The Dan Brown Enigma by Graham A Thomas Page A

said the book ‘gave bad novels a bad name.’ Stephen Fry called it ‘arse gravy of the worst kind’ and Stephen King likened it to a macaroni-and-cheese ready meal .
    There are also bad reader reviews of the book on Amazon, with people calling it ‘turgid pap’, ‘an awful book’ and ‘inaccurate, insubstantial and preposterous’.
    ‘As a piece of literature it fails on every count. The characters are emotionless automata which could be bested by any high school English assignment. The plot and background are preposterous and inaccurate from start to finish. The alleged historical significance is the biggest fiction in the book, right after Robert Langdon’s so-called “expertise”. The overall result is a piece of insubstantial and preposterous fluff barely worth using to prop up the leg of a wobbly table.’ [236]
    But the positive comments far outweigh the bad reviews. Indeed, with millions of readers worldwide, the book certainly meets the mark for entertainment value.
    To see how well it reflects the world around it, we need to look at how Dan Brown researched it and created the world in which Robert Langdon lives, one that is familiar to all of us and yet strangely different.
    In January 2001, when Heidi Lange had taken on Brown and they were in the process of negotiating with Pocket Books, Lange suggested to Brown that he put together several book proposals so they could negotiate a multiple book deal. Brown put together a 56-page synopsis for The Da Vinci Code . ‘I remember trying hard to make the synopsis exciting and cinematic,’ Brown said. ‘I had already written a similar synopsis of Angels & Demons in hopes of selling the novel to Hollywood, but that had never happened.’ [237]
    The synopsis included a partial bibliography that would give the novel authority and allow Brown to create the world that Robert Langdon inhabits. The bibliography listed seven books, including The Templar Revelation , The Hiram Key and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar . ‘Much of the research for the novel came from conversations, research trips, online sources and essentially sources that are hard to cite,’ Brown said in his witness statement.
    While Brown has said that he tries to blend fact with fiction, he also tries to anchor his books in a realistic and recognisable world. ‘In the final version of The Da Vinci Code I used The Vitruvian Man as a model for the opening murder scene (placing a dead character on the Louvre floor in the same body position as Leonardo da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man ),’ he said, referring to the drawing most people would probably know by sight if not by name. ‘The murder is still set in the Louvre, but I was having problems making this work, and I thought The Vitruvian Man would be a far better murder victim.’
    Brown peppers his stories with academic lectures by the protagonist, in order to provide information for the reader as well as a grounding in reality. Brown tells us these lectures require ‘a firm grasp of specifics. Invariably, when I am preparing to write one of these academic lectures, I ask Blythe to collect and compile as much information as possible on the lecture topic. The Da Vinci Code includes lots of lectures – some long, some short – on topics such as Opus Dei, the Mona Lisa , goddess worship and suppression of the feminine, symbology, Fibonacci, hidden meanings in paintings and other art, and Rosslyn.’ [238]
    Three chapters in The Da Vinci Code provide the reader with academic lectures on the Templars, the Priory and the Holy Grail. ‘Chapter 55 deals with Christianity, Constantine and the Bible,’ said Brown in his witness statement. ‘Chapter 58 deals with lost history, Jesus’ marriage and the Grail as bloodline.’
    The sources for these lectures, which Langdon gives in the book, come from the many books that Brown used to research his novel, such as The Hiram Key and The Templar Revelation . Chapter 58 sees Langdon telling Sophie about his