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The Da Vinci Code

February 16, 2024

This article is about the novel. For the 2006 film, see The Da Vinci Code (film). For other uses, see The Da Vinci Code (disambiguation).

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. The Da Vinci Code follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris causes them to become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene having had a child together.

The Da Vinci Code
The first U.S. edition
AuthorDan Brown
CountryUnited States
SeriesRobert Langdon #2
GenreMystery, Detective fiction, Conspiracy fiction, Thriller
PublisherDoubleday (US)
Publication date
March 18, 2003[1]
Pages689 (U.S. hardback)
489 (U.S. paperback)
ISBN0-385-50420-9 (US)
OCLC50920659
813/.54 21
LC ClassPS3552.R685434 D3 2003
Preceded byAngels & Demons 
Followed byThe Lost Symbol 

The novel explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982), though Dan Brown has stated that it was not used as research material.[citation needed]

The Da Vinci Code provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has, however, been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Catholic Church, and also consistently criticized by scholars for its historical and scientific inaccuracies. The novel nonetheless became a massive worldwide bestseller[2] that sold 80 million copies as of 2009[3] and has been translated into 44 languages. In November 2004, Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006, a film adaptation was released by Columbia Pictures.

Plot edit

Louvre curator and Priory of Sion grand master Jacques Saunière is fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the Teacher, who wishes to discover the location of the "keystone," an item crucial in the search for the Holy Grail.

After Saunière's body is discovered in the pose of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, the police summon Harvard professor Robert Langdon, who is in town on business. Police captain Bezu Fache tells him that he was summoned to help the police decode the cryptic message Saunière left during the final minutes of his life. The message includes a Fibonacci sequence out of order and an anagram: 'O, draconian devil Oh, lame saint'.

Langdon explains to Fache that the pentacle Saunière drew on his chest in his own blood represents an allusion to the goddess and not devil worship, as Fache believes.

Sophie Neveu, a police cryptographer, secretly explains to Langdon that she is Saunière's estranged granddaughter and that Fache thinks Langdon is the murderer because the last line in her grandfather's message, which was meant for Neveu, said "P.S. Find Robert Langdon," which Fache had erased prior to Langdon's arrival. However, "P.S." does not refer to "postscript", but rather to Sophie — the nickname given to her by her grandfather was "Princess Sophie". She understands that her grandfather intended Langdon to decipher the code, which leads to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which in turn leads to his painting Madonna of the Rocks. They find a pendant that holds the address of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich.

 
Replica cryptex: prize from Google Da Vinci Code Quest Contest

Neveu and Langdon escape from the police and visit the bank. In the safe deposit box, they find a box containing the keystone: a cryptex, a cylindrical, hand-held vault with five concentric, rotating dials labeled with letters. When these are lined up correctly, they unlock the device. If the cryptex is forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar breaks and dissolves the message inside the cryptex, which was written on papyrus. The box containing the cryptex contains clues to its password.

Langdon and Neveu take the keystone to the home of Langdon's friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert on the Holy Grail, the legend of which is heavily connected to the Priory. There, Teabing explains that the Grail is not a cup, but connected to Mary Magdalene, and that she was Jesus Christ's wife and is the person to his right in The Last Supper.

The trio then flee the country on Teabing's private plane, on which they conclude that the proper combination of letters spells out Neveu's given name, Sofia. Opening the cryptex, they discover a smaller cryptex inside it, along with another riddle that ultimately leads the group to the tomb of Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey.

During the flight to Britain, Neveu reveals the source of her estrangement from her grandfather ten years earlier: arriving home unexpectedly from university, Neveu secretly witnessed a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather's country estate. From her hiding place, she was shocked to see her grandfather with a woman at the center of a ritual attended by men and women who were wearing masks and chanting praise to the goddess. She fled the house and broke off all contact with Saunière. Langdon explains that what she witnessed was an ancient ceremony known as hieros gamos or "sacred marriage."

By the time they arrive at Westminster Abbey, Teabing is revealed to be the Teacher for whom Silas is working. Teabing wishes to use the Holy Grail, which he believes is a series of documents establishing that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered children, in order to ruin the Vatican. He compels Langdon at gunpoint to solve the second cryptex's password, which Langdon realizes is "apple." Langdon secretly opens the cryptex and removes its contents before tossing the empty cryptex in the air.

Teabing is arrested by Fache, who by now realizes that Langdon is innocent. Bishop Aringarosa, head of religious sect Opus Dei and Silas' mentor, realizing that Silas has been used to murder innocent people, rushes to help the police find him. When the police find Silas hiding in an Opus Dei Center, Silas assumes that they are there to kill him and he rushes out, accidentally shooting Bishop Aringarosa. Bishop Aringarosa survives but is informed that Silas was found dead later from a gunshot wound.

The final message inside the second keystone leads Neveu and Langdon to Rosslyn Chapel, whose docent turns out to be Neveu's long-lost brother, who Neveu had been told died as a child in the car accident that killed her parents. The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel Saint Clair, is Neveu's long-lost grandmother. It is revealed that Neveu and her brother are descendants of Mary Magdalene. The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life.

The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid directly below La Pyramide Inversée, the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre. It also lies beneath the "Rose Line," an allusion to "Rosslyn." Langdon figures out this final piece to the puzzle; he follows the Rose Line (prime meridian) to La Pyramide Inversée, where he kneels to pray before the hidden sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene, as the Templar knights did before.

Characters edit

Reaction edit

Sales edit

The Da Vinci Code was a major success in 2003, outsold only by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.[4] As of 2016, it had sold 80 million copies worldwide.[5]

Historical inaccuracies edit

Main article: Criticism of The Da Vinci Code
 
A woman protesting against The Da Vinci Code film outside a movie theater in Culver City, California. The TFP acronym in the banner stands for the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

The Da Vinci Code generated criticism when it was first published for the fictitious description of core aspects of Christianity and descriptions of European art, history, and architecture. The book has received negative reviews mostly from Catholic and other Christian communities.

Many critics took issue with the level of research Brown did when writing the story. The New York Times writer Laura Miller characterized the novel as "based on a notorious hoax", "rank nonsense", and "bogus", saying the book is heavily based on the fabrications of Pierre Plantard, who is asserted to have created the Priory of Sion in 1956.[6]

Critics accuse Brown of distorting and fabricating history (i.e, the critics did not treat it as not a work of fiction). For example, theological author Marcia Ford considers that novels should be judged not on their literary merit, but on their conclusions:

Regardless of whether you agree with Brown's conclusions, it's clear that his history is largely fanciful, which means he and his publisher have violated a long-held if unspoken agreement with the reader: Fiction that purports to present historical facts should be researched as carefully as a nonfiction book would be.[7]

Richard Abanes wrote:

The most flagrant aspect... is not that Dan Brown disagrees with Christianity but that he utterly warps it in order to disagree with it... to the point of completely rewriting a vast number of historical events. And making the matter worse has been Brown's willingness to pass off his distortions as 'facts' with which innumerable scholars and historians agree.[7]

To keep this in context, critics have made similar observations about great works of fiction set in historical contexts, such as Macbeth, with no scandal.[8][9] There are two main differences.

