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ebullientbunny's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Blood, Dementia, and Murder
jayisreading's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
3.0
I’ll admit that it never crossed my mind to pick up this novel, partially because of my slight aversion to semiotics (which Eco is well-known for). However, knowing that it was a huge influence on a video game I absolutely loved (i.e., Pentiment), I thought I’d give his novel a try.
Not entirely to my surprise, The Name of the Rose was quite dense in its themes, writing style, and theoretical frameworks. I would even go so far as to say that Eco’s philosophical interests overshadowed the story itself. As a result of this, I felt a bit frustrated by the novel, because I wasn’t particularly interested in the erudite discussions that somewhat strayed from the main story, which I wanted more of. Ultimately, I think I would have liked the novel far more if there was a better balance of creative storytelling and scholarly writing. To me, at least, I felt that Eco had a very particular group of people in mind while writing this novel; I was definitely not a member of this audience, which might be why a fair bit of what he wrote flew over my head (for example, I know very little about Catholicism, which is central to the story).
That being said, I will say that this is a novel that demands the reader’s full attention, as well as their willingness to take the time to digest Eco’s ideas. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either of these due to my schedule and having borrowed the book from the library (i.e., I had limited time), so these definitely played into why I struggled to fully appreciate this novel. I guess this is to say take this review with a grain of salt, because it’s clear that a fair number of readers found the book quite rich and engaging (e.g., the developers of Pentiment, haha), and that’s likely because they had the time to sit with Eco’s words.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Suicide
Minor: Torture and Cannibalism
astrangewind's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I'm not really sure if I liked The Name of the Rose.
The book was incredibly slow-moving, and written very densely, full of philosophical and literary references and tirades that I'm not well-read enough to understand. In general, I feel like philosophers (and their work) have a smugness about them that I find distasteful, which was true for the portions of this book that devolved into arguments or monologues about whether or not Jesus Christ laughed.
That said, I did find the plot compelling enough to finish the book. At times, it lulled, but the mystery was sufficiently mysterious to keep me reading. There was humor to be had, too; a 14th century monk talking about a perpetual motion machine made me chuckle. The ending was fascinating, and I genuinely couldn't put the book down at the last 70 pages or so. I'm sure there's some kind of allegory there, or other kind of metaphor or lesson, but even without the background to be able to understand it, I still enjoyed the plot for what it was.
The book was incredibly slow-moving, and written very densely, full of philosophical and literary references and tirades that I'm not well-read enough to understand. In general, I feel like philosophers (and their work) have a smugness about them that I find distasteful, which was true for the portions of this book that devolved into arguments or monologues about whether or not Jesus Christ laughed.
That said, I did find the plot compelling enough to finish the book. At times, it lulled, but the mystery was sufficiently mysterious to keep me reading. There was humor to be had, too; a 14th century monk talking about a perpetual motion machine made me chuckle. The ending was fascinating, and I genuinely couldn't put the book down at the last 70 pages or so. I'm sure there's some kind of allegory there, or other kind of metaphor or lesson, but even without the background to be able to understand it, I still enjoyed the plot for what it was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, and Islamophobia
Minor: Confinement and Torture
deparme's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death, Misogyny, and Torture
lief_'s review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Vomit
niakantorka's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I think it’s been about 20 years since I last read The Name of the Rose in my native language and the book (same with the movie) fascinated me. With this reread I’ve wanted to see if it could entertain me as well as last time again.
Well, this only happened in parts. On one hand the mystery was equally engaging even though I remembered the book’s ’culprit’ and that it ended rather abrupt. I still found Adso’s voice interesting, especially when it came to describing the life of the monks at the monastery and the murder mystery.
On the other hand I definitely didn’t enjoy those endless talks about heresy and religious musings. I was bored to tears by the descriptions of the riches of the monastery be it its doors, paintings and treasures. On top of that I loathed the inquisitor and his sneaky way of getting ‘his prey’ where he wanted to get him. You know that poor guy would have also admitted to have eaten children or whatever Gui wanted him to admit. How is such a confession worth anything? How was this man actually proud of a job well done?
This time I went and read some articles about the history of that time and how the happenings around pope John the XXII led to the church having more than one and up to three popes. I guess those Minorities were not wrong either because the greed of the Catholic Church finally led to Protestantism to rise and spread.
I still had a good time. I’m pretty sure a book like this wouldn’t become a hit today though because its discursiveness is hard to read. I know that Eco wanted it exactly like that because he didn’t want to write a simple crime story but wanted to write up modern political aspects into the historical context. I’m sure it was smartly done and he was a very clever man and yet it was exhausting at times. Whenever he (Adso) went on a tangent I decided pretty fast if it was a topic I found interesting or not and either worked my way through it or skipped over it.
Well, this only happened in parts. On one hand the mystery was equally engaging even though I remembered the book’s ’culprit’ and that it ended rather abrupt. I still found Adso’s voice interesting, especially when it came to describing the life of the monks at the monastery and the murder mystery.
On the other hand I definitely didn’t enjoy those endless talks about heresy and religious musings. I was bored to tears by the descriptions of the riches of the monastery be it its doors, paintings and treasures. On top of that I loathed the inquisitor and his sneaky way of getting ‘his prey’ where he wanted to get him. You know that poor guy would have also admitted to have eaten children or whatever Gui wanted him to admit. How is such a confession worth anything? How was this man actually proud of a job well done?
This time I went and read some articles about the history of that time and how the happenings around pope John the XXII led to the church having more than one and up to three popes. I guess those Minorities were not wrong either because the greed of the Catholic Church finally led to Protestantism to rise and spread.
I still had a good time. I’m pretty sure a book like this wouldn’t become a hit today though because its discursiveness is hard to read. I know that Eco wanted it exactly like that because he didn’t want to write a simple crime story but wanted to write up modern political aspects into the historical context. I’m sure it was smartly done and he was a very clever man and yet it was exhausting at times. Whenever he (Adso) went on a tangent I decided pretty fast if it was a topic I found interesting or not and either worked my way through it or skipped over it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Racial slurs and Torture
marxxx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Blood, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Excrement and Cannibalism
beautifulminutiae's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment
iirreeaadd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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? No
3.5
This book is long and overwritten. I found myself skimming or simply skipping chunks of this book that were basically long lists of things that were not relevant to the plot of the book at all. Despite this, I found the core murder mystery plot of the book to be engrossing, as well as the reasons for it. I was able to finish the book fairly quickly and felt engaged throughout as I wanted to know what happens next. It's definitely a bit dense at points but overall I found it a good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Colonisation
wildflower09's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Didnt particularly like the motivation of th villain, but I guess it's understandable for 14th century Italy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Murder