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Summary: On Eco's thinking while proccessing this book
Review: An extremely complicated story, if someone wants to go beyond the first level of understanding this book. Eco goes through an immense amount of information regarding hermeticism, history. Although the book carries several phrases and facts that require a quiet good background in semiotics, the description of those lack in beauty comparing them with ones from The Name Of The Rose.
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Summary: it should have been edited
Review: While reading this book I have been taking frequent breaks to work my way through a tall stack of scientific papers that have accumulated on my desk. If Eco's book was about epidemiology, I would not have noticed that I have been switching from fiction to scientific papers and vice versa. This illustrates book's main shortcoming: Eco's tome is thoroughly researched and well thought-out, but it suffers from the same affliction as does much of academic writing in that it is simply not good literature. Perhaps Eco was trying to write "Dumas Club"... If I was reviewing Eco's manuscript for a publisher, my advise would be to shorten the manuscript and try to make characters in it more human and compelling. The translator also goofed up in a couple of places and some of Eco's "scientific facts" are off the mark. Final advise to the prospective reader: read it during the darkest part of winter and be prepared to skip some of the boring laundry lists and displays or erudition.
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Summary: No one seems to understand this VERY important novel!
Review: Why does no one understand this novel? It's not about the historical references. You don't need to know anything about the Priory of Zion or the Hundred Years War or whatever. All you need to do is read the book and think about conspiracy theories. Are they compelling? Why? What about esotericism compells you? Then absorb the ending. What does Aglie's revelation MEAN? A whole lot, I'll tell you that. It's like 'The Sixth Sense' cubed as far as endings turning the whole story upside down. This book is nothing less than an encapsulation of the Christian mind, namely, the perfect innoculation against mystery and esotericism. Absorb its lessons and you will never wonder who runs the world or if there's a conspiracy or whatever. It won't matter.
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Summary: Occultists and Academics
Review: Reading the end of this book was a definite epiphany for me. I had just finished a postgraduate degree in English and found myself drawn into the story at a rapid rate. Three academics become convinced that they have discovered a once-every-120-years meeting of seemingly every secret society, occult sect, and cabal. As they combine a thousand threads of evidence, their efforts begin to mimic the goal of the occultists they are following: to become aware of the unknown, to be a member of the inner circle, to know the great secret. As I was about to enter a life in academia myself, I found this idea more than a little disturbing. While this is not a book for those who like straightforward mysteries with clear solutions, the book is stronger because it does not placate its readers with easy answers. Although it toys with the idea.
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Summary: Want Some Immersion?
Review: Read this, cover to cover. This was my first Eco read and it completely hooked me into his other works. I loved it. It takes some focus to stay with his many historical references but you get used to it and it becomes very enjoyable and entertaining. It is a completely different form of fiction than anything else I've ever read and will immerse you in its complex and weird story. History/Occult/Sci Fi fan? Give this a try.
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Summary: Let's be Honest!
Review: Just because a book is interlaced with a vast bank of intellectual data does NOT necessarily qualify it as a great read. To compare this book with Ulysses and War & Peace is a crime; those books were exceptionally well written. I personally believe that many readers praise this book simply to qualify themselves as 'advanced' intellectuals. Big deal! I have read the book and found it endowed with much knowledge but that did not make it a good read. Look at the other reviews and you'll find one reoccurring theme, "Patchy", "Choppy" etc..; I could not agree more. Let's face it people the Oxford English Dictionary is a complex, intellectually challenging publication, that does not mean I want to read it from cover to cover. If it's bragging rights you're looking for then read "Foucault's Pendulum." If its fine, eloquent writing you seek, save yourself the money!
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Summary: A pompous and inflated masturbatory exercise
Review: After reading and enjoying the Name of the Rose, I figured Eco's follow-up would be comparable. However, I found this book a big waste of my time. It is easily the most self-indulging book I've read. To those who would insinuate you need a vast education to appreciate the work, I would beg to differ. I am myself not exactly a stranger to issues of epistemology and pseudoscientific diatribes, and still I found this book PAINFUL to read! And I did read it all, BTW.It's egregiously abysmal!
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Summary: THEY made me write this review!
Review: Utterly paranoid, and brilliantly done. I'd at least heard of the Knights Templar, and the Ismaili [assassins] cult, but I've learned a great deal more about Medieval paranoia than one could imagine Eco could place into a single book. As another reader suggested, read it in Paris, but DO NOT read it on LSD, lest you panic at the sight of the Eiffel Tower. This has to be [fair warning] amongst the most convoluted books I've read. I wish I could write this perfectly
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Summary: read it in PARIS
Review: I read this book while in PARIS, where most of the plot takes place. It gives the book an eerie perspective, but one that should be experienced. If you want to fully appreciate it read it there, even for the second time. or third. eco is so complex there is no chance of ever getting all his stuff anyway.
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Summary: Complexity and patterns within the chaos, or is there ?
Review: Not for everyone, but for those with a taste for "wheels within wheels" there is nothing else quite like it though "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson is just as well done.
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