The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco | 1980 | HarperVia | Paperback $ 16.99

The year is 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon — all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”

In my quest to consume a beautiful variety of greatest-of-all-time-must-read literature, I had to find at least a few books that could be considered classics of the mystery genre. The Name of the Rose is perhaps one of the most recently published of the titles on my list, but it’s so unique and has been so widely read that it certainly counts as a classic, in my opinion.

This book is, at its foundation, a mystery story. But that mystery story is inextricably intertwined with stories about history, politics, religion, and even the nature of books themselves. 

I find myself struggling to rate this one. I probably missed a significant amount of the content, especially amongst the nitty-gritty religio-philosophical arguments, either due to my sophomoric baseline understanding of the topics or plain old inattention or both. (In my defense, I was rushing a bit to finish reading it before it was due back at the library, because someone else had it on hold and it would’ve been rude to make them wait.)

I’m betting there were also plenty of missed literary references that better informed readers might have enjoyed, which instead simply whooshed right over my oblivious head. And yet, I came out of the other side of the book feeling just a tiny bit more knowledgeable about a handful of niche little things and, perhaps more importantly, nicely entertained regardless. I felt almost like emerging from an art museum, impressed by the detail of a huge mural or tapestry, and yet knowing that I’d only managed to appreciate a limited part of the work.

In short, this was a book that made me feel a little bit undereducated but was somehow still pretty enjoyable to read. I think I want to read it again in the future, but at a more leisurely pace and with more attention to detail along the way.

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Links:

• Review at Kirkus
• Obituary for Umberto Eco at The Guardian
• Interview with Umberto Eco at The Paris Review

Publication information: Eco, Umberto. The name of the rose. New York, NY: HarperVia, 2014. Print.
Source: Public library.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products