The Name of the Rose

Rating:
Summary: The best kind of Pop Fiction
Review: I bought this book while searching for Lewis's _The Monk_ having just done a research paper on Gothic novels. I was captured by the summarization on the back, alluding to what seemed to me a modern Gothic. Well, it wasn't quite what I expected, but, in a way, it was more so. Gothic novels are steeped in the Supernatural, and the only perfect modern Gothic novel is in which, in retrospect, a different approach is taken. In Gothics, humanly vices are personified by the otherwordly. A modern take on such a novel should allude to the Supernatural with humans. Eco has succeeded.

The book is excellent. I would describe it alternately as "A Religious Sherlock Holmes in the 14th century", "A Extended Parable Against Censorship", or "The Best Kind of Pop Fiction". A few years ago I read _The Club Dumas_ by Perez-Reverte (the film The Ninth Gate is based on it). Finishing it, I realized that the entire book was a monstrous joke! I was insulted. Having finished this, I was left with the same effect, with one important difference: I didn't feel cheated. Umberto Eco pulls it off!

The novel is filled with extended passages dealing with the nature of religion. While these are initially troubling, they cause an appreciation of the time period, and when juxtaposed with the murder mystery, everything is improved. A visceral texture to the entire novel is created. I look forward to Eco's other works.

Rating:
Summary: You will love it!
Review: When I was at the University, a professor give us an excerpt from The name of the rose to translate (by the way I was studying Italian) and I got hooked! I've read it in three languages and every time it was great, loosing nothing in the translation. I just loved it ... and I hope you'll love it too.

P.S. Incredible to say, but the film was great also!

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not a light weekend read
Review: Historical mystery fans who might be drawn to Umberto Eco's "The Name Of The Rose" by its reputation as being one of the best historical mysteries written might find themselves stumbling into a unexpected morass of Latin and theology instead. This book can be very intimidating at first, but if you can hang on through the slow beginning, you will be rewarded with a good, thought-provoking story. Some paperback editions provide a "companion," which makes the story much easier to understand (I plowed through the book three times before all the pieces began to fit!), but nonetheless readers whose normal oeurvre are the likes of Grisham and Patterson may find "The Name of The Rose" extremely tough going.

Rating:
Summary: Many books in one
Review: This intellectual achievement can be read from different perspectives and tells different stories. Yes, it is a mystery thriller, with a XIV century Sherlock Holmes and a young and peculiar Watson. But it is also a metaphor of censorship and political control; a reflection of the theological disputes of the time; an illustration of the socioeconomic trends of that century; a parody of the Book of Revelations; a depiction of life in Medieval monasteries, etc.

William of Baskerville and his assistant, the young Adso of Melk, are appointed to investigate a case of murder at a Franciscan monastery in Italy. The work seems to be endless, as seven more murders are committed while they are there. During the course of their investigations, they discover the devilish pervertions, the obscure story, and the mysterious secrets of the abbey. Moreover, they get to participate in a hsitorical confrontation between the representatives of Pope John XXII and those of the Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria. In this conference, fundamental matters are put to discussion, especially the poverty of Christ and the heresies derived from Franciscanism. The solution to the murders is fantastic.

The mystery is a lot deeper than just the "who killed the dead?" level. It is an intellectual mystery. Eco's erudition is wonderful, even if it makes for a demanding reading. It is very much worth the time and attention you'll have to put into this book. If you can find the companion to the book (which I think should be included in subsequent editions) the enjoyment will be much more. Go, then, with William of Baskerville and find out who and why is killing monks in this dark monastery.

Rating:
Summary: Eco's masterpiece
Review: Eventhough movies don't reflect a books's imaginary action, the movie about this book is quiet good. Though, the most importan thing about this novel is,, Christ capacity of laughing and enjoying life.Laugh is always a gift, and to be able to discover its magnigency in a middle ages book is simply astonishing.. besides descriptions are not boring... enjoy....