The most compelling is that The Da Vinci Code was marketed as being accurate. The story opens with a "fact" page that states that "The Priory of Sion—a French secret society founded in 1099—is a real organization", whereas the Priory of Sion is a hoax created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, which Plantard admitted under oath in 1994, well before the publication of The Da Vinci Code.[10] The page also states that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents… and secret rituals in this novel are accurate", but this claim is disputed by numerous academic scholars and experts in numerous areas.[11] This "fact" page is itself fiction. (In the Corgi edition, this "fact" page is tellingly placed after the final title page (i.e., as part of the story), in contrast to the placement of the corresponding page in Brown's previous book Angels and Daemons.[12]) Any debate about whether or not it is ethical to label this part of the story with the heading "fact" has been drowned out by criticism of the lack of historicity itself. This is in stark contrast to the reaction to Welles's War of the Worlds which focused on the portrayal as fact rather than the lack of "accuracy".

In contrast, Macbeth was distorted to favour those in power at the time of its release.[13]

Dan Brown addressed the idea of some of the more controversial aspects being fact on his website, stating that the page at the beginning of the novel mentions only "documents, rituals, organization, artwork and architecture", but not any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters, stating that "Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader". Brown also says, "It is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit" and "the secret behind The Da Vinci Code was too well documented and significant for me to dismiss."[14]

In 2003, while promoting the novel, Brown was asked in interviews what parts of the history in his novel actually happened. He replied "Absolutely all of it."[15] In a 2003 interview with CNN's Martin Savidge he was again asked how much of the historical background was true. He replied, "99% is true… the background is all true".[16]

Asked by Elizabeth Vargas in an ABC News special if the book would have been different if he had written it as non-fiction he replied, "I don't think it would have."[17]

In 2005, UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, who authored the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, in the program The Real Da Vinci Code, shown on British TV Channel 4. The program featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as "absolute fact" in The Da Vinci Code.

Arnaud de Sède, son of Gérard de Sède, stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieuré de Sion, the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory: "frankly, it was piffle",[18] noting that the concept of a descendant of Jesus was also an element of the 1999 Kevin Smith film Dogma.

The earliest appearance of this theory is due to the 13th-century Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay who reported that Cathars believed that the 'evil' and 'earthly' Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene, described as his concubine (and that the 'good Christ' was incorporeal and existed spiritually in the body of Paul).[19] The program The Real Da Vinci Code also cast doubt on the Rosslyn Chapel association with the Grail and on other related stories, such as the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France.

According to The Da Vinci Code, the Roman Emperor Constantine I suppressed Gnosticism because it portrayed Jesus as purely human. The novel's argument is as follows:[20] Constantine wanted Christianity to act as a unifying religion for the Roman Empire. He thought Christianity would appeal to pagans only if it featured a demigod similar to pagan heroes. According to the Gnostic Gospels, Jesus was merely a human prophet, not a demigod. Therefore, to change Jesus' image, Constantine destroyed the Gnostic Gospels and promoted the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which portray Jesus as divine or semi-divine.

However, most scholars agree that All Gnostic writings depict Christ as purely divine, his human body being a mere illusion (see Docetism).[21] Gnostic sects saw Christ this way because they regarded matter as evil, and therefore believed that a divine spirit would never have taken on a material body.[22]

Literary criticism edit

The book received both positive and negative reviews from critics, and it has been the subject of negative appraisals concerning its portrayal of history. Its writing and historical accuracy were reviewed negatively by The New Yorker,[23] Salon.com,[24] and Maclean's.[25]

Positive edit

Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that one word "concisely conveys the kind of extreme enthusiasm with which this riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller can be recommended. That word is wow. The author is Dan Brown (a name you will want to remember). In this gleefully erudite suspense novel, Mr. Brown takes the format he has been developing through three earlier novels and fine-tunes it to blockbuster perfection."[26]

David Lazarus of The San Francisco Chronicle said, "This story has so many twists—all satisfying, most unexpected—that it would be a sin to reveal too much of the plot in advance. Let's just say that if this novel doesn't get your pulse racing, you need to check your meds."[27]

While interviewing Umberto Eco in a 2008 issue of The Paris Review, Lila Azam Zanganeh characterized The Da Vinci Code as "a bizarre little offshoot" of Eco's novel, Foucault's Pendulum. In response, Eco remarked, "Dan Brown is a character from Foucault's Pendulum! I invented him. He shares my characters' fascinations—the world conspiracy of Rosicrucians, Masons, and Jesuits. The role of the Knights Templar. The hermetic secret. The principle that everything is connected. I suspect Dan Brown might not even exist."[28]

The book appeared at number 43 on a 2010 list of 101 best books ever written, which was derived from a survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers.[29]

Disparaging edit

Stephen King likened Dan Brown's work to "Jokes for the John", calling such literature the "intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese".[30]

Roger Ebert described it as a "potboiler written with little grace and style," although he added it did "supply an intriguing plot".[31] In his review of the film National Treasure, whose plot also involves ancient conspiracies and treasure hunts, he wrote: "I should read a potboiler like The Da Vinci Code every once in a while, just to remind myself that life is too short to read books like The Da Vinci Code."[32]

Negative edit

In addition to literary criticism, the book has received many unsubstantiated insults.

Salman Rushdie said during a lecture, "Do not start me on The Da Vinci Code. A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name."[33] Salman Rushdie is an acknowledged expert in the field, who rose to prominence when his work in the genre was awarded a fatwa in 1989.[34]

Stephen Fry has referred to Brown's writings as "complete loose stool-water" and "arse gravy of the worst kind".[35] In a live chat on June 14, 2006, he clarified, "I just loathe all those book[s] about the Holy Grail and Masons and Catholic conspiracies and all that botty-dribble. I mean, there's so much more that's interesting and exciting in art and in history. It plays to the worst and laziest in humanity, the desire to think the worst of the past and the desire to feel superior to it in some fatuous way."[36] That is, Stephen Fry was objecting to the genre, which includes critically acclaimed books like Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, rather than uniquely The Da Vinci Code.

A. O. Scott, reviewing the movie based on the book for The New York Times, called the book "Dan Brown's best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence".[37]

The New Yorker reviewer Anthony Lane refers to it as "unmitigated junk" and decries "the crumbling coarseness of the style".[23]

Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others posted several entries critical of Dan Brown's writing, at Language Log, calling Brown one of the "worst prose stylists in the history of literature" and saying Brown's "writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad".[38]

Lawsuits edit

Author Lewis Perdue alleged that Brown plagiarized two of his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy, originally published in 1983, and Daughter of God, originally published in 2000. He sought to block distribution of the book and film. However, Judge George Daniels of the US District Court in New York ruled against Perdue in 2005, saying that "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God" and that "Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas."[39] Perdue appealed; the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original decision, saying Mr. Perdue's arguments were "without merit".[40]

