Name of the Rose Book

[Mark1970]

Wondering if anyone has read this book and would recommend? I know the film version was well regarded by many Catholics although there was an explicit sex scene some people felt uncomfortable with. Just wondering what the general consensus was about the book.

 

[7_Sorrows]

it is on my list of books to read.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Wondering if anyone has read this book and would recommend? I know the film version was well regarded by many Catholics although there was an explicit sex scene some people felt uncomfortable with. Just wondering what the general consensus was about the book.

I’ve read it a couple of times. It is very dense* but very good.

(* There are occasional (perhaps even frequent?) passages of untranslated Latin, Provencal, or other languages. The book itself, of course, is translated from the Italian)

tee

 

[Mintaka]

Eco wrote the book after being involved with a Beatus of Liebana art project which he did not enjoy. So among the other bits of medieval literary culture that he uses the book to get angry at, he creates a monastery that somewhat resembles Liebana and does some other stuff to get his own back.

However, the Name of the Rose ended up promoting Liebana, and Eco died on St. Beatus’ Day, so obviously the saint was not offended!

The book works as a mystery plain and simple, but there are a lot of injokes from all sorts of books from all sorts of times.

One of the things that the book talks about is the position of laughter in Medieval theology. Rather unfairly, Eco sets the book before Aquinas, so as to avoid quoting him on laughter and play, and he leaves out several Church Fathers and some important Biblical quotes that relate positively to laughter. The problem is that the usual Hebrew Bible word for laughter implies mockery, whereas the other Biblical words in Hebrew and Greek for cheerful laughter are translated differently, sometimes in a way that doesn’t sound like laughing. So don’t take that bit too seriously. It is part of his bad mood.

 

[EleanorArr]

An outstanding book - without question one of the best books I have ever read (and the film isn’t bad either - the aforementioned scene maybe aside). Umberto Eco’s death earlier this year, however ‘good an innings’ he had living into his 80s, is a tremendous loss to the literary and intellectual world.

 

[GEddie]

Whooh, I didn’t know he passed so recently!

I loved NOTR.. For me, it was just a very good intellectual mystery, as I have no great fluency in medieval thought. The book works well as such.

His other works are great as well.

ICXC NIKA

 

[RPRPsych]

It’s an excellent book, but keep in mind that it’s (a) rather heavy going at times, and (b) written by a lapsed Catholic, so don’t expect too much orthodoxy. (As for the scene you alluded to, it’s in the book, but no lurid detail is given - after all, the narrator is a young novice with a highly developed sense of modesty. )

Foucault’s Pendulum by the same author is arguably even better (and has a terrific message for our times), but it takes some time to get started.

 

[Mark1970]

It’s an excellent book, but keep in mind that it’s (a) rather heavy going at times, and (b) written by a lapsed Catholic, so don’t expect too much orthodoxy. (As for the scene you alluded to, it’s in the book, but no lurid detail is given - after all, the narrator is a young novice with a highly developed sense of modesty. )

Foucault’s Pendulum by the same author is arguably even better (and has a terrific message for our times), but it takes some time to get started.

I think there was a thread on CAF a few years ago about the film version, where some people had commented they felt there were anti-Catholic elements in it - but that may be because as you say Eco was a lapsed Catholic and not exactly presenting some of the characters in the best possible light. And maybe comments that “that scene” went a bit too far and perhaps wasn’t appropriate viewing material!