Baudolino

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, multi-faceted tale
Review: "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco is a beguiling novel full of riddles and half-truths. What begins as a fairly standard, albeit engaging, work of historical fiction, quickly transforms into a work of almost surreal imagination. Touching upon every imaginable mythos of the Middle Ages, from the Holy Grail to the kingdom of Prester John, to the Old Man of the Mountain and the dimensions of the Earth, Eco has created a travelogue that is completely believable, and yet must be an almost complete fabrication.

The tale is recounted by the eponymous Baudolino, adopted son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick, and by his own admission, something of a ne'er do well. However, he is also a devoted son, and is determined to do his part to ensure that greater glory of his adoptive father. After having the legend of Prester John imparted to him by one of Frederick's advisors, Baudolino is convinced of its truth, and moreover is certain that a union with this magisterial Christain kingdom is the perfect way to secure Frederick's glory. Unfortunately, no proof of this John's kingdom exists, so Baudolino determines to fabricate a letter from Prester John that will prove his existence to Frederick, and which will convince him seek John's kingdom. There is no shame in this act because Baudolino, being utterly convinced of the truthfulness of his sources, is certain that Frederick will find Prester John.

At this point it seems that "Baudolino" will in some way be the opposite of Eco's "Focault's Pendulum". In this instance, instead of creating truth (or at least a perception of truth) out what were thought to be flights of fancy, Baudolino is striving to create proof of something he believes to exist through a work of pure fiction. Thus, through the first half of the book, the reader is left with the impression that this will be another secret history. Furthermore, this suspicion is born out by the fact that the protagonists are constantly inventing "holy" relics in order to further their respective causes. This jives with Eco's genteel, but well know, differences with the Catholic Church; his beliefs can only be reinforced by his playful, at will creation of holy relics.

To a point, that may have been Eco's goal, and it is certainly a centerpiece of the novel, but when Baudolino actually sets out in search of Prester John, things become a bit more muddled. He recounts creatures and places that the 21st century reader knows never existed, so the question then becomes, is Baudolino still lying, or is something deeper at work? Before I attempt to answer that question I feel I should add that it need not even be approached by the reader. Eco's creation, while not rooted in fact is utterly engaging and completely believable within the confines of the book. If one approaches "Baudolino" as a twelfth century travelogue, and not as the creation of Eco, it can be approached much like the travels of Sinbad, or the tales of King Arthur.
That said, there is plenty of room for conjecture on Eco's writing. My personal opinion is that "Baudolino" is doing one of two things, either he is 1. continuing his invention so that he might reflect some glory back on to his beloved Frederick, or 2. his own life is so wrapped up in his fabrication, he cannot separate reality from fiction and remain sane. Or perhaps both are true and so intertwined as to be unrecognizable. Certainly, Baudolino's fabricated letter echoes repeatedly throughout the latter half of the book, and it is entirely possible that having failed his father at the end, he feels he has no choice but to transform the fiction into reality. Alternately, there are strong reflections of Baudolino's greatest regrets in his narrative. In particular (and without giving anything away) I would point the reader to the similarities to a satyr Baudolino encounters and his premature child. Whatever his ultimate intention, Baudolino's tale is undeniably imbued with his regrets.

In the end, I suspect that Baudolino has become more comfortable in his invention than he is in reality. At the end of his life, he has become the lies by which he lived his life; the truth is uncomfortable and doesn't seem to make sense. When one considers the backdrop of upheaval against which this novel takes place, and Baudolino's supreme love for Frederick, such a state of mind, while deluded, doesn't seem entirely unreadable.

Finally, I would like to add that while "Baudolino" is as erudite as Eco's other works with which I am familiar ("The Name of the Rose" and "Focault's Pendulum") it struck me as much more approachable. In particular, the verbal gymnastics that made "Focault's Pendulum" such a dense minefield of puzzles has been abandoned for a much more stylish, stripped down prose. While Eco still displays his mastery of the written word, no longer does he use three words where one will suffice.

The end result of these elements is a fascinating novel that is both approachable and filled with mystery. Even as it entertains, "Baudolino" offers a multitude of avenues to explore between the lines. I suspect that any ten readers will have ten completely differing interpretations of this novel, but I am equally certain that they will all agree that "Baudolino" is a wonderful work of literature that is well worth spending time with. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition

Rating:
Summary: Baudolino, the most consumate lier of all times. Or not?
Review: Baudolino is a very interesting book and follows the tradition of the historical italian novelist Umberto Ecco, who sprinkles the reader with a lot of erudiction and historical facts. When writting this book , he even invented a very particular language, which is used in the very first pages and which is an admixture of Greek, Latin, German and many languages the author is acquainted with in his capacity as a renowed linguist.

