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The Lost Symbol
The Lost Symbol
AuthorDan Brown
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime, Mystery, Thriller
PublisherDoubleday (US)
Transworld (UK)
Publication dateSeptember 15, 2009
Publication placeUnited States
United Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover), eBook, audio book
Pages528 Hardcover 639 Paperback
ISBN9780385504225 (US) 9780593054277 (UK) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byThe Da Vinci Code 

The Lost Symbol is a 2009 novel by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of The Da Vinci Code, and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters.

Released on September 15, 2009, it is the third Brown novel to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon, following 2000's Angels & Demons and 2003's The Da Vinci Code. It had a first printing of 6.5 million (5 million in North America, 1.5 million in the UK), the largest in Doubleday history. On its first day the book sold one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the UK and Canada, making it the fastest selling adult novel in history. It was number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction for the first six weeks of its release, and remained there until January 24 of the following year.

Plot

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to give a lecture at the United States Capitol, with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Solomon has also asked him to bring a small, sealed package which he had entrusted to Langdon years earlier. When Langdon arrives at the Capitol, however, he learns that the invitation he received was not from Solomon, but from Solomon's kidnapper, Mal'akh, who has left Solomon's severed right hand in the middle of the Capitol Rotunda in a recreation of the Hand of Mysteries. Mal'akh then contacts Langdon, charging him with finding both the Mason's Pyramid, which Masons believe is hidden somewhere underground in Washington D.C., and the Lost Word, lest Solomon be executed.

Langdon is then met by Trent Anderson, head of the Capitol police, and Inoue Sato, the head of the CIA's Office of Security. Examining Solomon's hand, they discover a clue leading them to a Solomon's Masonic altar in a room in the Capitol's sub-basement, where they find a small pyramid lacking a capstone, with an inscription carved into it.

Sato then confronts Langdon with the security x-ray taken of his bag when he entered the Capitol, which reveals a smaller pyramid in the package Langdon brought in response to the request by the kidnapper posing as Solomon. Because the package had been sealed for years, Langdon was unaware of its contents, but Sato, dissatisfied with this, attempts to take Langdon into custody. Before she can arrest him, however, she and Anderson are assaulted by Warren Bellamy, the Architect of the Capitol and a Freemason, who then flees with Langdon during the melee.

Mal'akh is a Freemason with tattoos covering almost his entire body. He infiltrated the organization in order to obtain an ancient source of power, which he believes Langdon can unlock for him in return for Peter's life. As Langdon deals with the events into which he has been thrust, Mal'akh destroys the Smithonsonian-sponsored laboratory of Dr. Katherine Solomon, Peter's younger sister, where she has conducted experiments in Noetic Science. Mal'akh is also being pursued by Sato in the interests of National Security.

Mal'akh captures Langdon and seriously injures Katherine Solomon. He places Langdon in a tank of breathable oxygenated liquid, from where Langdon unlocks the code at the Pyramid's base for Mal'akh, who then flees with Peter Solomon to the Temple Room of the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple. Langdon and Katherine are eventually rescued by Sato and her staff who race to the House of the Temple where Mal'akh threatens to release a heavily edited video showing government officials performing secret Masonic rituals. Mal'akh, who turns out to be Peter's long-believed dead son, Zachary Solomon, forces the Word -- the circumpunct -- out of his father and tattoos it on his head on the last portion of unmarked skin on his body. Mal'akh then orders Peter to sacrifice him, as he believes that it is his destiny to become a demonic spirit and lead the forces of evil. Director Sato, however, arrives at the Temple in a helicopter, which smashes the Temple's overhead glass panel, the shards of which fatally impale Mal'akh. The CIA then thwart Mal'akh's plan to transmit the video to several leading media channels using an EMP blast, disabling Mal'akh's laptop computer.

Peter informs Langdon that the circumpunct Zachary tattooed on his head is not the Word. Deciding to take Langdon to the true secret behind the Word, Peter leads him to the room atop the Washington Monument and tells him that the Word -- a common Christian Bible, the "Word of God" -- lies in the Monument's cornerstone, buried in the ground beneath the Monument's staircase. Langdon realizes that the symbols on the pyramid's base spelled out the words Laus Deo which translate to Praise God. These words are inscribed upon the small aluminum capstone atop the Monument, which is the true Masonic Pyramid.

Peter tells Langdon that the Masons believe that the Bible is an esoteric allegory written by mankind, and that, like most religious texts around the globe, it contains veiled instructions for harnessing man's natural God-like qualities -- similar to Katherine's Noetic research -- and is not meant to be interpreted as the commands of an all-powerful deity. This interpretation has been lost amid centuries of scientific skepticism and fundamentalist zealotry. The Masons have (metaphorically) buried it, believing that, when the time is right, its rediscovering will usher in a new era of human enlightenment.

