Umberto Eco: Name of the Rose (1994, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company)
512 pages
English language
Published Aug. 13, 1994 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
It is the year 1327. Franciscans in an Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, but Brother William of Baskerville’s investigation is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths.
A wonderful, distinctive tale. Although it has the deep research of a historical novel, it's really a detective story.
Must be ready for deep literary devices though: page-long descriptions and passages in actual Latin.
You know those SNL “Stafon” skits where Bill Hader describes clubs in New York in extravagant ways, saying “It has everything!” Well, this book has everything. It is elegantly written (my version was translated by William Weaver). It is fascinatingly philosophical. It is historical. It is an engrossing mystery story. It is a very funny satire. And it is interesting.
Without spoiling it I’ll say that the resolution of the mystery integrates beautifully with the philosophical themes explored by the characters, and with the setting. The story’s hero, the ultimate villain, the 14th century Church, and the monastery and library each echo one another in fractal ways. It is remarkable how all these parts were assembled to make something cohesive, if labyrinthine.
I adore Sean Connery, but this book is so much more than the simple murder mystery in the film with the same name. History, culture, politics, philosophy, lust, greed, piety, humour. Complex characters, great storytelling. It is all in there.
It's a murder mystery set in a 14th century Italian monastery. It's Eco's thesis on symbols and faith. It drags at times, but the whole picture is such a well constructed story that gives you a great basis to appreciate Eco's later works (which are sometimes a response to this book's success).
Will I ever be able to articulate what I got out of this book? I don’t even know how to start. I’m reading it more as an allegory that illustrates - and creates a template for - how to consider a complicated, murky, state of politics, which could be applied to almost any moment in the last several decades. Centuries, even. Most of human history, really. Of course, it’s also just a whodunnit, so you don’t even really need to grapple with all of that, or even take note of it, if you don’t want to. It’s there, though. And I very much appreciate it.
I honestly couldn't finish this book. I'm trying not to be overly critical and to give it the benefit of the doubt considering its 40 years old and a translation to boot, but after getting 350 pages into it, I started to dread picking it up and to me that's a strong sign it's time to move on.
The actual core mystery plot, and even the two main characters, were interesting and fun to read about but the author spends so much time on the minutiae of 1300s Catholic politics that I had trouble staying focused. I almost nodded off more than once. In the end I had to skip paragraphs just to keep from drowning in the sea of text rife with untranslated Latin, tangential names and places and nuanced theological argument about tiny aspects of Christianity that only a monk would fret over.
The worst part is that …
I honestly couldn't finish this book. I'm trying not to be overly critical and to give it the benefit of the doubt considering its 40 years old and a translation to boot, but after getting 350 pages into it, I started to dread picking it up and to me that's a strong sign it's time to move on.
The actual core mystery plot, and even the two main characters, were interesting and fun to read about but the author spends so much time on the minutiae of 1300s Catholic politics that I had trouble staying focused. I almost nodded off more than once. In the end I had to skip paragraphs just to keep from drowning in the sea of text rife with untranslated Latin, tangential names and places and nuanced theological argument about tiny aspects of Christianity that only a monk would fret over.
The worst part is that I feel like I'm actually a softer audience for this book than most. I have a grasp on the history and Catholic theology (being ex- myself), I can appreciate a smattering of Latin, I can even find interest in the abuses pre-Reformation Catholicism and its heresies. The trouble is that none of this painstaking historical table setting really matters that much to the main story.
It's almost like reading two books - one an exciting story of a Holmes/Watson style duo investigating a medieval serial killer around a labyrinth of forbidden knowledge (almost in the vein of Dan Brown), the other a very dry log of a group of Biblical scholars arguing. In fact the only reason I read as much as I did was that the murder mystery part was just compelling enough to get me through the mind numbing parts that seem to switch on every other chapter.
Reading the synopsis online I'll admit I might be bailing right as it was starting to climax, but ultimately I couldn't bring myself to keep slogging through it to dig out a few gems when I've got other books to read.
I first read Umberto Eco’s bestselling book in 1985, in Greek translation. I read it again, around 2000, the English translation this time, and, while I was learning Italian, I made an attempt to read it in its original language, albeit unsuccessfully. I don’t think I read more than 20 pages. I went back to Greek and English translations.
