The Name of the Rose

A young Benedictine novice known as Adso narrates the events of this 14th-century tale of murder and deception, lust and greed, political intrigue and religious fervor, which unfolds over seven days and nights at a wealthy Italian abbey renowned for its library. Adso has come to the abbey with William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar whose services have been requested by the abbot. Abbo fears that suspicion will befall his abbey due to rumors of heretical monks already in circulation and the recent mysterious death of a young monk known for imaginative (and sometimes controversial) illuminations with which he decorates the pages of library manuscripts. William, very much like a medieval Sherlock Holmes, uses Aristotelian logic and the scientific philosophies of Francis Bacon as interpreted through the religious interpretations of Thomas Aquinas to unravel the mystery, while fighting superstitious religiosity and the cruel irrationality of the Inquisition (which eventually finds its way to the abbey). But before William can begin to solve the first mystery another monk turns up dead in a vat of pigs' blood, and both deaths lead back to the library, which is shrouded in mystery and off limits to all but the initiated librarian. Integrating his work as a semiotician, philosopher, and literary theorist, Umberto Eco molds his intelligent story-within-a-story into a case study for his Reader Response Theory. Readers turned off by overtly academic themes, however, will not be distracted by such details and will appreciate the vivid medieval ambiance and the gruesome murder mystery that unfolds. A book rich in detail and humor, THE NAME OF THE ROSE can be enjoyed on many different levels and strikes a compelling and all-too-rare balance between edification and entertainment.