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| The Da Vinci Code | 
| Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $24.94 (100%)
New (342) Collectible (216) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  3530 reviews
Sales Rank: 6702
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 454
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0385504209
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385504201
ASIN: 0385504209
Publication Date: March 18, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Dust Cover Missing. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Da Vinci Code June 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dan Brown is a quintessential author. This soon to be classic is rocking the "pundits" that think there is but one theory to explore. As a former Catholic, I found it very hard to put this book down.......
 Never Received June 15, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn;t receive the item, so I cannot review it.
However, teh movie wasn't too bad.
 Relax -- It's Just A Story! June 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Usually, when someone has to say something like "relax -- it's just a story!" it means that the work in question is trash.
Good stories normally don't require a defense; they are their own justification.
But, it seems that Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is one of those rare instances of a good story that does require a defense beyond simply pointing to the work. Why should this be so? I think it's 1) due to the enormous popular success this book has enjoyed, and 2) the faux-seriousness of its subject matter (i.e., how it "blasphemes"). If The Da Vinci Code didn't somehow become a mainstream hit, and didn't strike some people's sacrosanct nerves, I doubt anyone would be so incensed as to try to tear it down, as people obviously do.
To begin with, The Da Vinci Code is a good book. What Dan Brown understands -- and better than most contemporary authors -- is the art of suspense. His management of information, leading cliffhanger to cliffhanger, and always making sure that the pressure is on, is superb. I grant that the book is shy in terms of classroom literary aesthetics, but what of that? It isn't every author's dream to compete with Beckett or Joyce; some simply want to construct stories. Some might say that Brown's characterization is flat, or obvious, etc., or that his situations are cliche -- one of the Spotlight Reviewers here complains at the use of an albino monk, but is that any more preposterous than Hugo's Hunchback, or Shakespeare's Caliban? The question about whether Robert Langdon is Indiana Jones Mk. II, or not, misses the point -- none of those elements would mean a thing if the work as a whole were poorly constructed. It isn't whether he uses archetypes, but whether he uses them to good effect or not.
By aiming all of the darts of their critiques at those areas where Brown isn't much concerned, they miss the genius of his work. It is as though they think the book has sold all of those copies by accident. Brown's strength is in his pacing, and in his clarity of communication, and in his clean descriptions, and in his mastery of the elements of suspense. By incorporating elements of popular culture, conspiracy, and some fascinating (if not always accurate) historical detail, Brown creates a monster of a book that doesn't *need* powerful metaphors or poetic descriptions to do what he wants it to do.
I take it that most of Brown's critics must believe that what he does is, somehow, easy. That, if literary authors left off trying to reinvent language, and tried their hardest to just hammer out a story that could grab people by the hair and pull them through a plot... well, they could do it in an instant. I'd like to suggest that there's more talent in doing something like that than they realize, and that Brown could probably write a "deep, literary" novel faster than they could construct a would-be megahit.
Brown's book isn't, perhaps, what you want it to be. But what it is, it is truly great at being, and this is the secret of its success.
Best fiction I ever read.... June 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I never used to read fiction books/novels for pleasure. I had to force myself to read required books in college. Then one day, about two years ago, my wife borrowed this book from my brother. I decided to give it a try. I read it in 3 days. I could not put it down. I then proceeded to get Dan Brown's other three books and read them immediately. I now have a personal library collection and read novels every chance I get (Steve Berry, James Rollins, etc.). The story, the puzzles, the twists.....unbelievably well thought out. I am most impatiently awaiting his next novel. Thank you Dan.
Exasperating someone else wrote; excruciating would be a better word June 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book was given to us for Christmas or I wouldn't have read it. To satisfy any curiosity I had about something that gave the Pope such a hissy fit he encouraged Catholics to read it by banning it, I'd rather have seen the movie. Wading through all that clunky text was every bit as bad as I expected. But clunky writing wasn't enough for Dan Brown, who felt obliged to assault his readers with a lot of misinformation (such as that The Last Supper is a fresco when it's actually a painting). Rather than go into lengthy criticism of the book, I'm pointing readers to an in-depth one by linguist Geoffrey K Pullum. The URL is http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html and every point Mr Pullum makes is 100% valid.
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