The da Vinci Code

[Tamrin]

The da Vinci Code

by Dan Brown. Corgi Books, 2003, 605pp, ISBN 0552 14951 9, £6.99

Reviewed by R.A. Gilbert,
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum Volume 116, Review pp.286-7.

(Review Excerpt)

When Michael Baigent and his co-authors published The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in 1982 they expected – and received – both popular acclaim and scholarly derision. The public reacted only, and inevitably, to the first of these and the book became a runaway best-seller. But such success carries a price. Despite definitive demolition, by way of television documentaries, of the flimsy evidence on which the book’s theses – the supposed bloodline of Christ and the shadowy Priory of Sion that existed to protect it – that same public prefers to maintain its belief in fantasy rather than reality. The consequence of this has been a twenty-year stream, more of a roaring flood, of variously pale or crazed derivatives of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. All of these books have common denominators: a desire to rewrite history in line with their own bizarre fantasies, and a willful refusal to accept the reality of documented history. They are also widely read and widely believed to be true; but now comes their apotheosis in a work of overt fiction.

It must be admitted that Bro Baigent and his co-authors sincerely believed in their theses, but it is unthinkable that Dan Brown believes one word of his creation, for The da Vinci Code is so riddled with factual errors that no rational, literate author could both assemble and believe such a catalogue of nonsense. The novel is a thriller predicated on the current existence of the Priory of Sion, but it can in no sense be described as hommage: the warped and murderous villain is named (by way of an absurd anagram) after poor Bro Baigent. Nor does the book live up to the sycophantic reviews printed on the flyleaves. It is neither a ‘masterpiece’ nor ‘enthralling’ – it is simply a formulaic and predictable thriller with an irritating undercurrent of special pleading. More to the point, it does not contain ‘massive amounts of historical and academic information’. Why, then, bother to review this book at all? There are, alas, good reasons but these must wait until some of the most egregious errors have been exposed. I will confine these to subject areas likely to be of most interest to our readership, but it should be stressed that they are not confined to history, masonic or otherwise: they extend, for example, into biography, art criticism, science, comparative religion, symbolism, archaeology, architecture and biblical studies.

[Tamrin]

DaVinci Code Exposed

Reviewed by Dr. Bob James, the Australian Centre for Fraternal Studies

(Excerpt)

There are different ways to look at this book, and a range of questions that could be asked. Among its vast readership, there will be people attracted to, objecting to and/or questioning the many different elements which go to make it up.

It has attracted, of course, many published responses, eg, Boch's book of theological queries. There are others 'explaining' specialised terms, such as 'the Golden Mean' and the various symbols.

I'm not inclined to pursue the theology, or the architectural themes, or even what might be called the 'historical' approach. I begin, at the beginning, with the book itself, as a creation of its author, Dan Brown, and I thought about it, under three headings -

• firstly, as a novel, a work of fiction, purely and simply, such as 'Wuthering Heights' or 'Moby Dick' .It has short, snappy chapters, an exciting beginning. Many readers have described it a a 'good read', 'a page turner';
  
• secondly, as an historical documentary, a fictionalised history 'lesson' ; and
  
• thirdly, I wondered whether this book belongs on a pile, marked 'Burn These', with all the useless 'creations' which just stir together a lot of popular mythology about secret societies and conspiracy theories.

These three categories are not entirely separate one from another, but here, contemplating this pile of useless, 'burnable' creations, the question can be reversed: Is there any reason to place 'The Da Vinci Code' in a special category, more important than all these others, in other words, is there a 'Dan Brown' position with any of the 'conspiracies' which play parts in the book, is there a Dan Brown position which is coherent, plausible, useful?