Book Review

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

The Plot –

Harvard professor Robert Langdon gets a late night visit from Lieutenant Jérôme Collet, Direction Centrale Police Judiciare (DCPJ). Jacques Saunière, the elderly curator of the French museum, Louvre has been found dead. Next to his body there are codes which lead to more codes and so on. Later they understand they lead to the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. As Langdon and a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, understand some of them they are shocked to see an answer that might destroy the ‘The Vatican Church’ as we know it. Unless they figure everything out quickly, a stunning and powerful historical truth might be lost forever.

The characters –

Sophie Neveu – A French cryptologist, who is the granddaughter of the curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere.

Robert Langdon – A Harvard professor of Religious Symbology, he appears in 3 other of Dan Brown’s books. The DCPJ brings him in to solve the codes next to Saunière’s body but secretly he is the prime suspect because one of the codes were “Find Robert Langdon.”

Silas – He killed Jacques Saunière, for the “historical truth”. He didn’t find it but follows Langdon and Sophie till they find and threatens to kill them.

Jacques Saunière – He is the elderly curator of the museum Louvre. He is also a Headmaster of The Priory Of Sion, and Sophie’s grandfather. After being shot in the stomach, he uses his last breaths to arrange clues for his granddaughter, who is angry at him and has been staying away from him for nine years. She understands the truth later on in the book. Although his part is small, he is an important character in the book.

Sir Leigh Teabing – He comes later on in the book. Langdon and Sophie come to him to seek his knowledge as he is a grail scholar. He actually framed Silas so he could find about the Holy Grail.

The Holy Grail – It is not really a character, but it is a word to describe The Holy Grail, Which is not a chalice (cup), as it was first presumed to be, but Mary Magdalene the supposed wife of Christ. It has been cause for a huge disagreement between Historians and grail seekers, because, according to some, Jesus being holy couldn't have a wife. In the bible, it was written that it is the cup in which Jesus drank wine during the last supper, but in Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper there are lots of glasses on the table instead of one cup. In the bible it also said that there were only men with Jesus on The Last Supper, but in the painting next to Jesus there is a woman, considered to be The Holy Grail Herself.

Other Details –

It’s written that the bible is an edited version of the original, and that Jesus was originally a normal prophet. A roman emperor, Constantine, seeing that Christianity was powering over Roman Religion, wrote the new Bible portraying Jesus as the Son of God, thus creating modern Christianity. He mixed the Roman Religion and Christianity, and as in Rome a holy person could not have a spouse, he had to erase her. The Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene’s skeleton, and “holy grail seekers” are just people who seek her to pray once at her feet. But if this secret is revealed it could destroy the modern Catholic Church.

- Nihaar Tyagi

-7A