Angels and Demons

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This article is about a mystery novel; for other meanings, please see the articles on angels and demons.

Template:Wikibookspar Image:Angels n demons.jpg Angels and Demons (2000) is a bestselling mystery novel by Dan Brown. It introduces the character Robert Langdon, who is also the principal character of Brown's subsequent, better-known novel The Da Vinci Code. The story involves a conflict between an ancient group, the Illuminati, and the Catholic Church. It is credited with being the first novel to contain ambigrams.

Contents

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Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book is Dan Brown's second novel, and deals with moral issues such as the debate between science and religion. It outlines many of the internal workings of the Vatican (some in great detail) as a plot to blow up the Vatican unfolds during the conclave, or voting process for a new Pope.

Angels & Demons has many similarities with Brown's other books -- all events happen within 24 hours, it starts with a murder, and then takes a breakneck pace through many European settings. In this book, much of the artwork is by the noted sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Just as with Brown's other novels, there is a mixture of fact and fiction that some readers find entertaining, but others find inaccurate and misleading, to the point of promoting conspiracy theories.

The book was originally published in 2000, to no particular acclaim, with a first printing of less than 10,000 copies. In 2003 though, it was re-released because of the attention around the second Langdon book (Brown's fourth novel), The Da Vinci Code, which as of 2005 has sold over 40 million copies. Angels & Demons did considerably better in connection with the new book, and made the New York Times Bestseller List (in 2004, all four of Brown's novels were once on the list in the same week). As of 2005, there are now over 8 million copies of Angels and Demons in print, in a variety of languages.[1]

The book's popularity has led to a corresponding increase in tourism to the book's locations in Rome. [2]

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Main characters

  • Robert Langdon: Protagonist, symbologist, professor
  • Leonardo Vetra: Murder victim, CERN physicist, priest
  • Vittoria Vetra: CERN physicist, Leonardo's adopted daughter
  • Maximilian Kohler: Director of CERN
  • Commander Olivetti: Head of the Swiss Guard
  • Captain Elias Rocher: Member of the Swiss Guard; assistant of Commander Olivetti.
  • The Hassassin: Killer hired by the Illuminati
  • Carlo Ventresca: Camerlengo (Papal Chamberlain)
  • Cardinal Saverio Mortati: Member of the College of Cardinals and participant in the papal election, serving as the Great Elector
  • Gunther Glick: BBC reporter
  • Chinita Macri: Glick's videographer
  • Lieutenant Chartrand: Member of the Swiss Guard
  • Cardinals Ebner of Frankfurt, Lamassé of Paris, Guidera of Barcelona, and Baggia of Milan - I preferiti, the four favoured and very well loved cardinals of which Baggia is most likely to succeed as Pope.
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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Image:St. Peter's Basilica Facade, Rome, June 2004.jpg Angels and Demons features Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon, as he tries to stop the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying the Vatican City with the newly-discovered power of antimatter.

CERN researcher, Leonardo Vetra, is found murdered in his secured, private quarters at the research facility. On his chest is branded a symbol — the word "Illuminati", formed as an ambigram. After researching the Internet, Director Maximillian Kohler contacts Professor Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati who has written a book on the subject, and requests his assistance in uncovering the murderer.

What Langdon discovers at the murder scene frightens him: the symbol appears to be authentic, and the legendary secret society, long thought to be defunct, seems to have resurfaced. The Illuminati has also appropriated CERN's supply of antimatter, the ultimate weapon, and has its sights on fulfilling a centuries-old dream: to destroy Vatican City.

Time runs short as Langdon, along with Vetra's adopted daughter, Vittoria, race to stop not only the Vatican's destruction, but to save the lives of four cardinals who have been kidnapped by a deadly assassin. This takes them through many tourist attractions in Rome following the so-called "path of illumination", as they seek out locations which the book calls the "Altars of Science". Each altar relates to one of the elements (earth, air, fire and water) which once considered to be the only constituents of all matter. At each altar, one of the four cardinals kidnapped by the assassin, is murdered by a method appropriate to that particular altar's element and branded with an ambigram of that element.

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Editions

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English-language Editions

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Spanish-language editions

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Similarities to Brown's other books

Template:Spoiler-other There are many elements in Angels and Demons that are similar to elements in Brown's other books

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Common to two books

These elements are common between The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons

  • Robert Langdon is the main character.
  • The story begins with a gory murder involving a naked victim.
  • Langdon is teamed with a beautiful, highly intelligent woman who is closely related to the murder victim.
  • The prominent assassin of the book (the Hassassin in Angels and Demons and Silas in The Da Vinci Code) commits the murders under the impression that he is doing so for an organization which is apparently behind the murders, but turns out to be actually framed for them (the Illuminati in Angels and Demons and "Opus Dei" in The Da Vinci Code).
  • Both prominent assassins in both books have features distinctive from other characters in the story (the Hassassin is an Arab and Silas an albino).
  • At one point along the way, Langdon makes a mistake whilst following the trail of clues and is directed to the wrong place.
  • Each book has a prominent cripple -- Maximilian Kohler and Sir Leigh Teabing. Both use this to their advantage by bringing revolvers to meetings with the camerlengo or Langdon/Neveu, respectively, and escaping metal detectors because of their condition.
  • In both, a message is written on papyrus-based paper.
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Elements that are common to all four of Brown's books

