ABSTRACT
The Da Vinci Code, the novel by suspense-mystery author Dan Brown, debuted as on the New York Times list of best-selling fiction and remained high on that list and others like it for more than a year. In particular, The Da Vinci Code resurrects the theory that the New Testament character of Mary Magdalene, whom the Catholic Church once declared a prostitute sans scriptural evidence was actually much more important to Christ than Christendom acknowledges. One cannot always tell a book by its cover, but in this case the novel's jacket and jacket notes foreshadow gender inequalities to come, thereby demonstrating the relevance of Genette's notion of "paratextual" meanings that form "thresholds" between a text and its reception. Consequently, Langdon is constructed as teacher and Neveu as pupil. Moreover, the narration indicates Neveu by her first name while referencing the male hero and virtually every other male character except Silas, the acolyte of a shadowy religious group, by his name.
