The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

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Unlike the authors I am going to review, I did not have a team of clever publishers inspiring me to write intriguing titles, and so the header of my first review is intentionally boring. Much like the appellation that is 'The Da Vinci Code'.

I think I can speak for most 22-year-old women when I say that Dan Brown's people did not give this masterpiece a particularly androgynous title. The word code hints at unnecessary complication and implies a difficult read, and the reference to Da Vinci suggests that this is a novel aimed at those with at least some basic knowledge of art. To my surprise, I found every presumption I had about this book and about Dan Brown as an author to be completely unfounded.

Having once walked in on the end of the film adaptation I was aware of the epic twist at the end, which I believe drastically detracted from my experience. Still, I would rate Dan Brown's most famous prose as one of the most intelligent and absorbing books I have ever read.

Aware of the impact this cleverly assembled tale will have on the reader, he reassures us of the legitimacy of his research before the prologue on page 17.

"All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."

Promising authenticity so blatantly at the beginning of this work was a wise decision. This book is constructed almost entirely of expertly arranged historic facts, stitched together by the developing relationship between a beautiful Cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard, Robert Langdon.

The two are thrown together when the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris, Jacques Sauniere, is murdered. Desperate to pass on the world's best kept secret to his estranged granddaughter Sophie, Jacques strips naked and, before he bleeds to death, arranges himself in the shape of Da Vinci's Vetruvian Man. To ensure the involvement of Paris' cryptology department, he scrawls a random sequence of numbers and Robert Langdon's name beside his body in invisible ink. Desperate for a swift arrest to redeem his legendary status within the police force, ageing Captain Bezu Fache looks no further past the use of Langdon's name than incrimination, and sets out for a swift arrest.

Thus ensues a furious quest to discover the secret Sophie's grandfather lost his life to keep. With no promises that it will prove Robert Langdon's innocence, they embark on a nail biting journey, trailed not only by the menacing Captain Fache, but also by a ruthlessly religious albino monk named Silas.

I worried that I might not be able to follow a complicated storyline, or that the book may require a basic knowledge of art and religion. But Brown obviously wrote this book for everyone. He explains every shred of evidence he uses to verify his story so concisely that the reader cannot help but feel enlightened.

One of Brown's more interesting, and pointless, pieces of information includes the phenomena that is the number 1.618, or 'Phi'. Hailed as 'the Divine Proportion', the number, Brown correctly informs us, displays itself at a ratio of 1.618 to 1 within plants, humans and animals with regularity that cannot be coincidental.

"And did you know that if you divide the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the world, you always get the same number?"

Despite its presence within SoPHIe's name being its only relevance within the story, I found myself far from irritated by Brown's apparent determination to include every slither of intellect he possesses into his book. In fact, I could not help but be enthralled by his dedication to saturate me with facts I would otherwise never have known. Did you know that 'the distance from the top of your head to the floor divided by the distance of your belly button to the floor is Phi? As is the distance of your shoulder to your fingertips divided by distance from your elbow to your fingertips. And your measurements from hip to floor divided by knee to floor. No matter who you are or what your proportions. Incredible. And true.

Dan Brown simplifies what could be an impossible adventure and makes it enjoyable not only for men and women, but both the arty intelligent and the clueless. I have no problem admitting that I am the latter. I made no fewer than twenty Google searches inspired by the facts Dan Brown displayed for me within 'The Da Vinci Code'. I found myself tapping 'Madonna on the Rocks', 'The Last Supper', 'Priory of Sion' and 'Opus Dei' into search engines. Brown combines absurd truths witnessed and written throughout history with a beautiful story, and leaves the reader captivated and enhanced. Pleasently suprising and impeccably written, 'The Da Vinci Code' is a book for thrill seekers and romance lovers alike.