Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Detail
Review: Brilliant detail in the life and times of a medieval monestary. The characters in this book gave me a full appreciatiion for how and why people thought what they did. The best history lesson of the period that I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Please ignore an bad reviews of this book - here's the deal
Review: Let's start with the basics: This is a mystery novel. It is also a history lesson,a meditation on the abuses of power, and an argument for logic's inevitable triumph over ignorance. Not so bad so far, eh? How 'bout this - it's an enjoyable read. Honest. You will not be bored, I promise.Hell, you might even pick up a little extra knowledge about...oh, let's say the Cathars, for example. That's more than you'll pick up from Oprah's book-o-rama, or the latest CyberPunk tome. In the end, you'll wish that this book had been a few hundred pages longer - no, I'm not joking.
Rating: 
Summary: Far more accessible than you think
Review: This is long since recognized as a book that'll last and forever define its author, and I won't review it just to fawn at the shrine. I will, though, warn you not to become intimidated.This isn't the daunting challenge some reviewers make it out to be. Name of the Rose is an engaging read, and you don't need to become bogged down trying to completely understand the religious and political subtexts in order to appreciate it. It's a splendid, enjoyable book if you approach it as one. Nobody's testing you later. Enjoy it. Personally I find Adso and William of Occam, the central characters, to be closer to stock genre characters than they should be. This isn't a harsh criticism; just an explanation of that last star denied. (I've read this four times, too, so once for each star I guess.) People who read Umberto Eco really should appreciate Italo Calvino too. Calvino is far sparer, if you want a graceful read for the park. Neither author's strength is characterization, and they have similarly quirky voices, at least as I read them.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL AND INTRIGUING
Review: If I had to make a list of my top 25 novels this would definitely be on that list. It is a wonderful and intriguing mystery set in a fourteenth century monestary. It is my all-time favourite murder mystery. The writing is incredible and the characterization wonderful. Yes, it's long, but boy what fun! Read it and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Minds and Hearts remain, only the age has changed
Review: The book provokes much thought. It does not entertain, bur rather becomes part of the reader. One hears the sounds of the chant ,of the feet on their way to vespers, the sounds of the garden at dawn or dusk. The book is the "feel" of an era.... not a judgement, but a visit. Who are we to judge , but only to partake, to be part of . Does a catharsis take place upon reading this book? I believe it does, this has nothign to do with likeing or disliking the book. There have always been sinners and saints in the church and times are the same... then or now. The beauty and mystical tradtions are painted and sounded for the reader. i best liked the review that said""Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus". Literaly it can be translated as "The ancient rose subsists thanks to its name, we have only bare names". It is an ancient sentence often quoted by s.c. nominalist philosophers of Middle Ages who thought that our mind isn't able to discover the true essence of things and so it isn't able a fortiori to have the minimum idea of God. In fact in medieval philosophy God was often compared to the figure of a rose" This was fasintation to me. A book to read again!The Latin was a great work out for the brain.
Rating:
Summary: So Many Books, All "Not As Good As The Name of the Rose"
Review: If I have to name the few rare books whose impact on me has not diminished over time, I'd include "1984", "The Lord of the Flies", "The Name of the Rose", and "Age of Innocence". Umberto Eco's masterpiece towers over everything else in the categories of historical fiction, mystery, and thrillers. It will challenge you intellectually, yet also thrill you out of your breath. When you are done, you may feel a bit depressed that the book is over. As a partial remedy, follow up with "An Instance of the Finger Post", which displays much of the former's brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: A Notch Below a materpeice
Review: The Name of the Rose is clearly more than just a mystery tale. It reflects not only Eco's analysis of the Avignon papal period but also his thoughts on contemporary Italian culture. Readers of a French virtual bookstore recently voted the book the third greatest of the century. That is where the legend surrounding eco supercedes reality- at moments in the book, Eco's amazing intelligence and lengthy details get the better of him and hinder the powerful momentum that the book offers. This is not a quality of the book, and forces me to give it four instead of five stars. All in all, everyone should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't get it either ...
Review: This book is an amazing example of how peoples' tastes vary. I cannot see how anyone would rate it better than 2* -- it is difficult to read, contains many foreign phrases that are uncipherable unless you speak Latin and other languages, it has so many characters (with few physical descriptions) that I have trouble keeping track of them, and it continually digresses into topics that have no apparent connection to the plot. I am one-third of the way through the book and it's taken me three weeks to get that far because it puts me to sleep within 15 minutes and I can only wade through about 5 pages during that time. I keep reading it, however, because so many people seem to have enjoyed it that I figure it will sooner or later hit me. I hope so. I finally got frustrated and started reading another book (Plainsong) this week and was amazed that I was able to read that one cover to cover in three nights. (I had thought maybe my eyesight was getting bad.) By the way, if you don't like Name of the Rose, try Plainsong -- it was a great novel and very readable.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't get it
Review: Maybe I lack the classical training needed to appreciate this book. I found it tedious. The author is continually going off on long philosophic or pedantic discussions that as far as I could see had nothing to do with the development of the characters or the plot. After the first third of the book I found myself skipping many pages at a time to get to the place where he dropped the intellectual tedium and got back to the story. Call me shallow, but I just don't get pleasure out of this type of writing. As a positive note, it only took me a few pages until I was fast asleep.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: This is an interesting book, often well written, occasionally addictive, but it reads like a first novel - the glue shows through. The book's greatest strength is the character of William of Baskerville - Eco has created a funny, likeable, flawed hero who is able to hold together an uneven book. Adso is quite well drawn, but there are numerous inconsistencies in the characterisation of the young narrator. Sometimes he reveals a precocious intelligence in his dialogues with William; other times he is unbelievably dense -how could he fail (even under great stress) to differentiate between a book in Greek and one in Arabic script? There are several long descriptive passages. Some of these are extremely tedious, adding nothing to plot, character or the fascinating ideas Eco is exploring. One or two such passages can be useful in adding "local colour" but Eco overdoes it. He doesn't integrate the various elements in the book: he spends a few pages developing plot, then cuts and pastes a few pages of history, philosophy or church politics; then returns to the plot. The quality of the writing in each section is good, but at times one could be forgiven for wondering if it is a text book or a novel. The previous book I read on medieval heresy was a history book, yet the plot was stronger and more compelling than Eco's despite the fact that the former was restrained by historical fact. The above criticisms aside, Eco clearly has a great imagination and a witty, playful personality, The book has a beautifully written ending, many delightful passages and left this reader wanting to know even more about some of the many topics dealt with in the book.
|