Needless to say, I love this book. A monastic library built as a labyrinth in Italy during the Middle Ages, a lost book of Aristotelian philosophy devoted to laughter and comedy, raging theological debates over the question of ownership of property by Christ and the apostles and a series of murders that the Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville attempts to solve with the help of his young student Adso of Melk. The highly intelligent, curious, and voracious reader William of Baskerville is essentially a medieval Sherlock Holmes in a monastery, and …
I first read Umberto Eco’s bestselling book in 1985, in Greek translation. I read it again, around 2000, the English translation this time, and, while I was learning Italian, I made an attempt to read it in its original language, albeit unsuccessfully. I don’t think I read more than 20 pages. I went back to Greek and English translations.
Needless to say, I love this book. A monastic library built as a labyrinth in Italy during the Middle Ages, a lost book of Aristotelian philosophy devoted to laughter and comedy, raging theological debates over the question of ownership of property by Christ and the apostles and a series of murders that the Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville attempts to solve with the help of his young student Adso of Melk. The highly intelligent, curious, and voracious reader William of Baskerville is essentially a medieval Sherlock Holmes in a monastery, and Adso, his Watson. What’s not to like!
The Name of The Rose is a book about books. It’s also about people, men in particular, with their weaknesses and failings, their desires and fears, their ambitions and passions, men who have dedicated their lives to knowledge and they are ready to do anything in order to put their hands on a certain, rare book.
“Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.”
The Name of the Rose is not an easy book. The first 100 pages are particularly difficult. You need a good Latin dictionary and some working knowledge of the politics of the papacy to understand the diversity and the complex political structure of Europe in the Middle Ages.
It is an amazing and enjoyable book. Read it as many times as you wish, in any language, it never disappoints. It is one of these book that makes you want to start reciting the words of Thomas à Kempis “In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro.”
This is how a novel should be. All events leading to a logical conclusion. great structure, characters and insights of medieval history.
It took me a while to get into the story, but in the end I enjoyed it.
You might find yourself bogged down with Eco's need to show you how much he knows about monks, religious rites, and history. Descriptions are everywhere--you practically drown in them. But wade through it all and you will find Brother William, a Medieval-era Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Adso. William notices details that others overlook. He comes to the monastery as they have just discovered a suicide. Several deaths follow as William and Adso work together to figure out what is happening. The monks are quite naughty, and the mystery is solid.
It wasn't a quick read due to the tremendous amount of details Eco adds, but it is a good book. Now off to watch the movie!
прослухав аудіоверсію французького перекладу. як детективна пригода — ок, хоча і надто повільна та багатослівна як на любителів сучасного детективу, але це компенсується своєрідним шармом повільної оповідки про життя середньовічного монастиря, історичне та політичне підгрунтя непростих стосунків монахів.
A great book, though read it on a Kindle or with a internet-connected device nearby in order to look up the Latin words used extensively.
I was completely unable to get interested in reading this. Heck TV commercials were getting more of my attention and that's usually when I do most of my reading. So I gave up on this one.
Simultaneously an education in 14th century politics and an engrossing detective story. Very few people could make this work, but Eco pulls it off with characteristic panache.
Unlike Foucault's Pendulum which is a wild romp through the history of conspiracies, The Name of the Rose is a mystery set so deeply in Catholic Church historical controversy that your read will be greatly enhanced by outside resources unless you are intimately familiar with the times and fractures within the Church.
I would recommend not only this book, but the companion The Key to the Name of the Rose by Adele J. Haft and Robert J. White.
Now lest the idea of reading one tome while keeping another handy for reference sounds too much like schoolwork, let me offer an out; the mystery itself is enough to justify reading this book alone at a sitting, (have food sent in). It is tightly crafted, offers all necessary clues to the reader (no cheating on the protagonist's part), and offers plenty of characterization to satisfy anyone.
However, to understand why the …
Unlike Foucault's Pendulum which is a wild romp through the history of conspiracies, The Name of the Rose is a mystery set so deeply in Catholic Church historical controversy that your read will be greatly enhanced by outside resources unless you are intimately familiar with the times and fractures within the Church.
I would recommend not only this book, but the companion The Key to the Name of the Rose by Adele J. Haft and Robert J. White.
Now lest the idea of reading one tome while keeping another handy for reference sounds too much like schoolwork, let me offer an out; the mystery itself is enough to justify reading this book alone at a sitting, (have food sent in). It is tightly crafted, offers all necessary clues to the reader (no cheating on the protagonist's part), and offers plenty of characterization to satisfy anyone.
However, to understand why the occupants of this monastery live in suspicion and fear, to understand why our hero William of Baskerville might be on shaky ground himself, and just to savor well placed Latin without recourse to a textbook - accept a slightly slower read in exchange for a much richer interweaving of plot lines and characters frequently the cat's paw for much larger forces.
I was a history major, once upon a time. This book really felt Medieval. It was also a good mystery.