In early 2006, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh filed suit against Brown's publisher, Random House. They alleged that significant portions of The Da Vinci Code were plagiarized from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, violating their copyright.[41] Brown confirmed during the court case that he named the principal Grail expert of his story Leigh Teabing, an anagram of "Baigent Leigh", after the two plaintiffs. In reply to the suggestion that Henry Lincoln was also referred to in the book, since he has medical problems resulting in a severe limp, like the character of Leigh Teabing, Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln's illness and the correspondence was a coincidence.[42] Since Baigent and Leigh had presented their conclusions as historical research, not as fiction, Mr Justice Peter Smith, who presided over the trial, deemed that a novelist must be free to use these ideas in a fictional context, and ruled against Baigent and Leigh. Smith also hid his own secret code in his written judgment, in the form of seemingly random italicized letters in the 71-page document, which apparently spell out a message. Smith indicated he would confirm the code if someone broke it.[43] After losing before the High Court on July 12, 2006, Baigent and Leigh appealed to the Court of Appeal, unsuccessfully.[42][43]

In April 2006 Mikhail Anikin, a Russian scientist and art historian working as a senior researcher at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, stated the intention to bring a lawsuit against Dan Brown, maintaining that he was the one who coined the phrase used as the book's title and one of the ideas regarding the Mona Lisa used in its plot. Anikin interprets the Mona Lisa to be a Christian allegory consisting of two images, one of Jesus Christ that comprises the image's right half, and one of the Virgin Mary that forms its left half. According to Anikin, he expressed this idea to a group of experts from the Museum of Houston during a 1988 René Magritte exhibit at the Hermitage, and when one of the Americans requested permission to pass it along to a friend Anikin granted the request on condition that he be credited in any book using his interpretation. Anikin eventually compiled his research into Leonardo da Vinci or Theology on Canvas, a book published in 2000, but The Da Vinci Code, published three years later, makes no mention of Anikin and instead asserts that the idea in question is a "well-known opinion of a number of scientists."[44][45]

Brown has been sued twice in U.S. Federal courts by the author Jack Dunn who claims Brown copied a huge part of his book The Vatican Boys to write The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. Neither lawsuit was allowed to go to a jury trial. In 2017, in London, another claim was begun against Brown by Jack Dunn who claimed that justice was not served in the U.S. lawsuits.[46]

Possibly the largest reaction occurred in Kolkata, India, where a group of around 25 protesters "stormed" Crossword bookstore, pulled copies of the book from the racks, and threw them to the ground. On the same day, a group of 50–60 protesters successfully made the Oxford Bookstore on Park Street decide to stop selling the book "until the controversy sparked by the film's release was resolved".[47] Thus in 2006, seven Indian states (Nagaland, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh) banned the release or exhibition of the Hollywood movie The Da Vinci Code (as well as the book).[48] Later, two states, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, lifted the ban under high court order.[49][50]

Release details edit

The book has been translated into over 44 languages, primarily hardcover.[51] Major English-language (hardcover) editions include:

  • The Da Vinci Code (1st ed.), US: Doubleday, April 2003, ISBN 0-385-50420-9.
  • The Da Vinci Code (spec illustr ed.), Doubleday, November 2, 2004, ISBN 0-385-51375-5 (as of January 2006, has sold 576,000 copies).
  • The Da Vinci Code, UK: Corgi Adult, April 2004, ISBN 0-552-14951-9.
  • The Da Vinci Code (illustr ed.), UK: Bantam, October 2, 2004, ISBN 0-593-05425-3.
  • The Da Vinci Code (trade paperback), US/CA: Anchor, March 2006.
  • The da Vinci code (paperback), Anchor, March 28, 2006, 5 million copies.
  • The da Vinci code (paperback) (special illustrated ed.), Broadway, March 28, 2006, released 200,000 copies.
  • Goldsman, Akiva (May 19, 2006), The Da Vinci Code Illustrated Screenplay: Behind the Scenes of the Major Motion Picture, Howard, Ron; Brown, Dan introd, Doubleday, Broadway, the day of the film's release. Including film stills, behind-the-scenes photos and the full script. 25,000 copies of the hardcover, and 200,000 of the paperback version.[52]

Film edit

Main article: The Da Vinci Code (film)

Columbia Pictures adapted the novel to film, with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing. The film was released on May 19, 2006, and stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu, and Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing. During its opening weekend, moviegoers spent an estimated $77 million in America, and $224 million worldwide.[53]

The movie received mixed reviews. Roger Ebert in its review wrote that "Ron Howard is a better filmmaker than Dan Brown is a novelist; he follows Brown's formula (exotic location, startling revelation, desperate chase scene, repeat as needed) and elevates it into a superior entertainment, with Tom Hanks as a theo-intellectual Indiana Jones... it's involving, intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations."[31]

