Angels & Demons
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 First edition book cover of Angels & Demons |
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| Author | Dan Brown |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Mystery, Novel |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
| Released | May 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 480 p. (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-671-02735-2 (first edition, hardback) |
| Followed by | The Da Vinci Code |
Angels & Demons is a bestselling mystery novel by Dan Brown. Published in 2000, 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 Roman Catholic Church.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
This book deals with morality 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 to reveal many hidden secrets and mysteries.
[edit] Plot
Angels & Demons follows Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, as he tries to stop what seems to be the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying the Vatican City with the newly-discovered power of antimatter.
CERN director Maximilian Kohler discovers one of the facility's most respected physicists, Leonardo Vetra, murdered in his own secured, private quarters at the facility. His chest is branded with a symbol — the word "Illuminati", formed as an ambigram, using a burning hot object. Instead of calling the police, Kohler researches the topic on the Internet and finally gains contact with Professor Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati. Kohler requests his assistance in uncovering the murderer.
What Langdon finds 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. Kohler calls Vetra's adopted daughter Vittoria to the scene and it is later revealed that the Illuminati has also stolen a canister containing a quarter of a gramme of antimatter — an extremely deadly weapon that could destroy an entire area when in contact with matter. When charged with electricity at CERN, the canister's magnetic field controls the drop of antimatter to float in pure vacuum, ensuring safety; but when it is taken away from its electricity supply, the canister will automatically switch to using its back-up battery, which lasts for only 24 hours. The horrible truth is that now the Illuminati has put the stolen canister somewhere in Vatican City, with a security camera in front of it as its digital clock counts down to the explosion.
It turns out that the papal conclave is being held that night, making it the perfect time for the Illuminati to hide the antimatter inside the Vatican and destroy all the important people in the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Mortati, host of the election, discovers that the four preferiti,cardinals who are the top picks in the current Pope election, are missing. Actually, they have been kidnapped by the Hassassin in the book, who is also the killer of Leonardo Vetra. Langdon and Vittoria therefore set off to the Vatican in hopes to find the killer and retrieve the antimatter, but Kohler succumbs to illness and cannot go with them. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
After they arrive, their search is assisted by Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca and the Vatican Swiss Guards, including Commander Olivetti, Captain Rocher and Lieutenant Chartrand. Clues found in the Vatican Archives take Langdon and Vittoria 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 classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) which were 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 – Cardinal Ebner is killed by having dirt stuffed down his throat (Earth); Cardinal Lamassé is killed by being stabbed in the lungs (Air); Cardinal Guidera is burnt to death (Fire); and Cardinal Baggia is drowned (Water) – and branded with an ambigram of that element's name. The media are alerted to these killings and later it is discovered that the previous Pope was murdered using a drug called Heparin. This alerts Vittoria to perform the world's first autopsy on a Pope – and she finds his tongue to be black, a sure sign of Heparin overdose.
Afterwards, the Hassassin kills Olivetti and kidnaps Vittoria, but Langdon journeys to save her. During a scuffle with the Hassassin, Langdon figures that Janus, the Illuminati leader, disguised, is coming to brand the camerlengo with a sixth brand. When Langdon is about to lose the fight, Vittoria escapes and attacks the Hassassin. With Langdon's help they manage to throw him from the towers balcony, killing him. Maximillian Kohler is revealed to be the 11th hour Samaritan, also an anti-Catholic. Langdon strongly believes that Kohler is Janus, on a suicide mission to kill the camerlengo.
Langdon and Vittoria arrive in time to save the camerlengo, who has been branded with the Illuminati Diamond, an ambigram that shows the names of all the elements written together in a perfect square. When the door is forced open during the meeting, it is seen that Kohler is brandishing a pistol at the camerlengo. The Swiss Guard shoots Kohler and Captain Rocher is also killed by Lieutenant Chartrand, after the camerlengo calls the Captain an Illuminatus. Kohler gives Langdon a camcorder, telling him to give it to the media. Langdon puts it in his pocket, but doesn't intend to give it out as he believes it is a message preaching the good of science and the evils of religion. As the camerlengo is transported to the hospital, he suddenly seems to receive a message from God, telling him where the antimatter is. He discovers it upon St. Peter's real tomb, and, accompanied by Langdon, rushes the antimatter to a helicopter, in hopes of getting it high enough to avoid damaging the Vatican. They succeed, and the camerlengo jumps out of the helicopter, landing safely at the Vatican using a parachute, which leads people to believe in this as a "miracle". This causes everyone, including the remaining cardinals, to cheer and call out the camerlengo's name.
