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Description

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to... read more

Summary

The story starts off with the murder of Jacques Saunière (the Grand Master Of Priory Of Sion) by Silas (acting on behalf of someone known only as The Teacher) to extract the location of the “keystone,” which leads to the Holy Grail and documents which would shake the very foundation of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Cast of Characters/Important People

  • Robert Langdon: Lead protagonist. Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard, and all-around good code-cracker.
  • Jacques Saunière: Louvre Museum curator.
  • Sophie Neveu: Saunière's granddaughter.
  • Silas: Creepy albino monk working for a religious organization.
  • Bezu Fache: Head detective investigating the murder of Saunière.
  • Manuel Aringarosa: Head of Opus Dei; a bishop.
  • Leigh Teabing: A friend of Robert's who tries to help them unravel part of the book's mystery.

Memorable Quotes

  • “The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating" - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions.”
  • “History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?'”

First Sentence

Robert Langdon awoke slowly.

Authors & Contributors

  1. Dan Brown (Author)
 

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