What makes this book diferent from almost everything else is that everything written comes out of the mind of the very prolific book character Baudolino, who, if we take him solely by his words, had met all the relevant/important historical characters of his time and was present at all the relevant places where History develops. Constantinopla, The Holy Grail, Popes, Emperors and Heroes, weird creatures, are all some of the many ingredients of this fictional story and in the end one has a feeling that what happened did happen only in Baudolino's mind. Or was he telling the truth from the start? Read the book and make up your mind for yourself!! You will not be let down.

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Summary: Eco fantasy
Review: This is fantastic book full of interseting elements. Young Baudolino is a magic person. Time is magic too-middle age. I recommend it to everyone, especially for people who likes fantasy. It reminds me "Narrenturm" by polish fantasy master Sapkowski.

Rating:
Summary: A good tale by Umberto Eco
Review: This is an interesting read.

Baudolino, by Umberto Eco, is a tale of grand adventure and intrigue: the setting is in Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire during the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

The story is well written and interesting: it moves at a good pace and procedes to a definitive ending.(unlike "Foucault's Pendulum", which had so many blind alleys and dead ends, that I had trouble keeping interest)

If you like Umberto Eco's style of writing then you will enjoy this book. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: a thick hearty stew with a few choice pieces
Review: I have to admit, this is one was a bit of disappointment. I also have to admit that the disappointment probably has more to do with me than the author. As is his wont, Eco projects a lot of the ideas he presented in his various non-fictional work onto a fictional setting. Having read a lot of those works, a good deal of the novel was just regurgitating.
The book is enjoyable, even if some reader might find it difficult to get into. It is humorous, erudite, and full of fun tidbits. Style-wise this is probalby most similar to Eco's "Name of the Rose" -- his best known novel. However, I would still recommend any of his other fictional books over this one.
[More detail below]
Abundant in rich historical detail, Eco returns to some of his favourite themes -- Babel, Historical Hoaxes, Heresies, as well as his native city. The translation was excellent, as usual by William Weaver, but the story itself is by necessity long. I could not really find too many faults with any particular periods of protagonist's life the book covers, but somehow the narration was listless and aimless. Indeed, that could adequately describe many a life, and may have been intended as such, but does not make for the most exciting reading. We start at the end, chronologically, jump to the beginning, and work our way forward to the sacking of Constantinople. Eco seems to enjoy the trappings of each mini-era, of each place and time too much to move along. The overarching theme of Pr. Johannan is presented early, but does not really get going until the 2nd half of the book. As a reader I just did not feel in a hurry either. For whatever reason I could not find myself believing in the relationship between Barbarossa and Baudolino, and so a lot of motivation Baudolino has did not really work for me. It might well go better for you.

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Summary: A Tangled Web
Review: Unlike other reviewers, I do not have a foundation of Eco, as this is my first attempt to read him. Some have said that this novel is far more accessible than his others. Having owned a copy of Island of the Day Before for 3 years now and never getting past page 4....I must confess that this novel pulled me in almost immediately; so much so that it took me only 5 days to finish it.

Baudolino is a 'retelling' , of sorts, of the history of Constantinople; of myths and fables surrounding the former city; of Emporer Frederik Barbarossa; of the Holy Grail; of the extinction of the mythical Unicorn, and so much more. Packaging so many different tales of wonder into one novel, Eco succeeds as keeping a focused, discernible narrative throughout, the life of Baudolino as witness, interpreter, and chronicler of all these events.

Adopted at an early age by the Emporer, Baudolino adapts easily to a more privileged life than that of a poor man's child. While not forgetting his heritage, Baudolino makes use of his new station and ventures to Paris to continue his studies. While there, he meets other youths who are to become life-long companions. The Poet, who apparently never writes a line of original verse, being on of the most prevalent and influential of his companions, and one of the most developed characters other than the narrator.

Baudolino returns to the court of the Emporer, having learned to craft fanciful and believable tales to delight and enthrall others, and making use of this skill so far as to set off on a quest to find the fabled 'Prestor John' and bring the Holy Grail to him. Neither, of course, are factual to this tale, but Baudolino does not let that deter him, or his companions, from their quest.

Following the death of the Emporer under questionable circumstances, Baudolino and company are flung into a further mission, to recover the 'Grail', which has disappeared, along with one of their traveling companions.

Here the book delves into mythical territory, as Baudolino and company encounter beings and creatures that only fantasy can create and sustain. But as most of Baudolino's life is wrapped up in fantasy that he has created, none of it seems anything but commonplace to him and his fellow travelers.

While I am not a fan of fantasy novels, this fits seamlessly into the story told, as in describing this type of journey into a 'fantasy' land, of course the details are made up and embellished to the best ability of the author of the story. Eco, through Baudolino's voice, creates a wonderous land of creatures, places, and events that let the imagination soar into lands that most leave behind with their childhoods. This story, while mostly invention, touches upon many factual themes, people, and events. It informs, enlightens, and best of all entertains with what could be a dry, turgid history lesson, no matter how colorful the history of Constantinople. The blending of actual history with myth, and the adept imagination of Eco, works on many levels.

I highly recommend this book as a starting point for those interested in reading Umberto Eco. While purportedly not as well-crafted as Focault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose (two more Eco novels that I will now have to investigate) it is a well-written and highly enjoyable foray into myth, fantasy, legend, and fact.

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Summary: Vintage Eco--To Be Reread and Treasured
Review: Umberto Eco's novels are so full of ideas that after finishing each of his three greatest ones--THE NAME OF THE ROSE, FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, and now BAUDOLINO--I immediately read it again. THE NAME OF THE ROSE drew me because my own Medieval studies have focused on fourteenth century heresy and social justice movements, because I too love Sherlock Holmes and "got" the humorous references, and because Eco's heart and soul are so clearly liberal and humanist, my own chosen path through life.

The dazzling FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, which I consider his greatest novelistic achievement, is the most penetrating study in fictional form of our sad and comical human propensity of drawing conclusions out of nothing more than our imagination--a view of history as the product of multiple con-games. Eco's latest, BAUDOLINO, follows in the path of FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM and is the wittiest of the three, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. It has the ambience of a science fiction novel about "wonders to be visited out there." Even so, its historical setting is real enough, the time of the Fourth Crusade and the destruction of Christian Constantinople, but like FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, its primary theme is not history but the enormous power of the imagination to make history.

Although in third person, Baudolino, the greatest con-artist of all, is telling his story to another, much as Marco Polo did. That's where his picaresque imagination takes off, and ours with him. We travel from wartorn rural Italy to scholastic Paris, then on to Constantinople and a Central Asia of the imagination. We meet the Old Man of the Mountain and his hashish-eating Assassins, and nearly all the strange human-monsters of Pliny and Mandeville, who in this novel have personalities and motivations that are quite human--but never the sought-after Prester John. The conclusion is seamless with the story, and entirely satisfying. To present his hero's travels (and we are free to conclude that Baudolino never truly traveled anywhere beyond Constantinople except in his head), Eco weaves together the related Medieval accounts of Prester John, Sindbad the Sailor and Sir John de Mandeville, and to some extent stirs in Marco Polo. It's a wonderful conceit to make Baudolino and his friends the authors of Prester John's Letter--although in a fascinatingly roundabout way.

The Prester John, Sindbad and Mandeville legends clearly owe their wonders to Pliny the Elder's gullible reports of the Mysterious East. Marco's travelogue is soberer, but many historians doubt that he ever went to China, and attribute the book to his father's and uncle's stories plus self-aggrandizing imagination. Yes, we always come back to imagination!

BAUDOLINO is a troubling, joyous book, which is no contradiction. It discloses every human weakness, but also every kind of courage and persistence. It will cheer you and give you hope that dreams and imagination might just change history.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as other Eco novels
Review: I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed by this novel and I say this after having read all of Eco's other novels over the years. The sub plot with the Hepatia kept me interested for awhile, but the central device of having Baudolino narrate his entire story while under siege in Istanbul didn't hold up. It's as if Eco needs lots of complicated narrative devices when sometimes they actually interfere with the telling of the story. Not that the novel isn't extremely clever, historically accurate (although I'm hardly a scholar of that period) and captivating in parts with its erudition, but sometimes it felt like knowledge more to show off than for its own sake. Parts of the middle of the novel are actually downright boring and with the whole murder plot, the novel turns into a bit of a shaggy dog story. Devout Eco fans should give it a try and will enjoy many parts, but as a whole, it's slow, a bit tedious in parts and overly pedantic. It's one of those novels you'll be glad you read, but it may not seem so until you've plowed through it.

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Summary: Candide Revisited
Review: In Voltaire's Candide a motley group of characters traipse around the world encountering one disaster after another. Candide, although structured as a comic adventure, had as its real purpose the ridicule and savaging of the Catholic church.

Eco's Baudolino has a similar purpose: to ridicule and savage the Christian faith, especially its reliance on relics, and the brutality of the Christian knights toward their kinsman of the same faith. However, Baudolinos story has a special charm in that we participate in some actual history of the period (the Fourth Crusade).

Unfortunately, I was put off by the many half-human creatures and monsters Eco creates for Baudolino to encounter. I kept trying to understand why the author felt compelled to create such characters when the historical narrative was interesting enough. For me the creatures were distracting or, in the case of the beautiful female satyr, whom Baudolino romances, disgusting.

Although Baudolino's adventures have much more depth and interest than Candide's, the unreal creatures in Baudolino left me with an unsatisfactory feeling.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely enjoyable
Review: First, you have to enjoy medieval setting and mind-set to enjoy this book. It is a playful romp through the stories, legends, and mythos that formed the mindset of 1200. The sense of wonder and mystery expressed by the characters is joyous. (Imagine spending an entire evening debateing the dimensions of Solomen's castle!) Plus it examines the making of history. Sometimes, is history only a matter of who tells the better sotries and lies? All in all, great fun even if you have to work at bit.