The film received two sequels: Angels & Demons, released in 2009, and Inferno, released in 2016. Ron Howard returned to direct both sequels.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "How Good Is Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol?". Time. September 15, 2009.
  2. ^ Wyat, Edward (November 4, 2005). "'Da Vinci Code' Losing Best-Seller Status" October 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times.
  3. ^ "New novel from Dan Brown due this fall". San Jose Mercury News. from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  4. ^ Minzesheimer, Bob (December 11, 2003). "'Code' deciphers interest in religious history". USA Today. from the original on January 10, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  5. ^ Heller, Karen (December 29, 2016). "Meet the elite group of authors who sell 100 million books – or 350 million". Independent. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  6. ^ Miller, Laura (February 22, 2004). "THE LAST WORD; The Da Vinci Con". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Ford, Marcia. . FaithfulReader. Archived from the original on May 27, 2004. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  8. ^ Julián Jiménez Heffernan (2016), ""Beyond this ignorant present": the poverty of historicism in Macbeth", Palgrave Commun 2, 16054, doi:10.1057/palcomms.2016.54
  9. ^ "Duncan and MacBeth". Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  10. ^ "Affaire Pelat: Le Rapport du Juge", Le Point, no. 1112 (8–14 January 1994), p. 11.
  11. ^ "History vs The Da Vinci Code". Retrieved February 3, 2009.
  12. ^ The Da Vinci Code, Corgi, January 15, 2024, ISBN 978-0552149518
  13. ^ Specifically the portrayal of Banquo, an ancestor of James Stewart "The real Duncan and Macbeth - Kings of Scotland".
  14. ^ Kelleher, Ken; Kelleher, Carolyn (April 24, 2006). (FAQs). Dan Brown. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
  15. ^ . NBC Today. June 3, 2003. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
  16. ^ "Interview With Dan Brown". CNN Sunday Morning. CNN. May 25, 2003.
  17. ^ "Fiction". History vs The Da Vinci Code. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
  18. ^ The Real Da Vinci Code. Channel 4.
  19. ^ Sibly, WA; Sibly, MD (1998), The History of the Albigensian Crusade: Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay's "Historia Albigensis", Boydell, ISBN 0-85115-658-4, Further, in their secret meetings they said that the Christ who was born in the earthly and visible Bethlehem and crucified at Jerusalem was 'evil', and that Mary Magdalene was his concubine – and that she was the woman taken in adultery who is referred to in the Scriptures; the 'good' Christ, they said, neither ate nor drank nor assumed the true flesh and was never in this world, except spiritually in the body of Paul. I have used the term 'the earthly and visible Bethlehem' because the heretics believed there is a different and invisible earth in which – according to some of them – the 'good' Christ was born and crucified.
  20. ^ O'Neill, Tim (2006), "55. Early Christianity and Political Power", History versus the Da Vinci Code, from the original on May 15, 2009, retrieved February 16, 2009.
  21. ^ Arendzen, John Peter (1913), "Docetae", Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, New York: Robert Appleton, The idea of the unreality of Christ's human nature was held by the oldest Gnostic sects [...] Docetism, as far as at present known, [was] always an accompaniment of Gnosticism or later of Manichaeism.
  22. ^ O'Neill, Tim (2006), "55. Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls", History versus the Da Vinci Code, from the original on May 15, 2009, retrieved February 16, 2009.
  23. ^ a b Lane, Anthony (May 29, 2006). "Heaven Can Wait" October 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. The New Yorker.
  24. ^ Miller, Laura (December 29, 2004). "The Da Vinci crock" September 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Salon.com. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
  25. ^ Steyn, Mark (May 10, 2006) "The Da Vinci Code: bad writing for Biblical illiterates" June 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Maclean's.
  26. ^ Maslin, Janet (March 17, 2003). "Spinning a Thriller From a Gallery at the Louvre" April 8, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  27. ^ Lazarus, David (April 6, 2003). "'Da Vinci Code' a heart-racing thriller". San Francisco Chronicle.
  28. ^ Zanganeh, Lila Azam. "Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197" October 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Paris Review. Summer 2008, Number 185. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  29. ^ Yeoman, William (June 30, 2010), "Vampires trump wizards as readers pick their best", The West Australian, retrieved March 24, 2011 (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on August 4, 2011.
  30. ^ . Archive. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  31. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (May 18, 2006), "Veni, Vidi, Da Vinci", RogerEbert.com
  32. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 18, 2004), "Clueless caper just fool's gold", RogerEbert.com
  33. ^ "Famed author takes on Kansas". LJWorld. October 7, 2005. from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  34. ^ "Salman Rushdie timeline: The key events following Iran's fatwa against author". Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  35. ^ "3x12", QI (episode transcript)[permanent dead link].
  36. ^ . SE: Douglas Adams. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  37. ^ Scott, A.O. (May 18, 2006). "Movie Review: A 'Da Vinci Code' That Takes Longer to Watch Than Read". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  38. ^ "The Dan Brown code", Language Log, University of Pennsylvania (also follow other links at the bottom of that page)
  39. ^ "Author Brown 'did not plagiarise'" November 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, August 6, 2005
  40. ^ "Delays to latest Dan Brown novel" April 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, April 21, 2006
  41. ^ "Judge creates own Da Vinci code". BBC News. April 27, 2006. from the original on September 5, 2007. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  42. ^ a b "Authors who lost 'Da Vinci Code' copying case to mount legal appeal". Retrieved July 12, 2006.
  43. ^ a b "Judge rejects claims in 'Da Vinci' suit". Today.com. MSN. April 7, 2006. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
  44. ^ Page, Jeremy. "Now Russian sues Brown over his Da Vinski Code", The Sunday Times, April 12, 2006
  45. ^ Grachev, Guerman (April 13, 2006), "Russian scientist to sue best-selling author Dan Brown over 'Da Vinci Code' plagiarism", Pravda, RU, from the original on October 7, 2012, retrieved May 13, 2011.
  46. ^ Teodorczuk, Tom (December 14, 2017). "Dan Brown faces possible new plagiarism lawsuit over 'The Da Vinci Code'". MarketWatch. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  47. ^ . The Telegraph. India. May 18, 2006. Archived from the original on August 27, 2016.
  48. ^ "India extends Da Vinci Code ban" on the ground that it outraged the religious feeling of Christians. Roman Catholic Bishop Marampudi Joji, based in Andhra Pradesh's capital Hyderabad, welcomed the ban. BBC News, 3 June 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  49. ^ "HC quashes ban on Da Vinci Code | Hyderabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. June 22, 2006. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  50. ^ "HC allows Da Vinci Code screening in TN". www.rediff.com. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  51. ^ "World editions of The Da Vinci Code", (official site), Dan Brown, archived from the original on January 27, 2006.
  52. ^ "Harry Potter still magic for book sales", , CBC, January 9, 2006, archived from the original on October 13, 2007.
  53. ^ "The Da Vinci Code (2006)". Box Office Mojo. from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2006.

Further reading edit

  • Bock, Darrell L. Breaking the da Vinci code: Answers to the questions everyone's asking (Thomas Nelson, 2004).
  • Ehrman, Bart D. Truth and fiction in The Da Vinci Code: a historian reveals what we really know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine (Oxford University Press, 2004).
  • Easley, Michael J., and John Ankerberg. The Da Vinci Code Controversy: 10 Facts You Should Know (Moody Publishers, 2006).
  • Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015).
  • Hawel, Zeineb Sami. "Did Dan Brown Break or Repair the Taboos in the Da Vinci Code? An Analytical Study of His Dialectical Style." International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL) 7.4: 5-24. online[dead link]
  • Kennedy, Tammie M. "Mary Magdalene and the Politics of Public Memory: Interrogating" The Da Vinci Code"." Feminist Formations (2012): 120-139. online
  • Mexal, Stephen J. "Realism, Narrative History, and the Production of the Bestseller: The Da Vinci Code and the Virtual Public Sphere." Journal of Popular Culture 44.5 (2011): 1085–1101. online[dead link]
  • Newheiser, Anna-Kaisa, Miguel Farias, and Nicole Tausch. "The functional nature of conspiracy beliefs: Examining the underpinnings of belief in the Da Vinci Code conspiracy." Personality and Individual Differences 51.8 (2011): 1007–1011. online
  • Olson, Carl E., and Sandra Miesel. The da Vinci hoax: Exposing the errors in The da Vinci code (Ignatius Press, 2004).
  • Propp, William H. C. "Is The Da Vinci Code True?." Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 25.1 (2013): 34–48.
  • Pullum, Geoffrey K. "The Dan Brown code." (2004)
  • Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew. "The Dan Brown phenomenon: conspiracism in post-9/11 popular fiction." Radical History Review 2011.111 (2011): 194–201. online[dead link]
  • Walsh, Richard G. "Passover Plots: From Modern Fictions to Mark and Back Again." Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 3.2-3 (2007): 201–222. online

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Da Vinci Code.
  • The Da Vinci Code (official website), Dan Brown, January 5, 2013
  • The Da Vinci Code (official website), UK: Dan Brown, September 19, 2023
  • , archived from the original on April 14, 2015, retrieved January 13, 2014
  • , Rochester Bible, archived from the original on December 12, 2010
  • Walsh, David (May 2006), "The Da Vinci Code, novel and film, and 'countercultural' myth", WSWS (review)

February 16, 2024
vinci, code, this, article, about, novel, 2006, film, film, other, uses, disambiguation, 2003, mystery, thriller, novel, brown, brown, second, novel, include, character, robert, langdon, first, 2000, novel, angels, demons, follows, symbologist, robert, langdon. This article is about the novel For the 2006 film see The Da Vinci Code film For other uses see The Da Vinci Code disambiguation The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown It is Brown s second novel to include the character Robert Langdon the first was his 2000 novel Angels amp Demons The Da Vinci Code follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris causes them to become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene having had a child together The Da Vinci CodeThe first U S editionAuthorDan BrownCountryUnited StatesSeriesRobert Langdon 2GenreMystery Detective fiction Conspiracy fiction ThrillerPublisherDoubleday US Publication dateMarch 18 2003 1 Pages689 U S hardback 489 U S paperback ISBN0 385 50420 9 US OCLC50920659Dewey Decimal813 54 21LC ClassPS3552 R685434 D3 2003Preceded byAngels amp Demons Followed byThe Lost Symbol The novel explores an alternative religious history whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene ideas derived from Clive Prince s The Templar Revelation 1997 and books by Margaret Starbird The book also refers to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail 1982 though Dan Brown has stated that it was not used as research material citation needed The Da Vinci Code provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene s role in the history of Christianity The book has however been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Catholic Church and also consistently criticized by scholars for its historical and scientific inaccuracies The novel nonetheless became a massive worldwide bestseller 2 that sold 80 million copies as of 2009 update 3 and has been translated into 44 languages In November 2004 Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations In 2006 a film adaptation was released by Columbia Pictures Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Reaction 3 1 Sales 3 2 Historical inaccuracies 3 3 Literary criticism 3 3 1 Positive 3 3 2 Disparaging 3 3 3 Negative 3 4 Lawsuits 4 Release details 5 Film 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksPlot editLouvre curator and Priory of Sion grand master Jacques Sauniere is fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the Teacher who wishes to discover the location of the keystone an item crucial in the search for the Holy Grail After Sauniere s body is discovered in the pose of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci the police summon Harvard professor Robert Langdon who is in town on business Police captain Bezu Fache tells him that he was summoned to help the police decode the cryptic message Sauniere left during the final minutes of his life The message includes a Fibonacci sequence out of order and an anagram O draconian devil Oh lame saint Langdon explains to Fache that the pentacle Sauniere drew on his chest in his own blood represents an allusion to the goddess and not devil worship as Fache believes Sophie Neveu a police cryptographer secretly explains to Langdon that she is Sauniere s estranged granddaughter and that Fache thinks Langdon is the murderer because the last line in her grandfather s message which was meant for Neveu said P S Find Robert Langdon which Fache had erased prior to Langdon s arrival However P S does not refer to postscript but rather to Sophie the nickname given to her by her grandfather was Princess Sophie She understands that her grandfather intended Langdon to decipher the code which leads to Leonardo da Vinci s Mona Lisa which in turn leads to his painting Madonna of the Rocks They find a pendant that holds the address of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich nbsp Replica cryptex prize from Google Da Vinci Code Quest ContestNeveu and Langdon escape from the police and visit the bank In the safe deposit box they find a box containing the keystone a cryptex a cylindrical hand held vault with five concentric rotating dials labeled with letters When these are lined up correctly they unlock the device If the cryptex is forced open an enclosed vial of vinegar breaks and dissolves the message inside the cryptex which was written on papyrus The box containing the cryptex contains clues to its password Langdon and Neveu take the keystone to the home of Langdon s friend Sir Leigh Teabing an expert on the Holy Grail the legend of which is heavily connected to the Priory There Teabing explains that the Grail is not a cup but connected to Mary Magdalene and that she was Jesus Christ s wife and is the person to his right in The Last Supper The trio then flee the country on Teabing s private plane on which they conclude that the proper combination of letters spells out Neveu s given name Sofia Opening the cryptex they discover a smaller cryptex inside it along with another riddle that ultimately leads the group to the tomb of Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey During the flight to Britain Neveu reveals the source of her estrangement from her grandfather ten years earlier arriving home unexpectedly from university Neveu secretly witnessed a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather s country estate From her hiding place she was shocked to see her grandfather with a woman at the center of a ritual attended by men and women who were wearing masks and chanting praise to the goddess She fled the house and broke off all contact with Sauniere Langdon explains that what she witnessed was an ancient ceremony known as hieros gamos or sacred marriage By the time they arrive at Westminster Abbey Teabing is revealed to be the Teacher for whom Silas is working Teabing wishes to use the Holy Grail which he believes is a series of documents establishing that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered children in order to ruin the Vatican He compels Langdon at gunpoint to solve the second cryptex s password which Langdon realizes is apple Langdon secretly opens the cryptex and removes its contents before tossing the empty cryptex in the air Teabing is arrested by Fache who by now realizes that Langdon is innocent Bishop Aringarosa head of religious sect Opus Dei and Silas mentor realizing that Silas has been used to murder innocent people rushes to help the police find him When the police find Silas hiding in an Opus Dei Center Silas assumes that they are there to kill him and he rushes out accidentally shooting Bishop Aringarosa Bishop Aringarosa survives but is informed that Silas was found dead later from a gunshot wound The final message inside the second keystone leads Neveu and Langdon to Rosslyn Chapel whose docent turns out to be Neveu s long lost brother who Neveu had been told died as a child in the car accident that killed her parents The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel Marie Chauvel Saint Clair is Neveu s long lost grandmother It is revealed that Neveu and her brother are descendants of Mary Magdalene The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid directly below La Pyramide Inversee the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre It also lies beneath the Rose Line an allusion to Rosslyn Langdon figures out this final piece to the puzzle he follows the Rose Line prime meridian to La Pyramide Inversee where he kneels to pray before the hidden sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene as the Templar knights did before Characters editRobert Langdon A professor of symbology at Harvard University and the protagonist of the novel Jacques Sauniere The grandmaster of the Priory of Sion Curator of Louvre Museum Sophie Neveu A cryptologist of the French police and granddaughter of Sauniere Bezu Fache A member of Opus Dei and a French police captain Silas The Monk A member of Opus Dei who murders Sauniere and the secondary antagonist of the novel Manuel Aringarosa A bishop of the Vatican and member of Opus Dei Sister Sandrine A Seneschal of the Priory of Sion and nun of St Sulpice Andre Vernet A guard of Zurich bank Sir Leigh Teabing The Teacher A Grail scholar and British expatriate living in Paris and the main antagonist of the novel Remy Legaludec A servant who assists Teabing Jerome Collet A French police lieutenant and Fache s deputy Marie Chauvel Saint Clair Sophie s grandmother Reaction editSales edit The Da Vinci Code was a major success in 2003 outsold only by J K Rowling s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 4 As of 2016 it had sold 80 million copies worldwide 5 Historical inaccuracies edit This section is written like a personal reflection personal essay or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style June 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Main