The Great American Read--The Book of Books

by PBS

  The Da Vinci Code traffics in secrets. As Langdon and Neveu discover, Saunière belonged to the Priory of Sion—a clandestine society whose members also included Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, and whose job it is to keep safe certain documents entitled the Sangreal, or the Holy Grail. Langdon and Neveu must outwit bloodthirsty members of Opus Dei, a Catholic Church–approved sect trying to find the objects in question. In its controversial alternate history, the novel proposes that Jesus and Mary Magdalene procreated, and their descendants live on, covertly. Supporting evidence includes hidden signs in The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century painting of Jesus and his disciples, as well as other hidden messages in cultural touchstones. Readers interpret codes and uncover symbols along with the characters, and the thriller offers a goodly dose of erudition—or at least the appearance of it—in addition to cliffhangers and breathless action.

  Daniel Gerhard Brown was born in 1964 in New Hampshire. His father, a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, would plan elaborate treasure hunts for the family. Brown graduated from Exeter and went on to Amherst College. After trying to be a singer-songwriter, he started writing full-time in 1996. His wife, Blythe, helps with the massive amounts of research his historical novels require.

  Not everyone relished Brown’s version of history. The Catholic Church, in particular, went to great lengths to clarify the difference between verifiable fact and imaginative license. So did many academics and journalists. Brown considers himself Christian and welcomes the debate his books have fomented, as he believes that dialogue strengthens faith and conviction. The Da Vinci Code was a must-read, oft-discussed novel of the early 2000s, and it hasn’t lost its ability to taunt, to titillate, or to thrill.

  Opening pages from The History of the Valorous and Witty-Knight Errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha in its first English translation, published in 1620.

  A portrait of the author, Miguel de Cervantes, born in 1547.

  The chapter 1 opener of the first English edition.

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  DON QUIXOTE

  Miguel de Cervantes · 1605

  In a happy case of metafiction, the first modern novel is about novels. More precisely, Don Quixote (1605) demonstrates what happens when you read too much. Alonso Quixano, a rail-thin, middle-aged gentleman, loves books to the neglect of everything else in his life. One day he changes his name to Don Quixote de La Mancha, slaps on a rusty suit of armor, hops on his skinny horse, Rosinante, and sets off to have the kind of knightly adventures he’s only read about. He’s inspired by books to change his life, a feeling utterly familiar to bibliophiles everywhere.

  On one level, it’s a funny joke: reading too many romances—then the most popular type of literature in Spain, featuring honorable knights who undertake chivalric quests—drives Don Quixote insane. In his first adventure, he attacks an inn, convinced it is a castle and its prostitutes are highborn ladies. Some merchants beat him up, so he slinks back to his house. There his friends burn the majority of his library in the hopes of curing him of his romantic notions. The plan fails, as Don Quixote becomes sure that he’s been the victim of evil forces that so often prevent knights from victory. For his second adventure, he enlists the practical farmer Sancho Panza as his squire, and Sancho’s earthy wisdom serves as a foil to Don Quixote’s wacky notions. The two meet many people and have many adventures, including attacking windmills that Don Quixote assumed were giants.

  At the start of Part II, Don Quixote has achieved his dream. A novelist set down his adventures, and the resulting book is very popular, making Don Quixote and Sancho Panza famous. On their third adventure, they best another “knight,” make more friends, and try to save the fair princess Dulcinea from her terrible enchantment, which forces her to take the form of a coarse peasant. They are also exploited and humiliated by those who find their delusions worthy of cruel practical jokes. Indeed, throughout the novel, Don Quixote gets battered and wounded.

  The destabilization of Don Quixote’s identity mirrors the destabilization of Spain and even Europe at that time. It shows how quickly people can change and become something else, just by virtue of declaring themselves so; this may be a reflection of the forced conversion of Spanish Muslims and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. That era also marked a period of rapid exploration and colonization of the New World, which profoundly reshaped society. Don Quixote’s shifts also point to the rise of literature; fiction, unlike nonfiction, doesn’t need to adhere to any kind of verifiable truth.

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born into poverty in 1547 near Madrid. He moved to Rome, then enlisted in the Spanish Navy, from which he was captured and enslaved by pirates. Five years later, he was ransomed by his family and returned to Madrid, where he began writing while working at other jobs, including tax collector. He also spent time in prison. The success of the first part of Don Quixote encouraged him to complete the second part in 1615. (Today, both parts are published as a single volume.) He died the following year.

  Cervantes’s influence has been profound: Don Quixote is sometimes called “the Spanish Bible,” and many point to the novel as the start of modern Spanish. It gave us the word quixotic. Moby-Dick (1851), Madame Bovary (1856), A Confederacy of Dunces (1980), The Shadow of the Wind (2001), and other famous works borrow elements of Don Quixote. Cervantes inserted himself as a character in Part II, introducing a literary technique that marks the postmodern work of today. As importantly, Don Quixote appeals to anyone who’s ever envisioned themselves as the star of a story, or who believes that words on a page create a world more real than the one we live in.

