Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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235 of 238 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too Smart to Be A Novel, August 4, 2003
Remember when your parents and teachers would try to get you to read? The favored line is that reading "can take you anywhere in the world". Well, that sounds nice, but it never really rang true, especially as books offer only a short term separation from the problems of real life. Well, Umberto Eco's epic novel The Name of the Rose might be one of those few novels that really approaches the suggested transportation powers books can possess. It is such a "thick" novel. Intellectually, it is staggering in its complexity and fluidity. The reader can simply marvel at the range of ideas and logical conversation that Eco includes in this novel. As other reviewers have pointed out, you really do feel smarter upon finishing it. That is the first theme of the book that strikes you, but many more are out there for you to explore.The actual story of The Name of the Rose (sometimes the story gets lost in the novel) is a classic murder mystery, set in a 14th century Italian abbey. Because of recent political and religious strife in the surrounding areas, the competing powers of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Papal authorities both see importance in this area. Rumors of heresy within the walls abound, a mark the Franciscan friars try their best to avoid. Our main character is the former inquisitor William of Baskerville, an extremely intelligent and learned official, under the employment of the Emperor. With him is his faithful assistant Adso, who is our narrator. Their assignment is to make sense of the conflicting stories people tell about what is in the monastery. Just as they start their investigation, monks start getting killed, in brutal but symbolic ways. William and Adso are forced to use all their powers of logic and deduction to begin to piece together the clues. The clues point to a dark secret inside the heralded library of the abbey. There, monks toil day after day, reproducing the classics and more modern works. This is where civilization was being saved at the time, in small monasteries which kept alive science and ancient literature. However, somethings that are hidden away in the library are not meant to be seen, and a strangely rigid library control apparatus shields certain works from William. As the murders and the obstinacy of the librarians continue, William becomes more suspicious of the abbey's leadership at large. A conspiracy begins to emerge, one dedicated to the many scriptural and architectural secrets possessed by the Italian abbey. It quickly becomes apparent to William and the reader that what is involved here is much more important than the political issues of the day. The pure historical swath of The Name of the Rose is hard to even summarize, as it is just immeasurably grand. The reader learns of the medieval church and of a Europe torn apart by theological argument. Messiahs and prophets tour the land, with inquisitors and church officials constantly at work stamping them out. Battle between the secular and divine worlds begin to emerge, as the Popes become more and more involved in the everyday politics of Europe. Eco shows the reader how important ideas were at this time, as theological speculation was by far the most critical arena of thought in that violent era. Ideas concerning the divinity of Christ, the power of the Popes, and the importance of older, "pagan" philosophies were constantly fought over. William is a wonderful guide, as his mind is the window into the age. He is the embodiment of learned divinity, torn between the complex humanism of the ancients and the compelling reality of the present. He is a man of his time, a valuable tool for readers so much removed. The writing itself is absolutely magnificent, as every scene, every setting, every character is rendered in eminently readable caricatures. It's just a novel you shake your head when you put it down, knowing you never will fully understand the brilliance of this book. Go get it, now!
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236 of 250 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Rewarding but Painstaking Read, August 1, 2000
One reviewer here on Amazon was right on the money when he said that reading a novel by Umberto Eco instantly raises your IQ by a couple of points. The Name of the Rose has been my first encounter with Eco's work, and I was for the most part very impressed with his skillful murder mystery set in a 14th century Italian monastery.The novel works on many levels. It is a compelling murder mystery, as young narrator Adso of Elk accompanies the wise William of Baskerville as he uses logic and semiotics to not only solve a murder mystery, but to decipher labrynths and hidden secrets of the vast monastery library. Interwoven with the murder mystery is a virtual course on philosophy and late Middle Ages religion, as Eco provides detailed accounts of the histories of various sects, includes scholarly debate on topics such as the poverty of Christ, and a history of the Catholic Church leading to the establishment of a papacy in Avignon, France. One is reminded of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as William and Adso use logic and determination to piece together numerous bizarre deaths and occurences at the Abbey, while encountering obstacles and outright hostility by the Abbot and his librarian, to name a couple. The setting of the novel, and the glimpse into a culture that few of us can even imagine, is reason enough to read The Name of the Rose. The book is not without its faults however. I think the book should stand alone, (ie you should not have to buy a separate "reader's guide") and I was very frustrated at the numerous Latin phrases that are included throughout the novel with no translation. Perhaps this is more the fault of the translator than Eco himself, but it makes for a difficult reading experience. One does not need to know the meaning of every word in the book to follow the plot, but it is aggravating to stumble across paragraph-long passages or insciptions that are completely foreign to most readers, without so much as a footnote. There are also fairly long digressions involving topics of religious debate or history of minor sects that, in my opinion, were extraneous and contributed little overall to the success of the novel. However, overall, I thought the novel was rewarding, both informative and suspenseful.
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece., October 10, 1999
By A Customer
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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