article Criticism of The Da Vinci Code nbsp A woman protesting against The Da Vinci Code film outside a movie theater in Culver City California The TFP acronym in the banner stands for the American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property The Da Vinci Code generated criticism when it was first published for the fictitious description of core aspects of Christianity and descriptions of European art history and architecture The book has received negative reviews mostly from Catholic and other Christian communities Many critics took issue with the level of research Brown did when writing the story The New York Times writer Laura Miller characterized the novel as based on a notorious hoax rank nonsense and bogus saying the book is heavily based on the fabrications of Pierre Plantard who is asserted to have created the Priory of Sion in 1956 6 Critics accuse Brown of distorting and fabricating history i e the critics did not treat it as not a work of fiction For example theological author Marcia Ford considers that novels should be judged not on their literary merit but on their conclusions Regardless of whether you agree with Brown s conclusions it s clear that his history is largely fanciful which means he and his publisher have violated a long held if unspoken agreement with the reader Fiction that purports to present historical facts should be researched as carefully as a nonfiction book would be 7 Richard Abanes wrote The most flagrant aspect is not that Dan Brown disagrees with Christianity but that he utterly warps it in order to disagree with it to the point of completely rewriting a vast number of historical events And making the matter worse has been Brown s willingness to pass off his distortions as facts with which innumerable scholars and historians agree 7 To keep this in context critics have made similar observations about great works of fiction set in historical contexts such as Macbeth with no scandal 8 9 There are two main differences The most compelling is that The Da Vinci Code was marketed as being accurate The story opens with a fact page that states that The Priory of Sion a French secret society founded in 1099 is a real organization whereas the Priory of Sion is a hoax created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard which Plantard admitted under oath in 1994 well before the publication of The Da Vinci Code 10 The page also states that all descriptions of artwork architecture documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate but this claim is disputed by numerous academic scholars and experts in numerous areas 11 This fact page is itself fiction In the Corgi edition this fact page is tellingly placed after the final title page i e as part of the story in contrast to the placement of the corresponding page in Brown s previous book Angels and Daemons 12 Any debate about whether or not it is ethical to label this part of the story with the heading fact has been drowned out by criticism of the lack of historicity itself This is in stark contrast to the reaction to Welles s War of the Worlds which focused on the portrayal as fact rather than the lack of accuracy In contrast Macbeth was distorted to favour those in power at the time of its release 13 Dan Brown addressed the idea of some of the more controversial aspects being fact on his website stating that the page at the beginning of the novel mentions only documents rituals organization artwork and architecture but not any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters stating that Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader Brown also says It is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit and the secret behind The Da Vinci Code was too well documented and significant for me to dismiss 14 In 2003 while promoting the novel Brown was asked in interviews what parts of the history in his novel actually happened He replied Absolutely all of it 15 In a 2003 interview with CNN s Martin Savidge he was again asked how much of the historical background was true He replied 99 is true the background is all true 16 Asked by Elizabeth Vargas in an ABC News special if the book would have been different if he had written it as non fiction he replied I don t think it would have 17 In 2005 UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Michael Baigent Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln who authored the book Holy Blood Holy Grail in the program The Real Da Vinci Code shown on British TV Channel 4 The program featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as absolute fact in The Da Vinci Code Arnaud de Sede son of Gerard de Sede stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieure de Sion the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory frankly it was piffle 18 noting that the concept of a descendant of Jesus was also an element of the 1999 Kevin Smith film Dogma The earliest appearance of this theory is due to the 13th century Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay who reported that Cathars believed that the evil and earthly Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene described as his concubine and that the good Christ was incorporeal and existed spiritually in the body of Paul 19 The program The Real Da Vinci Code also cast doubt on the Rosslyn Chapel association with the Grail and on other related stories such as the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France According to The Da Vinci Code the Roman Emperor Constantine I suppressed Gnosticism because it portrayed Jesus as purely human The novel s argument is as follows 20 Constantine wanted Christianity to act as a unifying religion for the Roman Empire He thought Christianity would appeal to pagans only if it featured a demigod similar to pagan heroes According to the Gnostic Gospels Jesus was merely a human prophet not a demigod Therefore to change Jesus image Constantine destroyed the Gnostic Gospels and promoted the gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John which portray Jesus as divine or semi divine However most scholars agree that All Gnostic writings depict Christ as purely divine his human body being a mere illusion see Docetism 21 Gnostic sects saw Christ this way because they regarded matter as evil and therefore believed that a divine spirit would never have taken on a material body 22 Literary criticism edit The book received both positive and negative reviews from critics and it has been the subject of negative appraisals concerning its portrayal of history Its writing and historical accuracy were reviewed negatively by The New Yorker 23 Salon com 24 and Maclean s 25 Positive edit Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that one word concisely conveys the kind of extreme enthusiasm with which this riddle filled code breaking exhilaratingly brainy thriller can be recommended That word is wow The author is Dan Brown a name you will want to remember In this gleefully erudite suspense novel Mr Brown takes the format he has been developing through three earlier novels and fine tunes it to blockbuster perfection 26 David Lazarus of The San Francisco Chronicle said This story has so many twists all satisfying most unexpected that it would be a sin to reveal too much of the plot in advance Let s just say that if this novel doesn t get your pulse racing you need to check your meds 27 While interviewing Umberto Eco in a 2008 issue of The Paris Review Lila Azam Zanganeh characterized The Da Vinci Code as a bizarre little offshoot of Eco s novel Foucault s Pendulum In response Eco remarked Dan Brown is a character from Foucault s Pendulum I invented him He shares my characters fascinations the world conspiracy of Rosicrucians Masons and Jesuits The role of the Knights Templar The hermetic secret The principle that everything is connected I suspect Dan Brown might not even exist 28 The book appeared at number 43 on a 2010 list of 101 best books ever written which was derived from a survey of more than 15 000 Australian readers 29 Disparaging edit Stephen King likened Dan Brown s work to Jokes for the John calling such literature the intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese 30 Roger Ebert described it as a potboiler written with little grace and style although he added it did supply an intriguing plot 31 In his review of the film National Treasure whose plot also involves ancient conspiracies and treasure hunts he wrote I should read a potboiler like The Da Vinci Code every once in a while just to remind myself that life is too short to read books like The Da Vinci Code 32 Negative edit In addition to literary criticism the book has received many unsubstantiated insults Salman Rushdie said during a lecture Do not start me on The Da Vinci Code A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name 33 Salman Rushdie is an acknowledged