Characters

  • Robert Langdon: A professor of symbology at Harvard University and the main protagonist of the novel.
  • Mal'akh (also known as Dr. Christopher Abaddon/Andros Dareios/Zachary Solomon): the book's main antagonist; a Mason whose body is covered with tattoos. He is revealed by the end of the story to be Zachary Solomon, the estranged son of Peter Solomon, long-believed to be dead, whose appearance was made unrecognizable to his family, in part due to the use of steroids. Zachary sees himself as a physical manifestation of the angel Mal'akh, as he worshipped the Black Arts in order to grow stronger and he performed numerous aspects of black magic which allowed the angel to enter his body.
  • Peter Solomon: Smithsonian secretary, billionaire philanthropist, Freemason, Langdon's closest friend and father of Zachary Solomon.
  • Katherine Solomon: Noetic scientist, sister of Peter Solomon, aunt of Zachary Solomon.
  • Isabel Solomon: mother of Peter and Katherine Solomon, grandmother of Zachary Solomon.
  • Trish Dunne: Peter and Katherine Solomon's lab assistant.
  • Mark Zoubianis: hacker and friend of Trish.
  • Warren Bellamy: Architect of the Capitol and fellow Freemason to Peter Solomon.
  • Inoue Sato: Director of CIA's Office of Security.
  • Nola Kaye: CIA analyst.
  • Rick Parrish: CIA security specialist.
  • Turner Simkins: CIA field operations leader.
  • Reverend Colin Galloway: Dean of Washington National Cathedral and fellow Freemason to Peter Solomon & Warren Bellamy.
  • Trent Anderson: Capitol police chief.
  • Alfonso Nuñez: Capitol security guard.
  • Jonas Faukman: New York editor (named for Brown's real-life editor, Jason Kaufman).
  • Officer Paige Montgomery: an officer from a private security company.
  • Agent Hartmann: CIA field agent.

Release

The Lost Symbol had been in development for several years; originally expected in 2006, the projected publication date was pushed back multiple times. When officially announced, the hardcopy book was on pre-order lists for months leading up to its release, being heavily ordered both in the United States and Canada. The book was published on September 15, 2009 with an initial print run of 6.5 million copies, the largest first printing in publisher Random House's history. Electronic versions such as eBook and Audible book versions were also made available on the same date. The American release audio book was read by Paul Michael, who also performed the audio book for The Da Vinci Code.

The book immediately broke sales records, becoming the fastest selling adult-market novel in history, with over one million copies sold on the first day of release. By the end of the first week, a total of two million copies had been sold in the U.S., Canada, and UK. According to the publisher, the rapid sales prompted the printing of an additional 600,000 hardcover copies to the 5 million initially printed for the US market. On its first day the book became the #1 bestseller on Amazon.com, and the Amazon Kindle e-reader edition became the top-selling item on Amazon.com, outselling Amazon's sales of the hardback copy of the novel, which is the sixth best selling book of 2009 on pre-publication orders alone. The Lost Symbol also ranked as the #1 bestseller in Amazon's Canadian and British sites. Both Barnes & Noble and Waterstone's reported the book has broken all previous records for adult fiction in the United Kingdom. According to Nielsen BookScan data, 550,946 copies of The Lost Symbol were sold in its first week of sale, taking £4.6 million. By the end of the second sales week, Transworld intended to have 1.25 million copies printed.

By September 25 the book ranked #1 in the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction.

Reception

The New York Times praised the book as being "impossible to put down" and claimed Brown is "bringing sexy back to a genre that had been left for dead". Nevertheless, it noted the overuse of certain phrases and italics, as well as the lack of logic behind characters' motivations. It also likened one of the characters to Jar Jar Binks. Los Angeles Times said, "Brown's narrative moves rapidly, except for those clunky moments when people sound like encyclopedias." Newsweek called the book "contrived", saying that to get through The Lost Symbol, just like The Da Vinci Code, it was necessary to swallow a lot of coincidences, but the book was still a page-turner, and that Brown "is a maze maker who builds a puzzle and then walks you through it. His genius lies in uncovering odd facts and suppressed history, stirring them together into a complicated stew and then saying, what if?" The National Post's review called it a "heavy-handed, clumsy thriller" and that the character of the villain (Mal'akh) "bears an uncomfortably close similarity" to the Francis Dolarhyde character in Thomas Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. The Daily Telegraph said the novel was "not quite the literary train-wreck expected." TIME said the plot was fun, if bruising, but "It would be irresponsible not to point out that the general feel, if not all the specifics, of Brown's cultural history is entirely correct. He loves showing us places where our carefully tended cultural boundaries — between Christian and pagan, sacred and secular, ancient and modern — are actually extraordinarily messy." Novelist William Sutcliffe's review in the Financial Times panned the book as "a novel that asks nothing of the reader, and gives the reader nothing back", adding that it "is filled with cliché, bombast, undigested research and pseudo-intellectual codswallop". The digested read by John Crace in The Guardian ends with Robert Langdon begging Dan Brown "Please don't wheel me out again."

