Inferno by Dan Brown

Inferno by Dan Brown

Review of the novel Inferno by Dan Brown.

Published by Penguin on 14 May 2013

Cost: £20.00 (UK)

ISBN: 978-0-593-07249-3 (Hardback Edition - 462 pages - starts on page 5)

Dedication: For My Parents

This is the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown and is perhaps my favourite. My daughter returned it to me in December and I decided to stop reading the current book and re-read this one. There are twists and turns and the story is fast moving, that the reader may begin to question what is actually real.

If you recall, Langdon is a Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology. So, for many readers of the previous novels we have an idea of what to expect, however, this story is quite different as Langdon pairs up quite a strange partner.

The story opens up with Langdon participating in a dream of his own, which is very real to him, so much so that it startles him awake. He finds himself in a hospital with an IV attached to his arm and he has no idea where he is, or how he incurred such a serious injury to his head. His waking brings a doctor into the room.

“I’m Dr. Sienna Brooks,” she said, giving Langdon a smile as she entered. “I’ll be working with Dr. Marconi tonight.”

Langdon nodded weakly.

Tall and lissom, Dr. Brooks moved with the assertive gait of an athlete. Even in shapeless scrubs, she had a willowy elegance about her. Despite the absence of any makeup that Langdon could see, her completion appeared unusually smooth, the only blemish a tiny beauty mark just above her lips. Her eyes a gentle brown, seemed unusually penetrating, as if they had witnessed a profundity of experience rarely encountered by a person of her age.

Looking around him, Langdon looks out of the window and recognises the medieval structure facing him and realises he is over four thousand miles from home. Little does he know his world is about to be turned upside down and he is going to have to run for his life, as moments later bullets start to fly and so starts a race across the town of Florence in Italy, and across Europe as things begin to hot up. Attacked by a female assassin, wanted by the US government, hunted by a secretive organisation of soldiers, the Italian Carabinieri, Robert realises he can’t stand still.

He has to trust the most unlikely person of Dr Brooks to steer him on his journey. It’s a race that leads to a dramatic climax.

The title of the story comes from the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14^th Century epic poem Divine Comedy. The Inferno (Italian for ‘hell’) tells the journey of Dante through hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil.

After leaving the hospital in a rush, Langdon finds a small container in his jacket pocket and he decides to open it. Inside he finds a small medieval bone cylinder fitted with a hi-tech projector that displays a modified version of Botticelli's Map of Hell. Parts of the drawing have been changed and Langdon feels there are clues to something important. The trail of clues leads them towards the ‘Old City’ of Florence. They pass through the Boboli Gardens, the Vasari Corridor, and the Palazzo Vecchio, where on the previous night Langdon had a private viewing of Dante’s death mask. As the mask is not there, Langdon and Dr Brooks find they are now in serious trouble.

Continuing, they escape possible capture crossing over the Apotheosis Cosimo. It’s here that the story finds Langdon, taking short hops, solving the clue to discover the truth about why he has been brought o Florence. The journey is never quite clear and Langdon solves a clue to find that there is yet another one to solve. But the paring of Langdon and Dr Brooks breaks up as she believes she can solve the clues on her own and as a result, Langdon is captured by a group of black-clad soldiers. He discovers he has been brought to Italy by the head of the World Health Organisation, Dr Elizabeth Sinskey, and is given an explanation as to what is going on. A brilliant geneticist, named Zobrist, has supposedly developed a new biological plague that will kill off a large portion of the world’s population as a means of solving the overpopulation of the world.

At this point, the organisations tracking Robert Langdon, decide to work together to prevent the possible release of the plague. They race to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, only to find they have misinterpreted another of the clues.

“The … cistern?” Mirsat asked, looking frightened. “It’s a block away, just east of this building.” He pointed outside. “It’s called Yerebatan Sarayi.”

“Langdon wondered. … “But … doesn’t sarayi mean ‘palace’?”

Mirsat nodded. “Yes. The name of our ancient cistern is Yerebatan Sarayi. It means-the sunken palace.”

Tonight, deep within the earth, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra was performing one of Franz Liszt’s most famous works–the Dante Symphony–an entire composition inspired by Dante’s descent into and return from hell.

As Langdon passed through the doorway and began descending the steep staircase […], he could feel the warm wind rushing past them from the bowels of the cistern. The humid breeze carried on it the strains of Liszt’s Dante Symphony as well as a familiar, yet ineffable scent … that of a massive crush of people congregated together in an enclosed space.

Langdon suddenly felt a ghostly pall envelope him, as if the long fingers of an unseen hand were reaching out of the earth and raking his flesh.

The music.

These six words–the most famous line in all of Dante’s Inferno–welled up from the bottom of the stairs like the ominous stench of death.

Accompanied by a swell of trumpets and horns, the choir intoned the warning again. “Lasciate ogne Speranza voi ch’entrate!”

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!

In an auditorium of passageways above a cistern where a water-soluble bag containing the plague is hidden, Robert Langdon finds the item he has been seeking.

The story is fast moving and I found I could not put the book down. I felt the character of Langdon was confused when trying to solve some of the clues. I accept that there was no actual map with an X marking the final destination, but for me when Langdon attempts to solve a clue, he managed it by luck only to find he had to solve an additional clue. However, it is only Langdon that has any idea about how to interpret the clues which explain why he is being chased throughout most of the book. The reader benefits by the beautiful descriptions of the places the story takes the reader to, they are vivid and very descriptive - it has become a trait of Dan Brown, that has brought him a large readership following. As with his other books, the Inferno is available in an illustrated Hard Back edition, and having flicked through the pages It brings the book to life. I shall have to buy it. Rating 5 stars

Dr Sheppard

16 January 2018