Back in the ’80s, the film critic John Simon devised a classification system that neatly explains why Woody Allen’s comedies charm disparate audiences. “A highbrow moviegoer can laugh,” Simon wrote, “a middlebrow, empathize; a lowbrow, gape, awestruck.” Something similar could be said about the appeal of Dan Brown’s novels . The highbrow can chuckle condescendingly at their supposed erudition. The middlebrow can engage with them in earnest. And the lowbrow can simply marvel. There is something for everyone.

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