  A paperback cover of Doña Bárbara.

  Author Rómulo Gallegos, who became the first democratically elected president of Venezuela in 1947. He was ousted in a coup the following year.

  President Gallegos, photographed in a meeting with US President Harry S. Truman and General Harry Vaughan.

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  DOÑA BÁRBARA

  Rómulo Gallegos · 1929

  Anyone who doubts the power of literature to influence politics should take a look at Doña Bárbara. Published in 1929, this Venezuelan novel caused such controversy that its author had to abandon his homeland and move to Spain. When he returned a few years later, he was elected to Congress, as mayor, and eventually to the presidency of Venezuela.

  The discovery of oil in Venezuela in the early 20th century fundamentally and irrevocably altered almost every facet of life there, from its politics to its economics to its gender dynamics. Even as then dictator Juan Vicente Gómez sought to use the profits from the burgeoning oil industry to improve Venezuela’s infrastructure and to create jobs, he ruled with viciousness and nepotism. The construction of roads enabled travel and contact among people on a much broader scale, prompting an era of patriotism that helped end regional skirmishes and violence, and, it can be argued, permitted the development of democracy.

  Rómulo Gallegos wrote his grand novel while observing his rapidly changing country. Born in Caracas in 1884, he initially worked as a journalist and schoolteacher. Doña Bárbara’s criticism of Gómez forced Gallegos to leave Venezuela for a time. He became involved in politics upon his return in 1936, serving as minister of public education and mayor of Caracas. In 1947, Gallegos became Venezuela’s first democratically elected president; he was ousted in a military coup the following year. He eventually returned to Venezuela but stayed out of politics until his death in 1969.

  The novel starts with the return of Santos Luzardo, a newly minted lawyer from the city, to the rural state of Apure. Luzardo intends to sell his father’s land but is surprised to learn that the estate is being run by the powerful and striking Doña Bárbara. Allegations that she might be a witch offer some insight into her reputation—she is unabashedly sexual, wielding her appetites like a weapon. Luzardo meets a man who fell under her spell but has since fallen into drunkenness, as well as Doña Bárbara’s neglected daughter, Marisela. Attracted to Luzardo,
Doña Bárbara promises to change her ways, but he prefers the younger, more wholesome Marisela. Rather than rescue the older woman from immorality, he opts to rescue the younger from poverty.

  As contemporary scholar Maggie Hivnor notes, Doña Bárbara’s first readers immediately grasped the book as a “parable of how Venezuela could be saved from a corrupt and backward-thinking regime.” Luzardo represents civilization while Doña Bárbara represents barbarism. Those early readers would also have seen echoes of Gómez and his regime in everything Luzardo comes to reject.

  Featuring lush descriptions of the Venezuelan plains as well as its residents, the novel blends fantasy and suspense; it’s often discussed as a precursor to One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and other works of magical realism. The book is all the more remarkable for its treatment of gender. The trope of the redeeming power of a good woman’s love is the very definition of a cliché, with an abundance of examples as varied as Jane Eyre (1847) and Fifty Shades of Grey (2011). Here, however, it’s the woman who transforms. Nevertheless, her redemption is for naught, as Luzardo resists her charms and chooses Marisela instead.

  Gallegos cowrote the screenplay to the 1943 film version of the novel, shifting its lens slightly to heighten the romantic competition between Doña Bárbara and her daughter; another film came out in 1998. In addition, the novel has been made into several television series, but it received new life in 2016, when Telemundo produced La Doña, a telenovela based on Gallegos’s book.

  In recent years, Venezuela has experienced political turmoil, with attempted coups, accusations of governmental corruption, and ongoing protests and even riots. Doña Bárbara offers a fascinating glimpse into the extensive roots of current conflicts and crises.

  The 40th anniversary edition cover of Dune. The book was originally published in 1965.

  Frank Herbert, photographed in Metz, France, in 1978. Herbert’s experiences growing up in Tacoma, Washington, and as a journalist inspired the world of Arrakis, which he wrote about in Dune.

  Original film art for the 1984 film release of Dune, directed by David Lynch.

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  DUNE

  Frank Herbert · 1965

  For many people, the future conjures images of flying cars, robotic servants, and computers imprinted on irises. In short, technology rules. Not so for Frank Herbert. When he imagined life in a time period far, far from now, his world was much more minimalist, and much more ravaged by environmental destruction. The society he pictured harked back to the medieval era, despite its outer-space setting. The novel in which he sketched out such a vision is considered one of the most important works of science fiction ever written.

  Dune (1965) takes place thousands of years in the future. Humans have dispersed across the universe, inhabiting many other planets. As the novel begins, Duke Leto is getting ready to assume the governorship of Arrakis. Though it appears devoid of life, this planet boasts tons of melange, a spice drug that helps users feel better, live longer, and see the future. The duke arrives with his mistress, Jessica, whose supernatural powers intrigue the native Fremen of Arrakis. After the duke’s death, their son, Paul, grows close to the people of this culture, who believe that he and his mother will transform their dry planet into a verdant paradise. In time, Paul becomes the religious and secular leader of the Fremen, and he successfully leads them in a struggle against their enemies.