Film

Main article: The Lost Symbol (film)

Columbia Pictures is producing a film adaptation of the novel for a 2012 release. Tom Hanks is expected to reprise his role as Langdon, and Brian Grazer and John Calley have signed on to produce the film, though it has not been confirmed if Ron Howard will return to direct. Steven Knight was asked to write the script, but as of December 2010, he has been replaced by Brown, which will make the first time he has adapted one of his own novels into a screenplay.

See also

References

  1. ^ Italie, Hillel (2009-04-20). "New Dan Brown novel coming in September". Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-04-20. Cite error: The named reference "Bookseller1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Carbone, Gina (2009-04-20). "Dan Brown announces new book, 'The Lost Symbol'". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  3. "ET Breaks News: Dan Brown Has Finished New Book" ETonline, February 12, 2009
  4. "Keys to Dan Brown's Solomon Key". Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  5. ^ Rich, Motoko (2009-09-16). "Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  6. ^ "Best Sellers: Hardcover Fiction". New York Times. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  7. "Best Sellers: Hardcover Fiction". New York Times. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
  8. De Vera, Ruel S. (September 15, 2009). "Dan Brown's 'Lost' is no 'Da Vinci Code'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  9. Burstein, Dan (2009). "Exploring the complex cosmos of The Lost Symbol". Secrets of the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel. Harper Collins. pp. 3–48. ISBN 9780061964954. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  10. Rich, Motoko (2009-01-20). "Dan Brown returns with Da Vinci Code sequel, The Lost Symbol". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  11. "New Dan Brown book offers industry hope". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
  12. Rich, Motoko; Stone, Brad (2009-07-15). "A New World: Scheduling E-Books". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  13. Goldsmith, Belinda (2009-07-08). "Dan Brown moves to Washington for new thriller". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  14. "The Lost Symbol eBook (Kindle Version)". Amazon.com. 2009-08-17. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  15. "Download The Lost Symbol - Preorder". audible.com. 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  16. Irvine, Chris (September 14, 2009). "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol 'will be biggest selling adult fiction novel of the decade'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  17. "With 'The Lost Symbol,' Dan Brown takes down Bill Clinton's book record". New York: Associated Press. September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
  18. Amazon's Bestsellers in Books (accessdate 2009-09-16)
  19. Chivers, Tom (2009-09-16). "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Kindle is Amazon top seller". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  20. Amazon.ca Bestsellers in Books (accessdate 2009-09-16)
  21. Amazon.co.uk Bestsellers in Books (accessdate 2009-09-16)
  22. Rich, Motoko (2009-09-15). "To No One's Surprise, Dan Brown Books Are Flying Off Bookshelves". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  23. Flood, Alison (2009-09-17). "Dan Brown's Lost Symbol sets adult fiction sales record". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  24. Stone, Philip (2009-09-22). "Dan Brown sells 550,000 in first week". theBookseller.com. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  25. Maslin, Janet (2009-09-13). "Fasten Your Seat Belts, There's Code to Crack". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  26. Owchar, Nick (September 14, 2009). "Book Review: 'The Lost Symbol'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  27. Jones, Malcolm (September 15, 2009). "Book Review: Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'". Newsweek. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  28. Wiersema, Robert (September 17, 2009). "Review: Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol". National Post. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  29. Jehu, Jeremy (September 15, 2009). "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, review". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  30. Grossman, Lev (September 15, 2009). "How Good Is Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol?". TIME. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  31. Sutcliffe, William (September 19, 2009). "The Lost Symbol". Financial Times. Retrieved September 22, 2009.
  32. Crace, John (September 22, 2009). "Digested read: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 24, 2009. {{cite news}}: Text "Books" ignored (help); Text "John Crace" ignored (help); Text "The Guardian" ignored (help)
  33. Fleming, Michael (2009-04-20). "Columbia moves on 'Symbol'". Variety.com. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  34. "The Mystery of Dan Brown". The Guardian. London. September 2009. Retrieved September 22, 2009.
  35. Siegel, Tatiana (February 3, 2010). "Columbia finds 'Symbol'; Knight to adapt third book in 'Da Vinci Code' series". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
  36. "'The Lost Symbol' gets a new and very familiar screenwriter".

Further reading

External links

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Robert Langdon series
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