Posted on 10/03/2004 12:13:03 PM PDT by wagglebee
Jesus conspiracy novel has earned £140 million, but now two academic writers say that their historical work preceded it by 20 years, reports Elizabeth Day
It is the biggest-selling adult fiction book of all time and has earned its author a reputed £140 million with its plot about a global conspiracy to suppress Christ's marriage.
The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 12 million copies and has been translated into 42 languages. But now two writers are suing its publishers, claiming that it was copied from their bestseller that first appeared more than 20 years ago.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim that Dan Brown, the 39-year-old former English teacher from New Hampshire, has "lifted the whole architecture" of the research that they carried out for their non-fiction work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which they co-wrote with Henry Lincoln.
They claim that the similarities between the two books are such that they have no choice but to sue Random House, whose imprint Doubleday is the publisher of Brown's novel.
Leigh told the Telegraph after issuing the writ: "It's not that Dan Brown has lifted certain ideas because a number of people have done that before. It's rather that he's lifted the whole architecture - the whole jigsaw puzzle - and hung it on to the peg of a fictional thriller."
The Da Vinci Code tells the story of a Harvard professor who stumbles across a conspiracy to suppress Jesus Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene and his fathering of a royal bloodline.
Baigent and Leigh claim that the novel's premise and chunks of factual research are plagiarised from their original historical hypothesis, which has sold more than two million copies despite being denounced by several Church commentators as "pseudo-history". Baigent said: "Whether our hypothesis is right or wrong is irrelevant. The fact is that this is work that we put together and spent years and years building up."
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was based on six years of research and hypotheses that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and founded a royal bloodline protected by a series of esoteric societies including the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion, one of whose "Grand Master" heads is claimed to have been Leonardo da Vinci.
The authors argue that Brown lifted their all-important list of the Grand Masters, who supposedly guarded the secret documents pertaining to Christ's bloodline, without acknowledgement.
The only mention of their book is when the villain of The Da Vinci Code, an eccentric English historian called Sir Leigh Teabing, lifts a copy off his bookshelf and says: "To my taste, the authors made some dubious leaps of faith in their analysis, but their fundamental premise is sound."
The name Leigh Teabing is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent, the authors point out, while his physical description - he walks with the aid of crutches - is allegedly based on the third author, Henry Lincoln, who walks with a limp.
Lincoln has decided not to be part of the copyright action because of ill health, but is said to support it.
"We are being lumped in with Dan Brown's work of fiction and that degrades the historical implication of our material," Baigent said. "It makes our work far easier to dismiss as a farrago of nonsense.
"Issuing the writ is not something we have done lightly, but we feel that we have no choice."
Paul Sutton, a lawyer from the City firm Orchard, who is representing Baigent and Leigh, was unavailable for comment.
Whatever the outcome of the forthcoming legal action, the ensuing publicity is unlikely to do any harm to the sales of either book.
"Holy Blood, Holy Grail" was presented as a non-fiction work. "The DaVinci Code" is a work of fiction. Moreover, "The DaVinc Code" even referenced "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" as a source of material!
From Nina0113, Steve's wife:
That's so funny - just yesterday I was telling someone I couldn't understand why the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail hadn't sued. I haven't read The DaVinci Code (the person I was speaking to is lending it to me) but everything I've heard about it sounded like a ripoff of HBHG (also obviously fictional).
bump
Really? If I were suspicious of a real Church conspiracy, I'd say that the DaVinci Code was sponsored secretly by the Church, in order to shift the entire theory and story from pseudo-history into the realm of fiction.
;-) But that's only if I had a suspicious mind...
As if it wasn't easy enough.
I do think the left has grabbed onto this book and done everything possible to keep it in the news and on the bestseller lists in an effort to promote and anti-Christian agenda.
I agree with you and remember the debunking. But the authors promoted it then as fact, and I would think they have a poor case now because of it.
IIRC The authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" later did a follow-up book that purported that the Apostle Thomas was actually twin brother of Jesus.
"As if it wasn't easy enough."
LOL!
Plus, Holy Blood Holy Grail, was horribly written. I just finished it and concluded that they could saved themselves 100 pages, if they just got to the point..
For example, those who wrote historical accounts of the Civil War could sue every novelist who wrote a novel based on the Civil War. Stephen Crane (author of Red Badge of Courage) would be in legal trouble if he were alive today!
C.S. Lewis said either Jesus is Lord or he was a lunatic at best, or something much worse.
The Da Vinci code and books like it are just boob bait no matter how slick or cleverly they are written IMHO.
I read HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL about twenty yeas ago. It is the ONLY book I have ever tossed in the trash upon finishing (and I have read hundreds of books).
Try this one. THE TRUTH BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE by Richard Abanes. Harvest House Publishers, Eugene Oregon
I have no intention of reading THE DA VNCI CODE.
Point: Pierre Plantard thought himself an occult master and the descendant of kings. He placed forged documents in the National Library in Paris.
Point: Priest Berenger Sauniere became rich not from finding a treasure but by selling masses.
Too many other debunking goodies to list.
But what if this is simply part of an agenda designed to keep both of the books in the spotlight. And then put the issue before a judge who can rule that the original research is valid and that all of the nonsense these men are suggesting about the life, death and resurrection of Christ is valid? What the secularist left wants more than anything is "proof" that Jesus was not the Son of God, that he did not rise from the dead, that everything Christianity is based upon is a lie.
How so? I've read the book and even if the premise of the novel was true (which I give no credence to), I don't see it shattering anybody's faith in Christianity. I see it as a big "So what?"
BTW, the novel is overrated. I've read much better novels. Also, the time frame that the events take place in stretches all credulity. I think the entire book takes place in about 12 hours. In that short period of time, transcontinental plane flights are made and just an amazing amount of action take place. I like books with a fast pace but this is overkill.
Read what I wrote in #15.
Yes, but it will be nice to see these leftist secularists waste money in court. No matter who loses, Christianity wins.
Remember the woman who sued J.K. Rowling for plagiarism, claiming that she used the word "Muggles" a decade before Rowling wrote Harry Potter.
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