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The story takes place over a period of 12 hours in [[Washington, D.C.]], with a focus on [[Freemasonry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/sk/index.htm|author=|title=Keys to Dan Brown's Solomon Key|accessdate=2008-12-20}}</ref> Robert Langdon is summoned to give a lecture in [[National Statuary Hall]] at the [[United States Capitol]], with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a [[Scottish Rite|33rd degree]] [[Freemasonry|Mason]] named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]. However, instead of an audience for his lecture, Langdon finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed into a symbolic 'Hand of the Mysteries' which seemingly points to the fresco ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'' on the inside of the Capitol dome.
The story takes place over a period of 12 hours in [[Washington, D.C.]], with a focus on [[Freemasonry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/sk/index.htm|author=|title=Keys to Dan Brown's Solomon Key|accessdate=2008-12-20}}</ref> Robert Langdon is summoned to give a lecture in [[National Statuary Hall]] at the [[United States Capitol]], with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a [[Scottish Rite|33rd degree]] [[Freemasonry|Mason]] named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]. However, instead of an audience for his lecture, Langdon finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed into a symbolic 'Hand of the Mysteries' which seemingly points to the fresco ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'' on the inside of the Capitol dome.


Mal'akh, a brilliant, tattooed villain who is in search of an ancient source of power <ref>{{cite news|url=http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20090915-225264/Dan-Browns-Lost-is-no-Da-Vinci-Code|title=Dan Brown's 'Lost' is no 'Da Vinci Code'|date=September 15, 2009|accessdate=September 14, 2009|author=De Vera, Ruel S.|work=[[Philippine Daily Inquirer]]}}</ref> has taken Peter Solomon hostage and demands Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter's life. In a fiery nighttime explosion, Mal'akh also destroys the Smithonsonian-sponsored laboratory of Dr. Katherine Solomon, Peter's younger sister, where she conducted successful experiments in the [[psychokinesis|ability of the human mind to affect subatomic particles]]. In addition, the CIA is pursuing Mal'akh in the interests of National Security.
Mal'akh, a brilliant, tattooed villain who is in search of an ancient source of power <ref>{{cite news|url=http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20090915-225264/Dan-Browns-Lost-is-no-Da-Vinci-Code|title=Dan Brown's 'Lost' is no 'Da Vinci Code'|date=September 15, 2009|accessdate=September 14, 2009|author=De Vera, Ruel S.|work=[[Philippine Daily Inquirer]]}}</ref> has taken Peter Solomon hostage and demands Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter's life. In a fiery nighttime explosion, Mal'akh also destroys the Smithonsonian-sponsored laboratory of Dr. Katherine Solomon(The Noetic scientist), Peter's younger sister, where she conducted successful experiments in the [[psychokinesis|ability of the human mind to affect subatomic particles]]. In addition, the CIA is pursuing Mal'akh in the interests of National Security.


==Characters==
==Characters==

Revision as of 12:46, 4 October 2009

The Lost Symbol
The Lost Symbol
AuthorDan Brown
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime, Mystery, Thriller novel
PublisherDoubleday (US)
Transworld (UK)
Publication date
September 15, 2009[1]
Publication placeUnited States
United Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover), eBook, audio book
Pages528
ISBN9780385504225 (US) 9780593054277 (UK) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byThe Da Vinci Code 

The Lost Symbol, developed under the working title The Solomon Key, is a 2009 novel by American writer Dan Brown.[2][3][3][4][5] It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C.

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.[2] 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 U.K. and Canada, making it the fastest selling adult novel in history.[6] By September 25 the book topped the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction.[7]

Plot

The story takes place over a period of 12 hours in Washington, D.C., with a focus on Freemasonry.[8] Robert Langdon is summoned to give a lecture in National Statuary Hall 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. However, instead of an audience for his lecture, Langdon finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed into a symbolic 'Hand of the Mysteries' which seemingly points to the fresco The Apotheosis of Washington on the inside of the Capitol dome.

Mal'akh, a brilliant, tattooed villain who is in search of an ancient source of power [9] has taken Peter Solomon hostage and demands Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter's life. In a fiery nighttime explosion, Mal'akh also destroys the Smithonsonian-sponsored laboratory of Dr. Katherine Solomon(The Noetic scientist), Peter's younger sister, where she conducted successful experiments in the ability of the human mind to affect subatomic particles. In addition, the CIA is pursuing Mal'akh in the interests of National Security.

