Adventure Annotation

The Da Vinci Code

By Dan Brown

Synopsis:

A Harvard professor of symbolism, Robert Langdon, is pulled into an unfolding conspiracy to find the Holy Grail. Robert awakens in a hotel room in Paris to find a professional acquaintance has been murdered! In the victim’s dying moments he has left Robert’s name on the floor. Starting a line of plot points where coincide and the influence of a guiding hand intertwine, Robert meets an unlikely friend with the victim’s estranged grand-daughter, Sophie. Sophie and Robert meet a small cast of upper-crust academics as they sink to the mystery of finding the Holy Grail, some aid their quest and some turn villainous. Nevertheless, the true appeal of The Da Vinci Code may not be its adventurous plot, but its invitation to discover the secrets of the Holy Grail known by Renaissance masters of art and secret societies!    

Elements of Adventure:

Our Hero

Robert Langdon is shares the intellect, attractiveness and profession of Indiana Jones while displaying none of the James Bond qualities of womanizing or moral ambiguity. He is not quite an unlikely hero, since he is one of the most well-known in his profession displaying brilliant quick thinking, yet he is relatable since he is forced into heroic action more than he seeks for it. Langdon is the hero who rises to an extraordinary challenge, yet who already has the skills and knowledge to impress the reader.

Pacing

Our story is action packed with scenes where our hero and friends faces down gun barrels, has to brilliantly escape, then while he is traveling to the next threatening public space solve a riddle to gain a clue of the unraveling plot. During the times where Langdon is physically safe, the reader is engaged in solving a puzzle, when the puzzle has been solved, the reader is on the edge of the seat wondering if our hero will be able to accomplish his new plan. This setup is constantly rotating, but it makes the book a certified ‘page-turner’!

Setting

The Da Vinci Code takes place in cities and buildings with names you know, and probably want to see in person during your life. From the night streets of Paris, the Louvre, foggy England’s Westminster Abbey and Scotland’s historic Rosslyn Chapel, Dan Brown writes a novel with grand appeal.  While most often literally, under the gun, Brown ensures his reader understands the scope of the jet-setting by allowing Langdon to stand in awe, for a fleeting moment, of the historic places the story revolves around.

Larger-Than-Life Mission

Langdon’s mission falls into a story that has lasted into multiple millennia, the search for the Holy Grail. It involves secret societies and classical intellectual giants like Leonardo Da Vinci and Sir Isaac Newton. Langdon is one of the handfuls of people in the world that truly understand the nature of the Holy Grail and its mystery, but it links him to the giants of the elite intellectual forefathers. In The Da Vinci Code few know and understand the location and meaning of the Holy Grail, but Langdon must use all of his wits to join those ranks as Sophie and his own life hangs in the balance.

Language

Brown’s novel is not fraught with in-depth description or verbose literary style. Instead the reader is privy to the witty banter of academics explaining non-mainstream views of historical, often religious, events and ‘facts’. Sophie’s inexperience in these matters are often the excuse to full the reader in, but she is not a mindless devise, she displays immense aptitude in code-breaking and offers a personal back story that makes the Grail quest meaningful.   

Read-A-Likes:

·       Seven Wonders by Ben Mezrich

              

·       The Breadth of God by Jeffery Small

             

·       False Impression by Jeffery Archer