thomcat's review against another edition
2.0
The main characters are collectors of knowledge about Templars and other related groups, so this novel also collects an unwieldy amount of knowledge around the plot, primarily in dialog. This diffuses (or defuses ) what tension there is, slowing the pace to a crawl.
The first 580 pages are told in flashback, our author hiding in a darkened museum and waiting for midnight. Chapters are short, with both dialog and investigation. Around page 400, they hatch the Plan - collect all of the knowledge they have into one grand scheme. Templars and Satanists, Rosicrucians and Jesuits, Masons and the Illuminati, Hollow Earth and Ultima Thule, and even Cthulhu makes an appearance. This scheme goes awry when an unlikely group demands more knowledge.
Too much dialog and too many ideas. Someone who read this copy before me tried highlighting and annotating, but gave up 60 pages in. When asked about Dan Brown, Eco stated that he was a character in this book, also lost in the conspiracies. That said, at least Brown's books maintain an exciting pace. It's been said that this is a parody of the pursuit of the occult - I just wish it weren't so ponderous.
The first 580 pages are told in flashback, our author hiding in a darkened museum and waiting for midnight. Chapters are short, with both dialog and investigation. Around page 400, they hatch the Plan - collect all of the knowledge they have into one grand scheme. Templars and Satanists, Rosicrucians and Jesuits, Masons and the Illuminati, Hollow Earth and Ultima Thule, and even Cthulhu makes an appearance. This scheme goes awry when an unlikely group demands more knowledge.
Too much dialog and too many ideas. Someone who read this copy before me tried highlighting and annotating, but gave up 60 pages in. When asked about Dan Brown, Eco stated that he was a character in this book, also lost in the conspiracies. That said, at least Brown's books maintain an exciting pace. It's been said that this is a parody of the pursuit of the occult - I just wish it weren't so ponderous.
johnfmcrae's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
tzatzou's review
4.0
Difficult but honestly one of the most iconic books I've ever read. This is the book that got me into reading tbh
starla's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Death, and Alcohol
sunn_bleach's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Oof owie my heart.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing and Murder
casualblasphemy's review
2.0
A series of cross- referential and self-referential in-jokes tied together by a plot that ends up getting lost amid all of the mystical detritus. If there was an index and I had 2 or 3 uninterrupted years in which to digest the thing, I might have enjoyed it more.
spookyuser's review against another edition
3.0
Um
I'm not even sure what to say. I feel like I need to read a book to understand what I just read. The beginning and ending were great, the end really great, the middle felt mostly like gibberish.
This was literally the pepe silvia meme in book form https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia
I'm not even sure what to say. I feel like I need to read a book to understand what I just read. The beginning and ending were great, the end really great, the middle felt mostly like gibberish.
This was literally the pepe silvia meme in book form https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia
erikars's review
2.0
Sometimes, you can read a book and see how other people like it without being terribly fond of it yourself. This was my experience with Foucault's Pendulum.
I think it was partially structural. I tend to get less enjoyment from books that start at the climax and then spend a lot of time looking back to how that climate was reached. I also tend to like a good dose of story in my fiction, and the story was spread thin here.
Overall, not a bad read, but not really my thing.
I think it was partially structural. I tend to get less enjoyment from books that start at the climax and then spend a lot of time looking back to how that climate was reached. I also tend to like a good dose of story in my fiction, and the story was spread thin here.
Overall, not a bad read, but not really my thing.
scarlet_begonia21's review
4.0
I don’t really know what to think of this book. It’s brilliant, genius- but I didn’t fully enjoy it until the last 100 pages or so. For the first half of the book Eco is setting our scene with historical backstories about various occult groups and secret societies. This knowledge is imparted to us through a plot; we start with our narrator, Casaubon, a graduate student in Milan writing his thesis on the Knights Templar. We meet two editors, Belbo and his associate Diotallevi, who become important later. At one point Casaubon lives in Brazil for a few years. Anyway, through the reading of manuscripts at the editors’ publishing house, or discussions on Casaubon’s thesis, or by participating in various occult rituals, we read several hundred pages of encyclopedic chapters on the Knights Templar, Kabbalah, Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Jesuits, etc. It all fits into a narrative but is still a lot of history packed into these pages. The first half of the novel is therefore very slow; it took me several days to get through.