Characters

  • Robert Langdon, Harvard symbologist
  • Mal'akh , tattooed and brilliant villain
  • Peter Solomon, Smithsonian secretary, billionaire, and Freemason
  • Katherine Solomon, Noetic scientist, sister of Peter Solomon
  • Isabel Solomon, mother of Peter and Katherine Solomon, grandmother of Zachary Solomon, murdered on Christmas Eve 10 years before the book began. first female victim of Mal'akh.
  • Trish Dunne, Katherine Solomon's assistant, and second female victim of Mal'akh
  • Mark Zoubianis, hacker and friend of Trish
  • Warren Bellamy, Architect of the capitol, and Freemason
  • Inoue Sato, diminutive woman who is 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 the Washington Cathedral, and Freemason
  • Trent Anderson, Capitol police chief
  • Alfonso Nuñez, Capitol security guard
  • Jonas Faukman, New York editor
  • Omar Amirana, DC cab driver
  • Officer Paige Montgomery, an officer from Preferred Security who finds Peter Solomon at Mal'akh's house and is then killed by Mal'akh.

Development

The book had been in development for several years; originally expected in 2006, the projected publication date was pushed back multiple times.[1] 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.[10][11] Electronic versions such as eBook[12] and Audible book versions[13] were also made available on the same date.[14]

Release

Sales

The Lost Symbol 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.[15] 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.[16][17] According to the publisher, on its first day the book sold 1 million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the UK and Canada, prompting the printing of an additional 600,000 hardcover copies to the 5 million initially printed.[6]

On its first day the book became the #1 bestseller in amazon.com,[18] 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.[19] The Lost Symbol also ranked as the #1 bestseller in Amazon's Canadian and British sites.[20][21] Both Barnes & Noble and Waterstone's reported the book has broken all previous records for adult fiction in the United Kingdom.[22][23] 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 intends to have 1.25 million copies printed.[24] By September 25 the book ranked #1 in the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction.[7]

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.[25] Los Angeles Times said, "Brown's narrative moves rapidly, except for those clunky moments when people sound like encyclopedias."[26] 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?"[27] 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.[28] The Daily Telegraph said the novel was "not quite the literary train-wreck expected."[29] 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."[30] 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".[31] The digested read by John Crace in The Guardian ends with Robert Langdon begging Dan Brown "Please don't wheel me out again."[32]

Adaptations

The book is expected to be made into a movie by Columbia Pictures,[33] for release in 2012.[34]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Carbone, Gina (2009-04-20). "Dan Brown announces new book, 'The Lost Symbol'". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  3. ^ a b "ET Breaks News: Dan Brown Has Finished New Book" ETonline, February 12, 2009
  4. ^ "Report: Dan Brown has finished his book". Seacoastonlone.com. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
  5. ^ "Dan Brown is ready with new book (Swedish: Dan Brown klar med ny bok)". E24 Lifestyle. 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2009-02-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b "Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day". The New York Times. 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  7. ^ a b "Best Selles: Hardcover Fiction". New York Times. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  8. ^ "Keys to Dan Brown's Solomon Key". Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  9. ^ De Vera, Ruel S. (September 15, 2009). "Dan Brown's 'Lost' is no 'Da Vinci Code'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  10. ^ "A New World: Scheduling E-Books". New York Times. 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  11. ^ "Dan Brown moves to Washington for new thriller". Reuters. 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  12. ^ "The Lost Symbol eBook (Kindle Version)". Amazon.com. 2009-08-17. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  13. ^ "Download The Lost Symbol - Preorder". audible.com. 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  14. ^ Irvine, Chris (September 14, 2009). "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol 'will be biggest selling adult fiction novel of the decade'". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  15. ^ . Associated Press. September 23, 2009 http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/09/23/2009-09-23_clinton_book_record_beaten_by_da_vinci_scribe_brown.html. Retrieved September 23, 2009. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ^ "Dan Brown returns with Da Vinci Code sequel, The Lost Symbol". The Guardian. 2009-01-20. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  17. ^ "New Dan Brown book offers industry hope". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
  18. ^ Amazon's Bestsellers in Books (accessdate 2009-09-16)
  19. ^ "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Kindle is Amazon top seller". The Daily Telegraph. 2009-09-16. 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. ^ "To No One's Surprise, Dan Brown Books Are Flying Off Bookshelves". The New York Times. 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  23. ^ "Dan Brown's Lost Symbol sets adult fiction sales record". The Guardian. 2009-09-17. 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. 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. Retrieved September 24, 2009. {{cite news}}: Text "Books" ignored (help); Text "John Crace" ignored (help); Text "The Guardian" ignored (help)
  33. ^ "Columbia moves on 'Symbol'". Variety.com. 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  34. ^ "The Mystery of Dan Brown". The Guardian. September 2009. Retrieved September 22, 2009.

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Lost Symbol.

Template:Robert Langdon's Novels

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