Themes:
1. The human world is encoded with meaning.
2. The centrality of human relationships, especially male-female relationships.
3. The power of belief, and the need to believe.
4. The influence of the past upon the present.
Plot:
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon ('Tom Hanks') 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. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci - clues visible for all to see, and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - an actual secret society. In a breathless race through Paris, London and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to work for Opus Dei - a clandestine, Vatican-sanctioned Catholic organization believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory's secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever.
Characters:
Jacques Saunière- Though he dies in the prologue, the presence of Jacques Saunière, curator of the Louvre, hangs over the novel until the end. In addition to being curator, he was Grand Master of the secret society the Priory of Sion, which was dedicated to safeguarding the Grail secrets. Saunière gave up contact with his own wife to keep his granddaughter safe, and he raised her himself.
Robert Langdon - Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard U ...