expert in the field who rose to prominence when his work in the genre was awarded a fatwa in 1989 34 Stephen Fry has referred to Brown s writings as complete loose stool water and arse gravy of the worst kind 35 In a live chat on June 14 2006 he clarified I just loathe all those book s about the Holy Grail and Masons and Catholic conspiracies and all that botty dribble I mean there s so much more that s interesting and exciting in art and in history It plays to the worst and laziest in humanity the desire to think the worst of the past and the desire to feel superior to it in some fatuous way 36 That is Stephen Fry was objecting to the genre which includes critically acclaimed books like Umberto Eco s Foucault s Pendulum rather than uniquely The Da Vinci Code A O Scott reviewing the movie based on the book for The New York Times called the book Dan Brown s best selling primer on how not to write an English sentence 37 The New Yorker reviewer Anthony Lane refers to it as unmitigated junk and decries the crumbling coarseness of the style 23 Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others posted several entries critical of Dan Brown s writing at Language Log calling Brown one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature and saying Brown s writing is not just bad it is staggeringly clumsily thoughtlessly almost ingeniously bad 38 Lawsuits edit Author Lewis Perdue alleged that Brown plagiarized two of his novels The Da Vinci Legacy originally published in 1983 and Daughter of God originally published in 2000 He sought to block distribution of the book and film However Judge George Daniels of the US District Court in New York ruled against Perdue in 2005 saying that A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God and that Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas 39 Perdue appealed the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original decision saying Mr Perdue s arguments were without merit 40 In early 2006 Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh filed suit against Brown s publisher Random House They alleged that significant portions of The Da Vinci Code were plagiarized from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail violating their copyright 41 Brown confirmed during the court case that he named the principal Grail expert of his story Leigh Teabing an anagram of Baigent Leigh after the two plaintiffs In reply to the suggestion that Henry Lincoln was also referred to in the book since he has medical problems resulting in a severe limp like the character of Leigh Teabing Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln s illness and the correspondence was a coincidence 42 Since Baigent and Leigh had presented their conclusions as historical research not as fiction Mr Justice Peter Smith who presided over the trial deemed that a novelist must be free to use these ideas in a fictional context and ruled against Baigent and Leigh Smith also hid his own secret code in his written judgment in the form of seemingly random italicized letters in the 71 page document which apparently spell out a message Smith indicated he would confirm the code if someone broke it 43 After losing before the High Court on July 12 2006 Baigent and Leigh appealed to the Court of Appeal unsuccessfully 42 43 In April 2006 Mikhail Anikin a Russian scientist and art historian working as a senior researcher at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg stated the intention to bring a lawsuit against Dan Brown maintaining that he was the one who coined the phrase used as the book s title and one of the ideas regarding the Mona Lisa used in its plot Anikin interprets the Mona Lisa to be a Christian allegory consisting of two images one of Jesus Christ that comprises the image s right half and one of the Virgin Mary that forms its left half According to Anikin he expressed this idea to a group of experts from the Museum of Houston during a 1988 Rene Magritte exhibit at the Hermitage and when one of the Americans requested permission to pass it along to a friend Anikin granted the request on condition that he be credited in any book using his interpretation Anikin eventually compiled his research into Leonardo da Vinci or Theology on Canvas a book published in 2000 but The Da Vinci Code published three years later makes no mention of Anikin and instead asserts that the idea in question is a well known opinion of a number of scientists 44 45 Brown has been sued twice in U S Federal courts by the author Jack Dunn who claims Brown copied a huge part of his book The Vatican Boys to write The Da Vinci Code and Angels amp Demons Neither lawsuit was allowed to go to a jury trial In 2017 in London another claim was begun against Brown by Jack Dunn who claimed that justice was not served in the U S lawsuits 46 Possibly the largest reaction occurred in Kolkata India where a group of around 25 protesters stormed Crossword bookstore pulled copies of the book from the racks and threw them to the ground On the same day a group of 50 60 protesters successfully made the Oxford Bookstore on Park Street decide to stop selling the book until the controversy sparked by the film s release was resolved 47 Thus in 2006 seven Indian states Nagaland Punjab Goa Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh banned the release or exhibition of the Hollywood movie The Da Vinci Code as well as the book 48 Later two states Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh lifted the ban under high court order 49 50 Release details editThe book has been translated into over 44 languages primarily hardcover 51 Major English language hardcover editions include The Da Vinci Code 1st ed US Doubleday April 2003 ISBN 0 385 50420 9 The Da Vinci Code spec illustr ed Doubleday November 2 2004 ISBN 0 385 51375 5 as of January 2006 has sold 576 000 copies The Da Vinci Code UK Corgi Adult April 2004 ISBN 0 552 14951 9 The Da Vinci Code illustr ed UK Bantam October 2 2004 ISBN 0 593 05425 3 The Da Vinci Code trade paperback US CA Anchor March 2006 The da Vinci code paperback Anchor March 28 2006 5 million copies The da Vinci code paperback special illustrated ed Broadway March 28 2006 released 200 000 copies Goldsman Akiva May 19 2006 The Da Vinci Code Illustrated Screenplay Behind the Scenes of the Major Motion Picture Howard Ron Brown Dan introd Doubleday Broadway the day of the film s release Including film stills behind the scenes photos and the full script 25 000 copies of the hardcover and 200 000 of the paperback version 52 Film editMain article The Da Vinci Code film Columbia Pictures adapted the novel to film with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing The film was released on May 19 2006 and stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu and Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing During its opening weekend moviegoers spent an estimated 77 million in America and 224 million worldwide 53 The movie received mixed reviews Roger Ebert in its review wrote that Ron Howard is a better filmmaker than Dan Brown is a novelist he follows Brown s formula exotic location startling revelation desperate chase scene repeat as needed and elevates it into a superior entertainment with Tom Hanks as a theo intellectual Indiana Jones it s involving intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations 31 The film received two sequels Angels amp Demons released in 2009 and Inferno released in 2016 Ron Howard returned to direct both sequels See also edit nbsp Novels portal nbsp Religion portalBible conspiracy theory Conspiracy theory that what is known about the Bible is a deception to suppress ancient truths Christian feminism School of Christian theology Constantinian shift Political and theological changes Desposyni Biblical figures described as brothers of JesusPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets False title Grammatical construct in English List of best selling books List of books banned in India List of books banned in IndiaPages displaying short descriptions matching their page name Smithy code Private amusement embedded in a court judgement in the DaVinci Code The Jesus Scroll 1972 book by Donovan Joyce Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations The Rozabal Line Novel by Ashwin Sanghi The Doomsday Conspiracy 1991 novel by Sidney SheldonReferences edit How Good Is Dan Brown s The Lost Symbol Time September 15 2009 Wyat Edward November 4 2005 Da Vinci Code Losing Best Seller Status Archived October 12 2013 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times New novel from Dan Brown due this fall San Jose Mercury News Archived from the original on June 4 2011 Retrieved January 4 2011 Minzesheimer Bob December 11 2003 Code deciphers interest in religious history USA Today Archived from the original on January 10 2010 Retrieved May 25 2010 Heller Karen December 29 