thedocument's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic. Part murder mystery, part history, part theological debate.
ayarezk's review against another edition
5.0
Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.
Although a lot of living things recognize patterns, humans may be the only ones to assign symbolic meaning — sometimes deeply nuanced or with powerful emotional content — to those patterns.
Human beings try too hard to decipher symbols and meaning, they feed off them, consume them, till nothing is left there to decipher, and they end up where they began, or worse....no meaning and exhausted futile endeavors.
Eco:
The title The Name of the Rose "came to me virtually by chance." In the Postscript to the Name of the Rose, Eco claims to have chosen the title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left".
Although a lot of living things recognize patterns, humans may be the only ones to assign symbolic meaning — sometimes deeply nuanced or with powerful emotional content — to those patterns.
Human beings try too hard to decipher symbols and meaning, they feed off them, consume them, till nothing is left there to decipher, and they end up where they began, or worse....no meaning and exhausted futile endeavors.
Eco:
The title The Name of the Rose "came to me virtually by chance." In the Postscript to the Name of the Rose, Eco claims to have chosen the title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left".
alibaba's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
geloesteknoten's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
pharmdad2007's review against another edition
2.0
This book was really hard for me to get in to! The underlying mystery story was very interesting, but there was so much other stuff going on that it felt disjointed. And by other stuff, I don't mean subplots or intermingled story lines, but long philosophical discussions, and lectures on the history of the papacy and the derivation of the papal authority, and detailed descriptions of the differences in the various orders of monks and their respective strengths and weaknesses. So in other words, just not my favorite book ever.
katdid's review against another edition
3.0
Don’t know how to describe this novel without using the word “weird”, except it’s not weird in a David Lynch way; just that it seems like such a strange mix of things. But then I was talking about it to a friend who described it as a product of its time. I said that I didn’t think it would get published today, let alone turned into a film(!) — and then I saw that it’s been re-made as a series(!!), so what do I know anyway. Murder-mystery set in a 14th century Italian abbey with a LOT of theological discussion — whole pages of it. I mean, really? And yet I did find the ending pretty satisfying to be honest. I was on the brink of giving up on this countless times ‘cause my kindle told me I’d only read say 30% and I could not imagine sticking with it twice over again. But it turns out that the ebook version I read had crazy formatting so that the novel ended, then came the preface(?!), and THEN the novel repeated itself all over again. Unless that was Eco’s intention, as a kind of 1980s version of Ali Smith. At any rate, I was stoked to hit like 52% and realise that I’d finished.
misslezlee's review against another edition
3.0
***CONTAINS SPOILERS ***
Rereading - the first time was over thirty years ago. I do not remember there being so much philosophizing, pages and pages of it that I mostly skipped. I did remember that the protagonist never found out the Name of the Rose ( but think I may be remembering that from the movie...) and also the conflagration at the very end. My original copy expired in a house fire while on loan to a friend, which I thought was a fitting end.
I think I enjoyed this book more the first time I read it because Game of Thrones didn’t yet exist and so the world in The Name of the Rose had no comparisons to hold against it. Now, we have a complicated, vast storyline, populated by every kind of denizen, and we’ve *seen* those worlds. And all the plotting, jostling for power, and, and, and... George R. R. Martin began writing A Game of Thrones in 1991. I bet he read this when it first came out in 1980.
Rereading - the first time was over thirty years ago. I do not remember there being so much philosophizing, pages and pages of it that I mostly skipped. I did remember that the protagonist never found out the Name of the Rose ( but think I may be remembering that from the movie...) and also the conflagration at the very end. My original copy expired in a house fire while on loan to a friend, which I thought was a fitting end.
I think I enjoyed this book more the first time I read it because Game of Thrones didn’t yet exist and so the world in The Name of the Rose had no comparisons to hold against it. Now, we have a complicated, vast storyline, populated by every kind of denizen, and we’ve *seen* those worlds. And all the plotting, jostling for power, and, and, and... George R. R. Martin began writing A Game of Thrones in 1991. I bet he read this when it first came out in 1980.
yak_attak's review against another edition
5.0
In which a captivating tale about murders in a 14th century monastery serves as lens and codex for thoughts and philosophy on religion, symbolism, writing, books, and the power of knowledge. Some large historical digressions, which are a bit more dry and can be hard to get through. The whole is full of beautiful, thoughtful language. The framing device is utterly brilliant, the form and function horribly clever - ensure you get a version with the postscript in which Eco dives into his thoughts on writing the book, it's an essay as captivating as the book is itself.
brynmor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0