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Summary: Apocolyptic Whodunnit
Review: Starts out as a regular whodunnit, except it's in time long past. Then, the reader quickly sees that this is no ordinary mystery. Hopefully, readers will not simply be entertained, but changed instead.
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Summary: An intellectual discovery of the highest order
Review: Umberto Eco is the most complicated and most interesting authors in the world today (if you don't believe me, read Foucault's Pendulum). To call it a "mystery" is vastly oversimplifying things. The book is about discovery, and those who do not want things to be discovered. Shrouded in a cloak of historical reality (the poverty debate between the Papacy at Avignon and the ascendant Franciscan order), clever in even its most mundane details (the labyrinth of the library), the Name of the Rose is easily one of my top ten books of all time. Be forewarned: this book is not to be approached lightly; it is intellectual in every sense of the word, and despite its labelling as a mystery, it does not resemble contemporary mysteries at all.
A word of advice (for any Eco book): if you don't understand something, keep going. Either it will be explained or it will never come up again, in which case it need not be worried about.
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Summary: A wonderful book.
Review: This book truly deserves the 4 star rating I have given it. The author has used different words throughout the whole book and it is very original. I have written an essay on it and it was as easy as ever because the book esspreses itself to you openly and selectivly. Many others will have the same opinion.
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Summary: Worth ploughing through the Latin, definitely
Review: Before I say anything about the book - I think the Editorial Review and the first Synopsis that appears above should be deleted. The Editorial gives the plot and the villain away and the Synopsis is just plain wrong - it's not the Franciscans suspected of heresy that William is after! Also, he initially arrives to the Benedictine abbey on a diplomatic mission, and gets involved only later in the investigation, and this of the murders, and not the stray Franciscans! Anyway, I first read The Name of the Rose in college, in a well-annotated Korean edition, and at that time I thought it was a great mystery but the historical/argumentative parts bogged it down a bit. Now I am reading it again in English, with a lot more appreciation and interest in Middle Age civilization and politics, and I am savoring every detail. It helps to have The Key to the Name of the Rose at hand, since the English edition doesn't offer any explanations on the Latin or the numerous historical figures mentioned (but The Key isn't perfect either - sometimes the glossary doesn't seem to offer enough pertinent information). I find myself laughing out loud at William's wickedly done impersonations of Sherlock Holmes. As Eco himself says, this is a story of and for people who love books, with all the usual possessiveness, curiosity and jealousy, and it is a really great read.
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Summary: Scruting through book, I smelled the fragrance of denotant
Review: This book is one of my greatest impressions in this year. I have read immediately after Fuko and the style of this author gave me a lot new impressions. The first thing, which is charectarized this book, is intellectualizm. It is full of ideas. Most of them very interesting and make me think about them much time. The second. I felt that I am in Middle Ages. MAybe the Eco is Sent-Germen? Maybe he sai it all? :)))
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Summary: Brilliant book, Brilliant parallels.
Review: William of Baskerville represents Sherlock Holmes. Why? 1st. The name is a clear indicator.( Hound of the Baskervilles ) 2nd. he is english. 3rd. He finds answers throuh logic. 4th. He is described very similarly to how Arthur Conan Doyle describes his sleuth. Adso represents Watson. 1st. His name: Adso sounds a lot like Watson. 2nd. He narrates the story ( like Watson ) 3rd. He is Baskervilles faithfull companion. Jorge of Burgos represents Argentinian fabulist and poet Jorge Luis Borges. Why? 1st. They are both blind 2nd. They have similar names 3rd. Borges was made Argentinas Chief librarian 4th. Borges poetry contains many references to libraries being like labrynths.Where does this leave me, I dont know, I just wanted to point it out. I know for a fact that Eco loves Borges, but why he used him in this book is beyond me. Nevertheless, excellent book.
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Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: I'd like to add to the many reviews of this book only a few comments about the meaning of the famous Latin sentence "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; the nominalists wanted to say with the sentence that even God, the supreme being, persists only through its name, i.e. persists upon an extremely frail thing. Names were seen as simple "flatus vocis", "emission of voice" without value. The nominalist philosophers who declared that even God was a flatus vocis were condemned as heretics (a theme that recurs often in the novel). But here the sentence isn't quoted only for its historical value, but also because it can be applied also to the love of the young monk Adso; he meets in the monastry a young woman and perhaps falls in love with her. In his mind she is just the "rose", i.e. God, of whom he doesn't know the name (the woman and Adso speak different languages). It is then a very pitiful and sad thing that of the woman he doesn't know the name, because, if nominalist theories were true, he won't be able to keep with him, in his heart and mind, in his future life and old age, the remembrances of that encounter and of those days which changed his life and mind forever (cf. the pages of the novel where the old Adso comments on those evets).
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Summary: Outstanding!!
Review: This was the first book of Eco's that I'd read, and I was totally engrossed with the story. The allegories convey ideas on many levels, and it's a book that allows readers to walk away with different levels of insight, depending on the individual reader's personal knowledge. Just as with "Ulysses" and "Moby Dick," what you gain from reading this book is proportionate to what you bring to the table. I see myself rereading this book ten years from now and, hopefully, understanding it on a higher level. Anyway, this is a must read, and don't let the Latin intimidate you.
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Summary: Rewarding experience,a wonderful read.
Review: My sister who just graduated from college convinced me to read The Name of the Rose. It was my first book by Eco, (she has read Island of the Day Before and Foucault's Pendulum). I enjoyed this book immensely. As the reader you become wrapped into the lives of the monks. I had to read this book in one night because it was so fascinating that I couldn't put it down. The only problem that I had with the book was the lack of translations for the Latin phrases. However that intrigued me if anything and I plan on finding out the translations for a better understanding. I next plan on reading Foucault's Pendulum as it was the only other Exo book that my library has. The Name of the Rose has become one of my favorite books. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a challenge.
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Summary: Difficult but worthwhile
Review: As the previous reviewer noted, this book desperately needs to be published with notes and annotations. Many of the references are obscure, and my two years of high school Latin have long since faded into nonexistence. The story can be read on many levels. However just trying to keep up with the mystery plot got confusing because of the foreign names and frequent diversions into learned topics. I had the feeling the whole time that much of it was going over my head. Still it is worth reading and is a challenge. At least you will not feel intellectually insulted.
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