The Name of the Rose (edit title)

• Rated 5 stars

“Tive não só a oportunidade de ler o livro como ver o filme. Adorei a actuação do Sean Connery no filme, está espectacular a actuação dele.”

• Rated 4 stars

“In the year 1327, Brother William of Baskerville is assigned an investigation of a possible heresy in a wealthy Italian Abbey, Abbaye de la Source, somewhere between Pompeii and Passy.

The Novel is narrated by a young Benedictine novice and William’s assistant, Adso of Melk. The story occurs in seven days of 1327, and the chapters are related to the daily monastic life of a Benedictine convent’s canonical hours: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Compline. The book is 503 pages long, so it comes to around 72 pages/day.

The religious bacground is ruled by the protagonists Pope John XXII (1249 – December 4, 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), who was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy. (1309-1377), elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France. Like his predecessor, Clement V, he centralized power and income in the Papacy, living a princely life in Avignon and spending a lot of money for his court and his wars.

The Pope opposed Louis IV of Bavaria as emperor, and Louis, in turn invaded Italy, and set up an antipope, Nicholas V. Pope John XXII had set a a constitution concerning the taxae sacrae poenitentiariae in which the pope exploited the sins of the religious in order to squeeze out more money by creating the indulgence. However the Franciscans had a vow of poverty and opposed this doctrine, thus the Pope wanted to declare them heretics because the Franciscan belief was not good for his business.

So William of Baskerville arrives to the Abbaye de la Source to see if a mediation is possible between the two factions, since there is a suspicion that some of the members of the abbey are against the indulgences.

His mission is overshadowed by a series of bizarre deaths and accusations of homosexuality between certain monks—so Brother William, aided by Adso, turn detectives. Their mission now is to find the killer before the two factions: the Italians who believe in the vow of poverty, and the French who want to continue the practice of indulgence arrive for a meeting to consider a compromise.

William’s tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistened edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. William 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. His foes are secrecy, religious rules and a secret desire to guard the library—for only the librarian can control the knowledge that leaves the convent.

It is no accident that the book starts out as a mystery and continues to deceive the reader until the climactic end—until the reader realizes that this is a mystery in which very little is discovered and the good detective is defeated. It is no accident, either, that the book should have been edited—it contains long didactic passages that even the book editors requested be edited out. The author’s explanation for boring you to death with them is that if somebody wanted to enter the abbey and live there for seven days—he had to accept the abbey’s slow pace. Therefore there are several hundred pages that are purposely left as a penance or an initiation. Unfortunately for us, the readers, the penance is almost all the way to the end—until we discover that the historical premise and the crimes had nothing to do with the book. But rather it was a theological debate on the role of laughter on religious doctrine.

“But if one day, somebody, brandishing the words of the Philosopher (Aristotle) and therefore speaking as a philosopher, were to raise the weapon of laughter to the condition of subtle weapon, if the rhetoric of (religious) conviction were replaced by the rhetoric of mockery, if the topics of the impatient dismantling and upsetting of every holy and venerable image...You yourself (William) would be caught in the devil’s plot.” page 476.

At the end, when seven murders have occurred to hide a book by Aristotle that praises laughter William concludes: “Now the Antichrist is truly at hand, because no learning will hinder him anymore.”
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• Rated 4 stars

“One of the only mysteries I ever liked. I always want to see the labyrinth when I go to places. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“I love this book. I can see why the idea that Eco plagerized it has some traction, because it's not much like his other writing. Except the list porn.”

• Rated 2 stars

“I know this novel is supposed to be considered a masterpiece of suspense, intrigue, and prose. And, I know that I'm suppose to worship the genius behind such a literary tour-de-force. But, I found this book boring, uneventful and painful to finish. Prehaps the original untranslated version in Italian is better. Oh well, to each their own.
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• Rated 5 stars

“A brilliant, but complicated who done it! And the film did do the book justice..”

• Rated 5 stars

“El nombre de la Rosa es uno de los mejores relatos de suspenso. A pesar de esclarecer el crimen, la obra describe muy bien la cotidianida de los bibliotecarios y archivistas de la Edad Media, por lo que es una obra de lectura obligada para los interesados en libros, bibliotecas e historia de la lectura.”

• Rated 5 stars

“this book was amazing... i read it back in high school and it was one of the first mysteries i read where i felt like i learned something while i read it... it was also one of the first mysteries that truly had an ending that surprised me. i felt like it was well written and exciting. still one of my favorites... the ending is brilliant!”

• Rated 4 stars

“Imaginé con perfecta claridad la vida en un monasterio. Muchísima información interesante, aunque con algunos pasajes tediosos.”

• Rated 5 stars

“The year is 1327….a fierce power struggle is taking place between the newly elected Pope, John the XXII, and Louis the Bavarian, newly elected King of the Holy Roman Empire, over the theology of Jesus. Brother William of Baskerville is dispatched by the Pope to investigate allegations of heresy made against Franciscan Monks. His mission changes however when upon his arrival at the monastery he is informed of the mysterious death of one of the order’s members just days before. Thus William, at the Abbot’s request, must turn detective to solve this crime. William possesses a wry sense of humor and an exceptional deductive ability, which he will need in order to solve this mystery. With the help of his scribe, Adso, William searches deep into the secrets of the abbey and their mysterious library, to which only a privileged few are allowed admission and where secrets are protected at any cost.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is one of the most interesting and well-written murder mysteries that I have read in years. Eco has done a fabulous job of creating a two-man team that truly rivals Doyle’s Holmes and Watson. What really stands out is Eco’s ability to set up the main plot with an authentic description of the theological battles which enveloped the early Church. Division theology is as common now as it was then, the difference being we no longer sentence people to death for disagreeing with us. My favorite parts were the long and at times ridiculous debates the monks had over such mundane topics as why Jesus slept in Bethany while visiting Jerusalem. This book gets two thumbs up in my opinion and I only wish Eco had turned this into a series.
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