"The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco

I want to talk about one of my favorite books, the famous novel by Umberto Eco "The Name of the Rose."

If you want to learn about the Middle Ages - read "The Name of the Rose". When you finish reading, you will get a complete excursion through the Middle Ages, and not by facts, names and figures, but we are talking about the spirit itself, the absolutely indescribable medieval "cosmos", the worldview that heroes, and the novel is written in the first person, they tell us in long conversations, in excerpts from books, in a huge number of interwoven citations, mentions of holy fathers, theological disputes, philosophical things. In all this, Umberto Eco is a master.

Only I beg you, do not take the film with the wonderful Sean Connery for the novel, because the film is such a Hollywood postcard. In this film, even a girl who is burned at the stake, is saved and apparently, based on the latest shots, will marry a young, charming protagonist. And Sean Connery looks at it all with such a charming smile. The film is remarkable because it sounds a lot of Latin, the atmosphere of the book is well conveyed, but the book does not reflect in any way.

In the book there is detective intrigue, it is very strong. You will certainly want to know who the killer is and even if you guess in advance - it will not explain anything, since there are many deaths, a terrible mess, secrets, insidiousness, intertwined intrigues of heretics and some mystical things ... there will be something to think about the detective's. And there is another part of this novel, it conveys the way the characters see around themselves, the universe, for what they live, why they pursue their goals, build a career, achieve diplomatic success, get education and what they kill.

There are a lot of images in the book that will not leave anyone indifferent. Initially, Eko himself admitted that the novel was called "Abbey of Murders", then he refused this name, as from a straightforward one. But the murders that go in exact accordance with the book of the apocalypse, depicting each of the seven carots, really make a huge impression.

In this novel I am fascinated by everything, how dialogues are constructed and how medieval literature is used, which I know after double or triple distillation, of course I do not read in these languages. In the Italian original, which is very close to Latin, used a lot of Latin quotations.

Eko has an unconditional gift to embody the world of the Middle Ages and he writes in his afterword that the Middle Ages are his everyday everyday life, he lives in it, so it is so easy for him to write about it. And he says that he could not write such a novel from modern life. Then the truth was able to, he had a novel "Foucault's Pendulum".

Returning to my feelings from the novel. I do not know many books that invite me to a different historical world. But Umberto Eco's novel does not have an enlightening, explicit popularization purpose, because it is intended for the reader who is ready to overcome all these medieval scholarship passages, who in pursuit of a detective plot, the desire to find out the solution in the "murder abbey", will reach the end narration, but at the same time he completely misses through these medieval realities, all scientific disputes, all tragedies of heroes. He is related to the image of the boy Adson, whose eyes all this is seen. The fact is that he is still a young man, still only a disciple of his mentor William and this English monk teaches him a lot, many retells. In this way, we learn what every medieval person should know, because we are invisibly present, as readers and listeners in their conversations, in the process of education and upbringing, the formation of personality.

When you read "The Name of the Rose" everything comes to life that you knew about the Middle Ages, all that you have ever seen or read in this novel converges as a focus. Now if you can introduce such a concept, then this is a focal book, it gathers rays from different places and concentrates them. No other novel by Umberto Eco, I would not say in full such a book, "The Name of the Rose" stands alone in this respect.

"The name of the rose" is a novel designed for the most diverse reader. Those who want detective intrigue in the spirit of investigation, in the spirit of Gothic horror novels, please, "The Name of the Rose" is simply created for you. Those who want to read about different cultural realities and can be revived by some characters in the history of literature, the history of theology, philosophy, in this book you will find food for a curious mind and receive a lot of pleasure. And those who want to first get acquainted with the work of Umberto Eco, if you have not read it yet, boldly pick up the "Name of the Rose". Overcoming this novel, you will understand how he writes and I hope that you will remain admired, like me. It's an amazing book.

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