  The passionate environmentalism at play in the novel comes directly from Herbert’s experience. As a child in Tacoma, Washington, where he was born in 1920, he watched the corrosive effects of the local smelter on the city. He saw how industrialization can do damage even as it brings progress. In the late 1950s, while working as a journalist, Herbert was assigned a story on the Oregon Dunes, which were spreading and threatening water systems and infrastructure; he never finished the piece, but he discovered enough material to create the world of Arrakis. It took another five years to complete the novel, which he dedicated to “dry-land ecologists,” among others.

  In addition to its conservationist themes, Dune explores many philosophical issues, such as the way religion might be manipulated to achieve power, the nature of inheritance, and the use of drugs to expand the mind. It’s also an epic tale of adventure as well as a story about good guys versus bad guys. As a protagonist, Paul enthralls because of his depth; he’s conflicted about his role and feels the burden of his fate. Dune won the Nebula Award and shared the Hugo Award.

  Before his death in 1986 at age 65, Herbert continued the Dune saga—sometimes called the Duniverse—through five subsequent novels. Herbert’s son Brian followed in his father’s footsteps: he has coauthored 14 related novels, including prequels to Dune, and wrote a biography about his father, Dreamer of Dune (2003). The Duniverse novels manifest the original’s concern with ecology, taking the reader deep into the past, when humans warred with computers, and into the future, with the alterations of humans into mystical, magical creatures. Indeed, Children of Dune (1976), which deals with the fate of Paul’s offspring and his planet, was the first sci-fi hardcover bestseller.

  Although the 1984 film version of Dune received scathing reviews upon its release, the movie, directed by David Lynch and starring Kyle MacLachlan as Paul, has become a cult classic. In 2017, director Denis Villeneuve confirmed a remake of Dune was in the works, promising to take that book about the future even further into the future. Recently, climate change and its resulting natural disasters and economic pressures have rendered Dune all the more apropos for today’s readers.

  The cover of the first book in E. L. James’s bestselling Fifty Shades series, Fifty Shades of Grey.

  Author E. L. James at the first screening of the movie release of Fifty Shades of Grey in New York in 2015.

  A promotional poster for the Focus Films’ release of the movie.

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  FIFTY SHADES SERIES

  E. L. James · 2011–present

  Fifty Shades of Grey began as fan fiction inspired by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005–2008). Although E. L. James had never written a book before, she was consumed by the vampire novels and movies, and started publishing her racy version of the romantic life of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen online in 2009. Using the pen name Snowqueens Icedragon, she called her work Master of the Universe. That was compiled, rewritten, and published as the e-book and print-on-demand title Fifty Shades of Grey in 2011 by the Writer’s Coffee Shop; in 2012, an imprint of Random House won the rights to publish the series. Today, James is one of the highest-grossing writers of all time, and her erotic romance novels are some of the most popular books in history.

  The Fifty Shades series begins when 21-year-old Anastasia Steele (Ana) interviews 27-year-old Christian Grey, a rising titan of business, for her college newspaper. The books center on Ana’s sexual awakening and the conflicts that arise from Christian’s enjoyment of BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism). While Ana is attracted to Christian, she feels alternately uncertain, curious, and anxious about his sexual predilections. Her need for the trappings of a traditional relationship, combined with his need to be dominant in every aspect of life, causes trouble between them.

  The novels offer an ongoing will-they-or-won’t-they-style plot, with plenty of obstacles and other potential lovers. Like any couple, Ana and Christian must navigate previous romantic partners, make choices about the future, and learn to compromise. They need to figure out the emotional, financial, and physical balance that works for them. However, what makes the Fifty Shades series different from other books in the romance genre is the particular nature of Ana and Christian’s sexual life; the books are quite graphic in their descriptions of BDSM practices—and they became the first mainstream erotica bestsellers.

  Erika Leonard was born in London in 1963. She graduated from the University of Kent and worked for many years in television production. She’s also the happily married mother of two teenage sons. In interviews, James explains that the books were prompted by
a midlife crisis and include her personal fantasies.

  To date, James has released five books in the series. Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), Fifty Shades Darker (2012), and Fifty Shades Freed (2012) form the core trilogy; in 2015, James published Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, which retells the events of the first novel from his point of view, followed by Darker: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian (2017). Another book is forthcoming. The more recent books detail Christian’s troubled childhood and further explain how his BDSM proclivities allowed him to overcome his past and find success.

  No one can deny the books’ hold on readers: Fifty Shades of Grey was the fastest-selling paperback ever in the United Kingdom, and the whole series has sold more than 125 million copies around the world. James’s bestselling status enabled her to exert a great amount of control over the movies based on her books. She allegedly has approval over such details as costumes and setting, as well as larger concerns like director and stars. It’s working: two movies based on the series have been released, with more in production.