>Eugene Sue's novels "The Wandering Jew" and "The Mysteries of the
>People" also are plotted around Jesuit conspiracies that are
>structurally very similar to the kinds of conspiracies that are spun
>out about Opus Dei now days.
I admit The Da Vinci Code did remind me of The Wandering Jew, although Dan Brown was certainly a lot kinder to Opus Dei than Sue was to the Jesuits. Sue's venomous treatment of the Jesuits was startling to me and more than a little disconcerting. Whereas Brown exonerates Opus Dei itself of the serious crimes of some of its members at the end of the book. (There was a conspiracy to frame Opus Dei.)
But both novels are set in Paris and are about conspiracies.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas