Dan Brown

Dan Brown swaps pseudohistory for pseudoscience

Laura Miller — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:15:00 PDT

Let's face it, who really cares about Robert Langdon, professor of the (imaginary) discipline of symbology at a fictionalized (and apparently woefully indiscriminate) version of Harvard University? Who cares about those unfortunate patriarchs of the confidential class, one of whom always turns up dead or mutilated or both -- a martyr to his own secrets! -- at the beginnings of Dan Brown's breathless, treasure-hunt thrillers? Who cares about the academic babe, invariably a blood relative of the stricken patriarch, who inevitably materializes to accompany Langdon on the hunt and to play the admiring audience to his lectures on the aforementioned secrets? Sure, there's something kinda Oedipal going on in all this, in the way Langdon (40-something, but with a "toned physique"!) swoops in to rescue the academic babe along with Western civilization itself after the close-mouthed elitism of her dad/grandfather/big brother has failed, and in the way he demonstrates his enlightened, democratic, woman-positive attitudes in the process. But who even cares enough about the psyche of Dan Brown to contemplate the significance of that?

E-book of new Dan Brown novel coming Sept. 15

HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:01:00 PDT

E-book readers can relax: The electronic edition of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" is coming out on the same day as the hardcover.

"Angels & Demons"

Stephanie Zacharek — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:27:00 PDT

"Angels & Demons," Ron Howard's follow-up to the stiff, stately 2006 "The Da Vinci Code," might have been classy, entertaining junk -- if only it were entertaining. The picture is based on the Dan Brown bestseller of the same name, which was published in 2000, three years before Brown really hit big with "Da Vinci." As in "The Da Vinci Code," our hero is once again Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon (once again played by Tom Hanks, this time with a strange, matted coif that looks as if it should be topped by Ruth Buzzi's hairnet). Because he knows so much about symbols and stuff, Langdon is summoned to Rome to investigate a mysterious threat: Apparently, an ancient secret brotherhood of eggheads known as the Illuminati have hatched a plot to annihilate -- or should that be annihilati? -- the Vatican with a giant ball of light. Langdon is persona non grata at Vatican City -- the officials have repeatedly refused to let him riffle through their archives for his research, much as, in real life, the Vatican refused to let Ron Howard film there -- but now the guys in the lace dresses really need his help. When he shows up, he's met by Stellan Skarsgard, as the commander of the Swiss Guard, with a glare of disdain. "What a relief, the symbolist is here," he deadpans. Little does he know that Langdon's brilliant ability to say, "Hey! That ecclesiastical emblem is upside-down!" could possibly save his skin.

Letters

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:48:00 PST

[Read "The Da Vinci Crock," by Laura Miller.]

The Da Vinci crock

Laura Miller — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 15:24:00 PST

Recent history offers many examples of Americans' inability to tell fact from fiction, but none more tangled than the story of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code." The book is among the most popular novels of all time, with 8 million copies sold since its publication last year and what seems to be a permanent reserved slot on the bestseller list. You see people reading it on planes and trains, and if at a social event you happen to mention that you write about books for a living, someone is sure to pull you aside eagerly to discuss it. This baffles and annoys a lot of literary types, many of whom haven't read "The Da Vinci Code" or couldn't get past the first few hackneyed pages. Why is the public so preoccupied with this cheesy thriller? they wonder.

"The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

Charles Taylor — Thu, 27 Mar 2003 13:00:00 PST

Trust me.