Right around halfway through the novel a more interesting plot emerges- just when you’re wondering what this is all about. Driving yourself mad trying to keep up with the facts, you’re now thrown deeper into a world of conspiracies and our trio (Casaubon, Belbo, and Diotallevi) decide to publish an anthology book on occult groups and secret societies. At first mocking these conspiracy stories and their lunatic writers (who they call the Diabolicals), they start to formulate The Plan. They decide that they can combine various pieces of all these fanatical writings - connecting them at random- to one larger overarching conspiracy history. This new false history that they are creating (The Plan) is captivating at first, but then it starts to drive them truly mad. And then it starts to be real. This story, therefore, is about what happens when society is looking for the next plan or text of enlightenment to believe. There is the rush one gets from feeling initiated into something secret yet important, and as if there is some key to give meaning to our life.
I love Umberto Eco’s writing. The Name of the Rose is probably #1-3 on my all time top favorite books. I liked the writing here but couldn’t get into it as much. I had many favorite lines, and passages that I highlighted excitedly; plus, I learned so many new words. I saved them on my kindle- words of the occult or academia that I may never use but still wanted to know such as: theurgy, hermetic, grimoire, ossuary, telluric, geomancy, metathesis (similar to metastasis), and sangfroid. I thought about concepts and themes I’ve never thought about before. I saw passages, in Eco’s amazing use of chapter epitaphs, from texts I never would think existed. Overall, it was very pedagogical and enlightening. But unlike his medieval mystery thriller (The Name of the Rose), I feel like this one is much more of an exposé on society than a mysterious puzzle. The characters themselves are building a puzzle, creating a fake Plan, putting pieces together. The reader is just watching on, bewildered. Eco was a professional semiotician, and in this text he is giving a grand critique on the way texts have meaning and how ideas and thought are formed in our society.
I once read an article with a quote from Eco about Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, saying that Dan Brown is like the characters in this novel who start believing in the occult. It is a sharp criticism on both the author and what our society will believe, given enough “evidence”/clues. I think it is very timely to a lot of what is going on in our society politically, where current anti-science agendas and strange conspiracy theories abound. There just seems to be a complete lack of rational thought sometimes, and I identified that among some of the Diabolicals, searching and stretching for pieces to meet their obscure jigsaw puzzle.
I liked it, but it’s not one of my favorites. And I really wish I had read this in my Postmodern Lit class so I could dig deeper and discuss Eco’s themes and critiques academically. For light/fun reading, I would not recommend it.
Right around halfway through the novel a more interesting plot emerges- just when you’re wondering what this is all about. Driving yourself mad trying to keep up with the facts, you’re now thrown deeper into a world of conspiracies and our trio (Casaubon, Belbo, and Diotallevi) decide to publish an anthology book on occult groups and secret societies. At first mocking these conspiracy stories and their lunatic writers (who they call the Diabolicals), they start to formulate The Plan. They decide that they can combine various pieces of all these fanatical writings - connecting them at random- to one larger overarching conspiracy history. This new false history that they are creating (The Plan) is captivating at first, but then it starts to drive them truly mad. And then it starts to be real. This story, therefore, is about what happens when society is looking for the next plan or text of enlightenment to believe. There is the rush one gets from feeling initiated into something secret yet important, and as if there is some key to give meaning to our life.
I love Umberto Eco’s writing. The Name of the Rose is probably #1-3 on my all time top favorite books. I liked the writing here but couldn’t get into it as much. I had many favorite lines, and passages that I highlighted excitedly; plus, I learned so many new words. I saved them on my kindle- words of the occult or academia that I may never use but still wanted to know such as: theurgy, hermetic, grimoire, ossuary, telluric, geomancy, metathesis (similar to metastasis), and sangfroid. I thought about concepts and themes I’ve never thought about before. I saw passages, in Eco’s amazing use of chapter epitaphs, from texts I never would think existed. Overall, it was very pedagogical and enlightening. But unlike his medieval mystery thriller (The Name of the Rose), I feel like this one is much more of an exposé on society than a mysterious puzzle. The characters themselves are building a puzzle, creating a fake Plan, putting pieces together. The reader is just watching on, bewildered. Eco was a professional semiotician, and in this text he is giving a grand critique on the way texts have meaning and how ideas and thought are formed in our society.
I once read an article with a quote from Eco about Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, saying that Dan Brown is like the characters in this novel who start believing in the occult. It is a sharp criticism on both the author and what our society will believe, given enough “evidence”/clues. I think it is very timely to a lot of what is going on in our society politically, where current anti-science agendas and strange conspiracy theories abound. There just seems to be a complete lack of rational thought sometimes, and I identified that among some of the Diabolicals, searching and stretching for pieces to meet their obscure jigsaw puzzle.
I liked it, but it’s not one of my favorites. And I really wish I had read this in my Postmodern Lit class so I could dig deeper and discuss Eco’s themes and critiques academically. For light/fun reading, I would not recommend it.