Book Review            
The Da Vinci Code                                
by Dan Brown     
                                                                     Review by Kang Guo

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has been widely renowned as a master thriller.  It has been the number one New York Times bestseller.  Although many consider this work to be fictional, it may be, in fact, true.  Brown has compiled enough evidence to make myself believe his theory.  The Da Vinci Code explores the idea that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene, and his bloodline lives on today.  Whether you agree with his idea or not, this book is still an excellent novel.
            This book is mainly centered on Robert Langdon, an American symbologist, and Sophie Neveu, a French cryptographer.  They investigate the murder of Jacques Saunière, Neveu’s grandfather.  As they do so, they uncover clues Saunière left them to discover biblical secrets and decipher Da Vinci’s code.  Saunière left them a cryptex in the Swiss bank.  A cryptex is a device designed by Da Vinci himself to contain important information.  To open it, you must enter the correct 5 letter password via the 5 dials found on the cryptex.  If one were to force the container open, vinegar surrounding the vial containing the information would flood into the vial, as the glass would be broken.  The information is typically written on papyrus, so the vinegar would dissolve the papyrus, and the information would be lost.  Neveu and Langdon learned that the information inside the cryptex contained the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.  To open the cryptex, a clue was found on the wooden box in which the cryptex was in when it was withdrawn from the Swiss bank.  The clue was a poem:
    An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll
    And helps us keep her scatter’d family whole
    A headstone praised by templars is the key
    And atbash will reveal the truth to thee

Langdon used a Hebrew code, the atbash cipher, to reveal the password, and it was SOFIA, which was wisdom in Greek.  After opening the cryptex, it turned out that another smaller one was inside as well as a verse of a poem.  The poem is:
            In London lies a knight a Pope interred.
            His labor’s fruit a Holy wrath incurred.
            You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb.
            It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb.
After much thought, Langdon realized that the password was APPLE.  The knight was Sir Isaac Newton, whose discoveries were made because of an apple, and the apple fits the descriptions of the other clues in the poem.  The information inside this cryptex was another poem:
            The Holy Grail ‘neath ancient Roslin waits.
            Adorned in maters’ loving art She lies.
            The blade and chalice guarding o’er Her gates.
            She rests at last beneath the starry skies.
This points to the Louvre, where Mary Magdalene is supposedly buried.  Roslin points to nearby Rosslyn, and the Louvre is filled with the art of many painting legends.  The blade and chalice, having symbols of a triangle and an inversed triangle, point to the glass pyramid located in front of the Louvre.  Robert Langdon’s journey ended where it started, and Da Vinci’s code was realized. 

            I would recommend this book to anyone willing to read it.  It gives a new perspective on modern beliefs, and if this information were to be found true, out modern religion may change forever. 

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