2016 Meet the elite group of authors who sell 100 million books or 350 million Independent Retrieved April 25 2020 Miller Laura February 22 2004 THE LAST WORD The Da Vinci Con The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved December 29 2023 a b Ford Marcia Da Vinci Debunkers Spawns of Dan Brown s Bestseller FaithfulReader Archived from the original on May 27 2004 Retrieved April 29 2015 Julian Jimenez Heffernan 2016 Beyond this ignorant present the poverty of historicism in Macbeth Palgrave Commun 2 16054 doi 10 1057 palcomms 2016 54 Duncan and MacBeth Retrieved January 6 2024 Affaire Pelat Le Rapport du Juge Le Point no 1112 8 14 January 1994 p 11 History vs The Da Vinci Code Retrieved February 3 2009 The Da Vinci Code Corgi January 15 2024 ISBN 978 0552149518 Specifically the portrayal of Banquo an ancestor of James Stewart The real Duncan and Macbeth Kings of Scotland Kelleher Ken Kelleher Carolyn April 24 2006 The Da Vinci Code FAQs Dan Brown Archived from the original on March 25 2008 Retrieved February 3 2009 NBC Today Interview NBC Today June 3 2003 Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Interview With Dan Brown CNN Sunday Morning CNN May 25 2003 Fiction History vs The Da Vinci Code Retrieved February 3 2009 The Real Da Vinci Code Channel 4 Sibly WA Sibly MD 1998 The History of the Albigensian Crusade Peter of les Vaux de Cernay s Historia Albigensis Boydell ISBN 0 85115 658 4 Further in their secret meetings they said that the Christ who was born in the earthly and visible Bethlehem and crucified at Jerusalem was evil and that Mary Magdalene was his concubine and that she was the woman taken in adultery who is referred to in the Scriptures the good Christ they said neither ate nor drank nor assumed the true flesh and was never in this world except spiritually in the body of Paul I have used the term the earthly and visible Bethlehem because the heretics believed there is a different and invisible earth in which according to some of them the good Christ was born and crucified O Neill Tim 2006 55 Early Christianity and Political Power History versus the Da Vinci Code archived from the original on May 15 2009 retrieved February 16 2009 Arendzen John Peter 1913 Docetae Catholic Encyclopedia vol 5 New York Robert Appleton The idea of the unreality of Christ s human nature was held by the oldest Gnostic sects Docetism as far as at present known was always an accompaniment of Gnosticism or later of Manichaeism O Neill Tim 2006 55 Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls History versus the Da Vinci Code archived from the original on May 15 2009 retrieved February 16 2009 a b Lane Anthony May 29 2006 Heaven Can Wait Archived October 12 2013 at the Wayback Machine The New Yorker Miller Laura December 29 2004 The Da Vinci crock Archived September 18 2011 at the Wayback Machine Salon com Retrieved 2009 05 15 Steyn Mark May 10 2006 The Da Vinci Code bad writing for Biblical illiterates Archived June 11 2013 at the Wayback Machine Maclean s Maslin Janet March 17 2003 Spinning a Thriller From a Gallery at the Louvre Archived April 8 2016 at the Wayback Machine Lazarus David April 6 2003 Da Vinci Code a heart racing thriller San Francisco Chronicle Zanganeh Lila Azam Umberto Eco The Art of Fiction No 197 Archived October 6 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Paris Review Summer 2008 Number 185 Retrieved 2012 04 27 Yeoman William June 30 2010 Vampires trump wizards as readers pick their best The West Australian retrieved March 24 2011 List PDF archived from the original PDF on August 4 2011 Stephen King address University of Maine Archive Archived from the original on October 13 2007 Retrieved January 4 2011 a b Ebert Roger May 18 2006 Veni Vidi Da Vinci RogerEbert com Ebert Roger November 18 2004 Clueless caper just fool s gold RogerEbert com Famed author takes on Kansas LJWorld October 7 2005 Archived from the original on August 30 2009 Retrieved January 4 2011 Salman Rushdie timeline The key events following Iran s fatwa against author Retrieved February 2 2024 3x12 QI episode transcript permanent dead link Interview with Douglas Adams Continuum SE Douglas Adams Archived from the original on May 19 2011 Retrieved January 4 2011 Scott A O May 18 2006 Movie Review A Da Vinci Code That Takes Longer to Watch Than Read The New York Times Retrieved January 4 2011 The Dan Brown code Language Log University of Pennsylvania also follow other links at the bottom of that page Author Brown did not plagiarise Archived November 28 2016 at the Wayback Machine BBC News August 6 2005 Delays to latest Dan Brown novel Archived April 6 2016 at the Wayback Machine BBC News April 21 2006 Judge creates own Da Vinci code BBC News April 27 2006 Archived from the original on September 5 2007 Retrieved September 13 2009 a b Authors who lost Da Vinci Code copying case to mount legal appeal Retrieved July 12 2006 a b Judge rejects claims in Da Vinci suit Today com MSN April 7 2006 Retrieved February 3 2009 Page Jeremy Now Russian sues Brown over his Da Vinski Code The Sunday Times April 12 2006 Grachev Guerman April 13 2006 Russian scientist to sue best selling author Dan Brown over Da Vinci Code plagiarism Pravda RU archived from the original on October 7 2012 retrieved May 13 2011 Teodorczuk Tom December 14 2017 Dan Brown faces possible new plagiarism lawsuit over The Da Vinci Code MarketWatch Retrieved March 20 2022 Novel earns vandal wrath Code controversy deepens with warning from protesters The Telegraph India May 18 2006 Archived from the original on August 27 2016 India extends Da Vinci Code ban on the ground that it outraged the religious feeling of Christians Roman Catholic Bishop Marampudi Joji based in Andhra Pradesh s capital Hyderabad welcomed the ban BBC News 3 June 2006 Retrieved 3 June 2006 HC quashes ban on Da Vinci Code Hyderabad News Times of India The Times of India TNN June 22 2006 Retrieved July 11 2022 HC allows Da Vinci Code screening in TN www rediff com Retrieved July 11 2022 World editions of The Da Vinci Code Secrets official site Dan Brown archived from the original on January 27 2006 Harry Potter still magic for book sales Arts CBC January 9 2006 archived from the original on October 13 2007 The Da Vinci Code 2006 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on May 13 2013 Retrieved December 16 2006 Further reading editBock Darrell L Breaking the da Vinci code Answers to the questions everyone s asking Thomas Nelson 2004 Ehrman Bart D Truth and fiction in The Da Vinci Code a historian reveals what we really know about Jesus Mary Magdalene and Constantine Oxford University Press 2004 Easley Michael J and John Ankerberg The Da Vinci Code Controversy 10 Facts You Should Know Moody Publishers 2006 Gale Cengage Learning A Study Guide for Dan Brown s The Da Vinci Code Gale Cengage Learning 2015 Hawel Zeineb Sami Did Dan Brown Break or Repair the Taboos in the Da Vinci Code An Analytical Study of His Dialectical Style International Journal of Linguistics and Literature IJLL 7 4 5 24 online dead link Kennedy Tammie M Mary Magdalene and the Politics of Public Memory Interrogating The Da Vinci Code Feminist Formations 2012 120 139 online Mexal Stephen J Realism Narrative History and the Production of the Bestseller The Da Vinci Code and the Virtual Public Sphere Journal of Popular Culture 44 5 2011 1085 1101 online dead link Newheiser Anna Kaisa Miguel Farias and Nicole Tausch The functional nature of conspiracy beliefs Examining the underpinnings of belief in the Da Vinci Code conspiracy Personality and Individual Differences 51 8 2011 1007 1011 online Olson Carl E and Sandra Miesel The da Vinci hoax Exposing the errors in The da Vinci code Ignatius Press 2004 Propp William H C Is The Da Vinci Code True Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 25 1 2013 34 48 Pullum Geoffrey K The Dan Brown code 2004 Schneider Mayerson Matthew The Dan Brown phenomenon conspiracism in post 9 11 popular fiction Radical History Review 2011 111 2011 194 201 online dead link Walsh Richard G Passover Plots From Modern Fictions to Mark and Back Again Postscripts The Journal of Sacred Texts Cultural Histories and Contemporary Contexts 3 2 3 2007 201 222 onlineExternal links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code official website Dan Brown January 5 2013 The Da Vinci Code official website UK Dan Brown September 19 2023 Mysteries of Rennes le Chateau archived from the original on April 14 2015 retrieved January 13 2014 The Da Vinci Code and Textual Criticism A Video Response to the Novel Rochester Bible archived from the original on December 12 2010 Walsh David May 2006 The Da Vinci Code novel and film and countercultural myth WSWS review Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Da Vinci Code amp oldid 1205983402, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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