Meanwhile, Robert Langdon also escapes and lands in the Tiber River near Tiber Island, which is famous for its reputation as an island blessed with miracles of healing. One of the nurses reveals that the camcorder given to Langdon by Kohler is continuously playing the same message over and over again, and it seems it was not a sermon about science and religion, but a revelation about Janus, Kohler, and the camerlengo. Langdon is so incensed by this that he boards a helicopter which takes him straight to the Vatican, where he plays the camcorder. It is then that it is finally revealed that the camerlengo was Janus — he tricked the Hassassin into believing the Illuminati were still active, and the brands he used were confiscated and hidden deep inside the Vatican long ago. Kohler had contacted Rocher and told him the truth about the camerlengo, allowing Kohler to meet with the camerlengo alone, with a pistol in his wheelchair. In the diary of Leonardo Vetra, it is said that Vetra met with the Pope, the only other person who knew about Vetra's discovery before he was murdered.
Kohler, through use of psychology, gets the camerlengo to admit to hiring the Hassassin to murder Vetra. Kohler says then that there is no escape after the camerlengo had admitted to his sin, but the camerlengo laughs and simply says, "Confessing your sins is the escape." He then brands himself with the Illuminati Diamond, screaming with pain, alerting the Swiss Guards, who kill Kohler. After being shown this, everyone in the Sistine Chapel is struck dumb, and Cardinal Mortati realizes that it means the camerlengo had murdered the Pope. The camerlengo responds to this by calling the Pope "a vile liar" before telling everybody that the Pope had fathered a child and had broken his vow of chastity. Mortati responds by revealing that although the Pope had loved a woman, he had not broken any vow as his child was born through artificial insemination. Then the final revelation comes — the Pope's child is none other than Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca. Struck dumb with the horrifying implications of this, the camerlengo flees and eventually commits suicide on the balcony by self-immolation. His ashes are collected by Mortati and laid to rest in the Pope's sarcophagus. Mortati turns out to be eligible for the papal election and is voted to be the new Pope. To the amazement of other, however, it is revealed by a British news reporter that two Popes had been elected instead of one. According to law, the Pope was chosen by unanimous decision by the cardinals and any servant of the church (not just cardinals) was eligible for election. When the cardinals shouted out the camerlengo's name, they unknowingly elected him Pope. Many people debate whether the ending to this story is actually ethical or not.
Langdon and Vittoria then stay at the Hotel Bernini. Lieutenant Chartrand delivers a letter and package to Langdon from the new Pope, Mortati himself. The package is the Illuminati Diamond brand, which is loaned indefinitely to Langdon.
[edit] Characters
These are the principal characters that drive the plot of the story.
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[edit] Fact and fiction behind the book
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 described early in the book
- CERN, a research laboratory
- Freemasonry, a fraternal organization 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
[edit] 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 stated to be within the famed Castel Sant'Angelo.
The book lists the artworks as:
- Earth—Habakkuk and the Angel in Chigi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo
- Air—West Ponente at Saint Peter's Square
- Fire—The Ecstasy of St Teresa sculpture at the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria
- Water—The famous Fountain of Four Rivers at Piazza Navona
[edit] Accuracy
The book's first edition contained notably numerous errors of location of places in Rome, as well as incorrect uses of Italian language. These were corrected in the following editions. [1]
[edit] Film adaptation
Following the box office success of the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, Sony Pictures announced on May 23, 2006 that it has commissioned screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to similarly adapt Angels & Demons, and producer Brian Grazer seems set to return. Production is in the early stages and it is unknown if Ron Howard or Tom Hanks will participate. [2]
[edit] External links and references
- Burstein, Dan (ed). Secrets of Angels & Demons: The unauthorized guide to the bestselling novel, 2004, CDS Books. ISBN 1-59315-140-3, Collection of many essays by world-class historians and other experts, discussing the fact & fiction of the novel
- Peter Williams reviews Angels & Demons at The Open Critic
- Angels and Demons Draws Tourists to Rome, January 20, 2005, NPR
- Extensive list of factual inaccuracies
- CERN's own page about fact and fiction in the novel
- Dan Brown's own page claiming various true facts
- Angels and Demons Pries into Conclave, April 18, 2005, Fox News
- Path of Illumination (with photos of the places of Angels&Demons)
| Dan Brown books | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Fortress | book | |||
| Angels & Demons | book | film | ||
| Deception Point | book | |||
| The Da Vinci Code | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| The Solomon Key | book | |||