Rating:
Summary: Great though not complete
Review: Umberto Eco reaches here a certain perfection in that type of historical novel on the early fourteenth century, though he does not try to explain in any way the reasons of the emergence of all the heresies dealing with poverty. The economic context is entirely neglected : two centuries of extremely important expansion based on the first agricultural revolution (a lot of cultivated land gained on the forests, the use of animal energy and work to till the land). This had caused a great expansion of the population and the development of cities, hence of commerce. This increase in population had made the crusades possible. But due to the inability to plan the demographic expansion and to develop the next stage of the agricultural revolution (rotation of crops, fallow fields and fertilizing) Europe is becoming overpopulated, with a great richness in a minority (including the church) and an ever wider section of society touched by poverty, famine, malnutrition, etc. The answer is religious : the church preaches total submission to the fate of man decided by God, and more and more orders or heretical groups preach the equalizing of society by imposing poverty as an ethic duty for all, particularly for the rich, preaching thus a redistribution of wealth, and going as far as a refusal of property seen as the cause of unequal society. The book starts with the debate on the poverty of Christ as a model for the church, and with this debate being recuperated by the new German Emperor to control the church and impose his authority on it. The Popes then flee from Rome and go to Avignon, where they are protected by the King of France. This level of the debate is richly illustrated by the book. The book is thus centered on those two levels : the theological, and partly social, debate on poverty and equality, and the struggle for power between the King of France and the German Emperor, and the impossibility for the Church to remain neutral and to become the real referee between the two monarchs. That leads to the heretical debate and the role of the Inquisition. The book leans toward the meaning that poverty is a necessary requirement to force humanity to reflect on its fate and its destiny, and it also leans toward the meaning that the Inquisition is not a real system of justice but an organisation of watchdogs that enables the church to eradicate those who would introduce debates inside the church. The method used by the Inquisition is very finely detailed and discussed : to destabilize the accused with the menace or the use of torture so that the Inquisitional judge appears as a saviour, a last recourse, and then this dependance towards the judge makes the accused play in the hand of the judge and then justifies the system and the accusation, not with real facts but with the acceptation of a lethal fate to escape suffering and questioning.

Strangely enough, Umberto Eco adds an ever true theme in the book : the use and the necessity of knowkedge as the ferment and the engine of progress. Knowledge can only be found in the books of the past and subsumed through the observation of facts and the use of logics. Knowledge is a liberation of the spirit but also of the body, because it enables progress and better means to improve the lot of man on earth, through inventions and machines. This goes against the grain of a dogmatic approach of religion, supported by the Inquisition and the fight against heresies : if the Book, the Bible, is the absolute sum of true knowledge given by God to man, then man does not have to look for knowledge, look for new facts or interpretations, try to invent new machines or productive processes. On one side liberation through knowledge or science. On the other side submission to a closed text and interpretation of that text and the eternal repetition of it and submission to whatever life may bring, all of it being seen as the will of God or the making of the Devil. Then intelligence can only be used to decide what is on the side of God and what is on the side of the Devil and the Antichrist.

The book does not close so many debates, but only tells us a story. The abbey is entirely destroyed, starting with the library, the largest library of christendom. The monks are hence either killed or scattered away and their knowledge is lost just like their books. What is interesting in the book is that it is entirely organised like a thriller and guided by the Apocalypse, by the Book of Revelations. So we discover little by little a fierce fight for power within the abbey, and the criminal planning of a blind and fundamentalistic monk who prefers killing other monks and destroying the whole library for one book not to get into the hands of anyone, the second part of the Poetics by Aristotle. Fundamentalism leads to crime, and even crimes against humanity. This book is thus tremendously modern and strong. It is also sad, not because knowledge always succeeds (which would not be sad really, except for the fundamentalists), but because knowledge always encounters resistance and rejection. There is no way to see knowledge be recognized at once, and the field of knowledge is a fierce battle field for power among those who should defend only truth. They only defend their own personal truth that ensures them to keep their power or conquer new powers.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

Rating:
Summary: Blood, guts and monks, it doesn't get much better.
Review: This book is not merely a novel, but like the previous reviewers have said, reading Eco raises your IQ by a few points every time you read him. It is surprising that the unfamiler world of Roman Catholic Italy comes alive in 500 pages. Granted, it is frustrating that I had to break out my old Latin text books from high school, but I still could not put it down. The book is one of the few books that is crafted, and reaches a tremendous climax and concludes in such a fading way that I closed the book and thought. Like the other book by Eco that I have read, I think this will mean something different to each person, depending on what they take with them into the book. Really amazing to read on so many levels - you will never forget strange things like Pope John XII was at odds with Louis of the HRE, or the record of a monks struggles with sexuality, the book feels like it was written by an old (abeit latin)friend.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Work, Although Eco's Neutrality is Distracting.
Review: If there were an option for 4 1/2 stars, that would be my pick. I waited a few days after finishing the book to write this review. I'm happy I did so. The book has grown on me over the last few days, as good books tend to do.

