Dan Brown Set - Inferno, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons 

About Dan Brown:
Dan Brown, the Author of the Fastest Selling Adult Novel in History.

The Da Vinci Code
In Dan Brown’s novels recurrent themes such as cryptography, symbology, codes and conspiracy often find links to historical and religious themes.

The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003 starts with a man, the curator of the Louvre, found dead in the museum with strange symbols written all over his body. The Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon is called to investigate on the murder and to guide the reader through a perilous journey across symbols, puzzles, codes and a battle between the Opus Dei and The Priority of Sion at the end of which there is an explosive and hidden truth which could waver the solid tenets of Christianity.

Da Vinci, who gives the novel its title is believed to be part of the conspiracy guarding the secrets about Jesus Christ’s possible progeny. Robert Langdon and the cryptologist Sophie Neveu embark in the difficult task of decoding the puzzles and secret symbols that could be hidden in Leonardo’s pieces. The central point of the alternative religious history would see the Merovingian kings of France as descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

For its controversial content the book has been denounced to be anti-Christian and to represent an attack to the Catholic Church and Dan Brown was accused of having been inaccurate as far as history and science are concerned. Nonetheless the novel also encouraged popular interest in the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene role in Christianity.

As of 2013 “ The Da Vinci Code ” sold 81 million copies and has been translated in 44 different languages.

Inferno
The fourth book of the Robert Langdon series was released in 2013 to be an immediate best seller, when he was asked to comment it he said: ” With this new novel, I am excited to take readers on a journey deep into this mysterious realm … a landscape of codes, symbols, and more than a few secret passageways.”

From Dan Brown’s words the most affectionate fans can already understand that the recurrent elements are there and they probably will not be disappointed: Professor Robert Langdon travelling the world to untangle world historical mysteries is a must in Dan Brown thrillers.
This time the set is Florence and the code to decipher is in Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno.

The novel opens with Robert Langdon waking up in a hospital in Florence and trying to remember what happened to him during the previous few days. The main character is followed by a mad-scientist villain who also is a fanatical of Dante’s Inferno. The two establish some kind of communication based on the interpretation of Dante’s text that lead to a fast paced chase full of accidents and exotic locations which really grab the reader from the cover to the end.

Inferno is rich in historical and cultural references, from Florence architecture, to classical art, to the alleories of Dante’s masterpiece, elements that show a great work of research from the author. The great ability of Dan Brown is to always keeping the story in the first place, never making it stop completely to give space to long explanations or dissertations. The result is a novel easier to read, entertaining but with a lot of cultural and historical information and sparks for further research on the reader’s part.