These are in The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress

  • A murder happens in the prologue of each of the books.
  • All events in each book take place during the course of approximately 24 hours
  • The primary male character is always a scholar of some sort. The primary female character is always a character with a mathematically inclined area of expertise.
  • A key character in each book (such as Maximilian Kohler and Bezu Fache) is portrayed in such a way that the reader would suspect them to have masterminded the killings, until the revelation takes place
  • The mastermind behind the killings turns out to be a salient figure for most of the book, and supposedly against the motives behind the murders. The camerlengo, for example, is thought to be against the existence of the Illuminati, while Sir Leigh Teabing's motives appear to be parallel to those of the Priory of Sion
  • The main character (Langdon) and the female protagonist end the story with the implication of a sexual relationship, though details are not given
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Fact and fiction behind the book

Template:Wikibookschapter

For more information on these elements of the book, please see the following articles:

  • Illuminati, a secret brotherhood at the heart of the book's plot
  • Lockheed Martin X-33, an aircraft seen early in the book
  • CERN, a research laboratory
  • Freemasonry, a secret society which the Illuminati supposedly merged into
  • Henry A. Wallace, U.S. Vice President & alleged Mason who caused the Illuminati symbol to be included on the U.S. One Dollar Bill
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The Altars of Science

The book fictionalizes a story about the Altars of Science in Rome, consisting of four locations, each representing the four elements— earth, air, fire and water— which are believed to be "the Path of Illumination," a trail to the meeting place of the Illuminati in Rome.

According to the book, the "altars" were hidden as religious artwork in order to avoid the wrath of the Vatican and secure the secrecy of the Illuminati. The artworks that make up the Four Altars were all sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Though the book is not clear where exactly the meeting place was, it is implied it was the famed Castel Sant'Angelo.

The book lists the artworks as:


Obelisk in Saint Peter's Square, Altar of Air

Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Altar of Fire

Fountain of Four Rivers, Altar of Water

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Factual inaccuracies

Template:Wikibookschapter In the beginning of the book, Brown claims that "references to all works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome are entirely factual (as are their exact locations). They can still be seen today. The brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual."

Despite Brown specifying the limits of his novel's factual accuracy, some readers have objected to other areas of information being misleading, in part based on the public comments made by the author and also due to the style of writing (for example, characters making expositions on their areas of expertise). Brown, having previously stated that his books were so research intensive they took a couple of years to write, has stated in a recent court case that he was "not much of a detail person".

The acknowledgement of organizations including CERN in the writing of the book gives the impression of the facts being supplied or reviewed by those organizations. CERN felt it appropriate to provide some scientific corrections to the book.[3]

Some inventions, such as a mistranslation of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (which means "A New Order for the Ages," not "A New Secular Order") and a flawed depiction of the Council of Nicaea, may have given readers misleading impressions of historical events. In some cases, the book may have encouraged their belief in conspiracy theories that are unsupported by evidence.

  • According to Brown, Galileo founded the Illuminati in order to spread scientific knowledge that the Church attempted to suppress. In reality, there is no evidence to suggest that Galileo was associated with any of the incarnations of the Illuminati (the most famous, the Bavarian Illuminati, was founded more than a century after his death).
  • The book states that Christians came to know about 'god-eating' from the Aztecs. However, Christianity is at least 1900 years old, and Christians and Aztecs did not come into contact until 1519. There are early Christian and Roman references to the Communion.
  • The Hassassin reminisces about the Crusaders attacking his people, "defiling their temples and gods." Actually, the Hassassins were Muslims, hence monotheists.(Page 14 of the paperback edition)
  • The design of the Great Seal, which was actually created in 1782 is credited to Henry Wallace, who lived a century and a half too late for it.
  • In examining the body of the previous Pope, the Swiss Guard simply slides back the marble top of the tomb and checks the Pope's tongue. In fact, Popes are buried in three nested coffins, which would have made this task somewhat more difficult.
  • Dan Brown claims that "Bernini's city-wide cross of obelisks marked the fortress in perfect Illuminati fashion; the cross’s central arm passed directly through the center of the castle’s bridge, dividing it into two equal halves." In fact, neither of the two arms of the cross go through the Castel Sant'Angelo. The Altars, in fact, are not even situated in the shape of a cross.
  • Brown writes that CERN owns a hyper-sonic space craft based on a "Boeing X-33". Boeing didn't design the X-33. It was designed by Lockheed Martin for NASA at its Skunk Works facility and was cancelled without ever having been built.
  • Brown writes that the "All-Seeing Eye" is insignificant to the US, although the "all seeing eye of God" is mentioned several times in the Bible. The pyramid it is situated on (in the one-dollar bill) does have meaning: it is constructed of 13 layers and has 1776(MDCCLXXVI) in Roman numerals imprinted on the bottom.
  • Brown states that the new Pope must be chosen from the College of Cardinals. Strictly speaking, the only requirements for being Pope are to be male, Catholic, and not a heretic or in a schism. While it is rare for a non-Cardinal to be raised, it has occured a few times in the past (most recently with Pope Urban VI in 1379.)

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External links and references

de:Illuminati (Buch) fr:Anges et démons (roman) ko:천사와 악마 it:Angeli e Demoni he:מלאכים ושדים nl:Het Bernini mysterie no:Engler og demoner nn:Angels and Demons pt:Anjos e Demónios ru:Ангелы и демоны sl:Angeli in demoni sv:Änglar och demoner

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