One of the real pleasures of the book is getting to know William, the mentor of the protagonist. He is a great character and through him we are confronted squarely with the deep and enduring questions posed by the book: what is the nature of truth; can faith survive man's insatiable thirst for scientific knowledge and advancement; does man, or any man, possess the strength to adhere to the principles of his faith when the cloak of faith brings power with it; can we survive the destructive power of our own egos?

Eco, through his fictional proxy, the novice called Adso, adamantly refuses to suggest answers to these questions. Although by choosing to ask certain questions he sets us up for certain thoughts, his self-conscious balance in not letting Adso tell us what he thinks is almost distracting; in making sure that every act has a consequence lest some implied preference be divined. Eco is so determined to be neutral, that he cannot even bring himself to identify himself as the narrator. Indeed, he sets up this elaborate structure at the beginning to ensure that he is 4 steps removed from the narrator. (The narrator is Adso, but the manuscript we are supposedly holding is a translation of a translation discovered by yet another fictional character who has nothing to do with the events told in the novel.) Ordinarily, I find this kind of self-conscious affectation to be annoying, but I forgive Eco since he has such an apparent purpose for his affectation.

This neutrality is not without cost. Ultimately, we can never really feel that close to our protagonist, Adso. Mercifully, Eco gives Adso a sexual liason in the middle of the book that causes Adso to ponder at length about the nature of his guilt and his despair at his inability to stop basking in the pleasure of the moment. Although it is a bit manipulative, this device, along with a few others earlier in the novel, brings us closer to Adso. (As for the act itself, however, Eco is again back to his ruthless neutrality. No bad deed goes unpunished, and accordingly the object of Adso's affection comes to a sorry end, leaving for us the question whether Adso's sin is excusable.)

One exception to the general rule of neutrality is Eco's failure at hiding his underlying views of the debate that rages through the book (and of course has firm historical underpinning) about the poverty of Christ. Eco ensures that all sides of the debate are cloaked in hypocricy. Indeed, by destroying characters in the book closely aligned with a particularly violent faction of the poverty school, he ensures as always to keep his thumb on both sides of the scale. Ultimately, however, Eco's views poke through and the hypocricy allegations are most accute when Eco's laser is aimed at John and the anti-poverty school. In the scheme of things, this is not a big deal. But Eco sort of sets himself up. He is so adamant about remaining neutral, that his inability to do so in this one case feels like a failure. (Maybe it was deliberate for a reason that went over my head?)

Other than that, the only failure of the novel, in my opinion, is the transition between the narrator's description of the underlying story and his editorial comments made at the time of narration. The structure is that the novel is being written by an elderly monk about events that occurred 60 years before. The narrator never admits that he is paraphrasing or giving general descriptions. To the contrary, he purports to be describing the events and conversations in almost exact detail, because of the vivid memory of the wretched events. But of course this requires too much suspension of disbelief. It might not be that way if the narrator did not also take time to make comments on the events as understood through the filter of his 60 years of experience. But of course Eco needs him to do so. He gets caught in the switches.

Well, sorry for such a long review. Wait until you have the time to savor it before embarking on this novel. And give yourself some time after to think about it. It is well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Tremendous: an erudite page-turner
Review: I'd been putting off reading this for years, and when I finally started it, I kept berating myself for having missed it for so long. I couldn't put it down, given the many mysteries at work in the text and the engaging description of monastic medieval life--the latter wasn't something in which I had been particularly interested in before reading this novel, but nonetheless I found the beautiful level of detail absorbing. The various monks stood out as very real and defined charcters, and the historical background material (while initially extremely complex and offputting) became more engaging as I went.

Some of the bites Eco didn't quite manage to chew in this were the long, medievalesque catalogues, which he explained in his postscript he felt were essential to capture the flavor of the period but seemed neither particularly well done nor very interesting. To quote Sally from PEANUTS, though, I just bleeped right over them, and all was well. I highly recommend this novel for fans of historical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Stat pristina nomine rosa
Review: This was enjoyable, with some ome the fun coming from how-clever-we-are-to-be-reading-this. I'm intrigued by the reviewers from different countries. One Italian reviewer comments that it is more difficult in Italian and in fact I noticed that the translation by Weaver abridges considerably. Was it dumbed down for English monoglots? Surely "stat pristina rosa nomine nuda tenemus" should be translated "If the pure name of the rose (that is to say the rose deprived of its smell and color)stands, all we hold is the naked name of the rose. Try Frayn's "Headlong" for an explanation of nominalism (and for piling in the cultural references). "Island of the Day Before" was more difficult for me to finish. Du ho - maybe I'm not smart enough.