3.31k reviews for:

A rózsa neve

Umberto Eco

3.97 AVERAGE

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I can see why people like this book, but it wasn't really for me. Eco certainly knows a lot about history, and philosophy, and religion, and languages, and he certainly shows it off - the book is very intellectual. However he does this at the expense of characterisation and plot (although arguably the plot is intended to be secondary in this book anyway). The characters are all basically one-note or downright anachronisms and the story, despite its subject matter, came across as rather wooden, so I was rapidly losing interest by the time the reveal came.

reza2023's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 15%

I cannot go beyond the description
adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective 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: N/A
challenging informative mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Umberto Ecos Fabulierlust ist einmalig. Dafür liebe ich ihn sehr. Mit dem Buch hier, hat er dennoch derbe meine Nerven strapaziert.
Das Buch ist mindestens 200 Seiten zu lang und furchtbar repetitiv. Ob Jesus nun kein Geld hatte oder doch, worauf sich die Streitigkeiten der Kirche begründen, bis hin zu Absplitterungen der Franziskaner, die als Häretiker verfolgt werden, weil sie sich der Askese verschreiben und wie man denn nun die ganzen Ketzer unterscheidet - darauf berufen sich etliche Dispute und Berichte in diesem Buch.
Die Dispute sind so dermaßen inszeniert und Holzhammer mäßig aufgezogen, dass es schmerzt. Noch nie ein Buch gelesen, in dem das Gerüst und Schema so durchschlägt und offensichtlich ist wie hier.
Das Ganze Getöse, als dann die heilige Inquisition eintrifft, war meines Erachtens auch völlig über.
Selbst die Todesfälle laufen sich irgendwann tot. Er überreizt sämtliche Erzählstränge- es ermüdet irgendwann nur noch. Und dann diese emotionale, aufgeladene Diskussionsart, die jedesmal hart an der Kitschgrenze entlang schrabbelt, wenn es wieder mächtig bedeutungsvoll/schwer zugeht.
Nochmal großes Plus für das Ende und die Aufklärung.
Durch die aufgeklärte Weltsicht William von Baskervilles und den eingeflochtenen philosophischen Gedanken, bekommen viele Themen eine enorme Aktualität, die das Buch stellenweise, zumindest inhaltlich zeitlos machen.
challenging dark reflective sad medium-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: Complicated

A brilliant deconstruction of modernism's quest for truth through the prism of the detective novel transplanted into a medieval monastery. While William and Adso think they are navigating the labyrinth of the Aedificium towards its exit, they are in fact enmeshed in a Deleuzian rhizome, in which all paths connect infinitely, and there is no escape. William embodies both a burgeoning modern logic in the wake of Roger Bacon and William of Occam, and simultaneously a post-modern deconstruction of that logic. In the search for knowledge and the rooting out of heretics, the reader finds obvious parallels to contemporary political conflicts, yet every detail in the text is extremely rooted in its particular medieval cosmology. That the mystery converges on the idea of humor as an existential threat to the Church is strange and yet fully supported by the apocalyptic worldview you have entered into. This is a narrative about narratives, in which sexual ecstasy is expressed through recited biblical metaphor and nightmares through parodic medieval romances:

"Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors."

"Moral: There exist obsessive ideas, they are never personal; books talk among themselves, and any true detection should prove that we are the guilty party."
challenging dark informative 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: Complicated