Incidentally, the scientist is also convinced that the humans have been breeding like bunny rabbits and that in order for the human race to survive, we need mass culling. The end does seem incredible (surprise, surprise) and out of a science-fiction thriller, but it’s far too convenient for everyone (particularly the human race). When you do eventually get to the end of the book, you can’t help feeling like Dan Brown chickened out. It gets taxing when all you want to know is where the novel is headed. Meanwhile, the plot goes through various twists and turns and by the time Landon remembers everything, you've got detailed description of every single lecture he's ever given on Dante and other works of art. Since Langdon is suffering from short term amnesia, he spends a good part of the novel trying to reconstruct his memory. Of course the codes have a generous amount of Dante sprinkled on them.īrown's story unveils in a non-linear fashion. He leaves clues to locate the virus and Langdon and Brooks must decode them to get to the virus. How does Dante fit into all of this? Well, the mad scientist loves his Dante and his idea for world destruction comes from Dante's Divine Comedy, which emphasised that in order to reach Paradise, man must go through Inferno and then Purgatory. Does Dan Brown destroy the human race in his book? Well, sort of but not really. Does Langdon succeed? Well, sort of but not really. Langdon and Sienna must find the so-called deadly virus created by the scientist and stop the world from a medical catastrophe. The fate of the world rests on Langdon and Brooks because a mad scientist is trying to reintroduce the Black Plague upon the planet once again. This has to be the most disappointing secret organisation ever. However, once you realise what the group does, the thought bubble over your head would probably read “Lame”. Of course, like all Dan Brown novels this dangerous organisation has remained super secret for years. Langdon meets the young Doctor Sienna Brooks who starts helping him while being chased by an unknown dangerous organisation. What he does have, however, is a secret object hidden in his tweed jacket and a threat upon his life. This time he's in Florence and he has lost his memory.
#INFERNO DAN BROWN BOOK COVER CODE#
Inferno brings back Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, the main character in the bestselling novels, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.
While Dante's Inferno is a classic, Brown's Inferno has a plot that seems contrived at best. The section is followed by Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise). Inferno means ‘hell’ in Italian and is part one of Divine Comedy. The Ninth Circle where Lucifer trapped in the frozen lake devours the betrayers.Įach of the horrors that Robert Langdon witness are the punishments that Dante himself witnesses in his journey through Inferno.Dan Brown's Inferno borrows its title from the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th century poem Divine Comedy. The Sixth Circle is where heretics are punished by being trapped in flaming tombs. The Third Circle is where gluttons are punished by being forced to lie in a vile slush or buried in feces. Robert Langdon describes how the bodies were killed, “consumed by fire, buried in feces, devouring one another” (Brown, 9).Įach of theses deaths are punishments that are described in Dante’s Inferno.
Additionally, thousands of the bodies were still alive dying “unthinkable deaths writhing in agony” in Langdon’s nightmare (Brown, 9). The royal Sumerian tomb of Ur has over 6,000 lapis lazuli sculptures while lapis lazuli was used in the mask of King Tutankhamen. Even the Lapis lazuli amulet is correlated with death as ancient civilizations buried their dead with the gem, lapis lazuli. From the Tania cloth, to the shroud, to a veil, clothes wore during a burial are emphasized. Throughout this passage, the motif of death is repeated over and over again in an attempt to recreate hell in Robert Langdon’s nightmare. Robert Langdon is trapped in a nightmare where the “river whose churning waters ran red with blood a sea of corpses” lies everywhere (Brown, 9). From the beginning of Chapter One of Inferno, Dan Brown uses parallelism to connect both his Inferno and Dante’s Inferno together.