Mariner Books The Name of the Rose

This book is a wonderful addition to your home library. It's printed and bound beautifully. I'm very happy with it.

I can’t stress enough how delighted I am reading this book. First- the story is wonderfully written. Highly recommend!! Second- the book itself. It is sturdy, the pages are slightly silky and I can take notes in pencil and highlight (nothing bleeds and there is space to do so). I’ve read this book sitting down and laying down right before sleeping. Both are comfortable. I can clip on my reading light to the back and the book doesn’t flop around. In a way the sturdiness of the book plays to the feel of the story. Just an overall delightful reading experience.

All-time classic! It made me watch all the movies and series based on this extensive story.

arrivato in tempo e in ottime condizioni, ovviamente libro fantastico

First of all, this is a fantastic book that I highly recommend anyone and everyone to read. At its heart, it is a gripping detective mystery with a great story and cast of highly developed and believable characters. However, Agatha Christie it is not...It's become somewhat cliche to say that Umberto Eco does not pander to his readers, but this is an important characteristic of his to be aware of. In fact, in the essay that accompanies The Name of the Rose, Eco openly admits that he rejected calls from editors to shorten the first hundred pages, which are described as difficult and demanding, as he wanted to challenge the reader. He states openly that if a reader is unable to pay the 'penitence' of the first 100 pages, then they will never make it through the whole novel. Personally, I've known a few people balk at reading any of Eco's novels, but I believe that The Name of the Rose should be seen as challenging as opposed to difficult.Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the novel is the many different levels that it works on, which was of course intentional. Despite escapism being something of a dirty word in the world of literature, Eco made no secret of the fact that he wanted The Name of the Rose to be entertaining - and it is. It can simply be read as an engaging - albeit challenging - murder mystery, nothing more nothing less. On this level, it ticks every box: a hermetically sealed environment, a defined list of suspects, a trail of clues, and plenty of red herrings.On a second level, The Name of the Rose serves as a very credible chronicle of the Middle Ages, with enough research and information to make your head spin. Eco relied heavily on manuscripts to inform the dialogue of his medieval monastery and there are pages and pages devoted to historical background. Personally, I felt that I was more in line with this level on my second read through. But be warned, the various Franciscan factions and the relationship between them, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Avignon Papacy is not the easiest thing to keep track of so expect to do some background reading.The other level that the novel works on, inevitably, is in the study of signs. Of course, this is only natural, as signs are an essential part of the detective fiction paradigm, but Eco, as a leading thinker on the subject of semiotics, goes well beyond the usual metonymic clues. He introduces us to the subject early on, in what is effectively a medieval version of semiotics 101. The theme of signs occurs again and again, from religious symbology to linguistics. I can't pretend to have picked up on much of it, but for an advanced reader, The Name of the Rose is a genuine work of literature to be dissected over numerous readings.It's tempting to view the Aedificium, with its three floors, as representative of the three levels of the novel and, having read the accompanying essay, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. On that note, I'd also highly recommend reading the essay at the end of the Vintage edition - it serves as a real eye-opener to Eco's creative process.I'd definitely recommend The Name of the Rose. It's not the easiest read, but the prose is clear and uncluttered and regardless of its complexity, it is very entertaining. If nothing else, reading the novel and Googling Umberto Eco will at least furnish you with the basic skills for writing overly long, pretentious reviews on Amazon.P.S No part of this review was intended to be anyway disrespectful to the Queen of Crime.