, NASA’s administrator, consigns his fake meteorite to the ocean whence it cam.” Angles and Demons follows this pattern with a tryst between Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra, which constitutes the epilogue of the novel, and in The Da Vinci Code, the epilogue “brings Langdon back to the prologue’s setting of the Louvre, where Langdon is at last able to solve the final riddle posed by Sophie’s grandfather, Jacques Sauniere” (Eder, L. Doris). Therefore proving that in each of Brown’s unique novels he focuses on different subject matter, however he continually uses an almost identical narrative framework.
Dan Brown’s novels include nefarious plots that center on an abundance of puzzles and conspiracy theories that give way to controversy and criticism. In Contemporary Authors online, critics attributed the appeal of The Da Vinci Code, to its plot related codes and cryptograms that unconsciously force the reader into brainstorming for answers. However some critics claim that Dan Brown loaded his 2003 novel with too much religious history, “at the expense of pacing,” however this novel has been regarded and accepted with open arms by both conspiracy buffs and thriller addicts (Contemporary Authors). Brown includes a skeletal history of a real society that among its members included icons of Western Culture such as Leonardo Da Vinci. This history can be seen in the preface of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code:
FACT:
The Priory of Sion–a European secret society founded in 1099–is a real
Organization. 1975 Paris’s Bibliotheque Nationale discovered parchments know
as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticellie, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Vatican Prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of brainwashing, coercion, and a dangerous practice known as “corporal mortification.” Opus Dei has just completed construction of a $47 million National Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City.
All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. (Brown 1)
The first two statements by Brown about the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei are for the most part valid, but some of the actions Brown claims that these groups carry out in the book are questionable. The real issue with this quote from the book lies in the last line about “[All] descriptions…” because this statement is very unprofessional considering the interpretations that he yields about the “artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals…” cannot be backed up or supported by any substantial facts. The book begins with the acknowledgement of the existence of a secret society called the Priory of Sion, and the existence of devout Catholic sect Opus Dei. The plot begins when a disciple of Opus Dei murders the grand master of the Priory of Sion, however in the mists of death he manages to arrange clues around his body to point the conspiracy surrounding Opus Dei (Newsmaker). After his body is found Robert Langdon, a professor of religious symbology, at Harvard University is called to the seen to dissect the clues (Brown 7). Langdon works alongside Sauniere’s granddaughter Sophi, who is a police cryptologist. This results in the basic plot of the book which includes these two trying to solve the murder of Sauniere and using there talents to move through “a maze of artistic, linguistic, and mathematical codes, and puzzles” (Newsmaker). These clues lead to his murderer and the true identity of Sauniere as the grand master of the Priory of Sion, whose sole purpose is to protect the secrets of Christianity and its origins by concealing the truth and mystery surrounding the Holy Grail. The book also has an anti-catholic sentiment that portrays the church in a darker fashion. The plot is “complete with secret codes, anagrams, elaborate technology, pagan sex orgies, sudden reversals, age-old conspiracies, pre-Christian fertility cults, Knights Templar, Gnostic gospels, corrupt cops, brutal murders, feminist theory, and frantic midnight rides through Paris” (Greeley, Andrew). The novel forces readers to scrutinize over Leonardo Da Vinci’s works including, Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rockets, and The Last Supper. These mixtures of art history, mathematics, and medieval mysticism, all formulate the debate and controversy present in this book. Therefore in Dan Brown’s hit novel The Da Vinci Code, his theories on the Holy Grail, Renaissance art symbology, and the representation of the Catholic Church consist for the most part of fiction rather than substantial fact.