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Somewhere in a Benedictine abbey in northern Italy, in the year 1327, there is a library built like a labyrinth. Umberto Eco borrowed the idea from Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Library of Babel." Then he sent a detective to walk its corridors.
"The Name of the Rose" has sold more than 50 million copies, which makes it one of the best-selling books ever published. It is also a novel full of medieval theology, philosophy, and the study of signs, which is not what most people expect from a bestseller. If you have been circling it for years, wondering whether it is worth the effort, this post is for you. It covers only the opening, and nothing here gives away the solution.
Before you start: is it hard?
Honestly, a little. The novel is full of theology and philosophy, and the text includes many Latin quotations, some authentic and some invented. On a first reading you can let the Latin wash over you; the story still holds together.
What makes it manageable is the structure. The book is divided into seven days, and each chapter is headed by one of the canonical hours, the set times of prayer that marked a monk's day. You always know where you are in the week, and the steady rhythm carries you through the denser passages.
If you are choosing a copy, the English translation is by William Weaver and was first published in 1983. It is also worth knowing that Eco revisited the book himself: he made corrections and cuts to the Italian text in later years, and a 2012 Italian edition brought those changes in along with a note from the author.
Where the story begins
The story reaches us at one remove. A narrator describes coming across a French translation of an old manuscript. That manuscript is the memoir of Adso of Melk, written when he was an old monk, about seven days he lived through as a young Benedictine novice. From the first page, Eco is telling you this is a story about texts, copies, and how we read them.
In 1327, Adso arrives at the abbey with his teacher, William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar who once served as an inquisitor, a church official charged with investigating and trying heresy. They have come for a theological disputation. Pope John XXII and the Franciscan order are at odds over apostolic poverty, the doctrine that clergy should own no land and hoard no money, and the abbey has been chosen as neutral ground for the meeting.
But the monks are already unsettled. One of their brothers, Adelmo of Otranto, has died in suspicious circumstances, and the abbot, Abo of Fossanova, asks William to look into it. That is where the investigation starts, and where this review stops.
What you will find inside
A Sherlock Holmes game, played in a monastery. William's name points straight at "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and Adso's name echoes Watson. The way Adso describes William even closely resembles Watson's first description of Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet." William is the reasoner; Adso watches and records. Fans of classic detective fiction will feel at home, even with monks and manuscripts in place of cabs and telegrams. William's first name also nods to the medieval philosopher William of Ockham.
A library that is almost a character. The labyrinthine library at the heart of the abbey is described in loving detail, and it stays with you long after you close the book. If you love books about books, this is one of the great ones.
A novel that plays with its own telling. It has been described as a postmodern novel and as historiographic metafiction. You do not need any of that vocabulary to follow the plot, but it explains why readers come back years later and find a different book.
The scholar who wrote it
Eco was not a career novelist. Born on 5 January 1932 in Alessandria, in Italy's Piedmont region, he was a semiotician, someone who studies how signs and symbols carry meaning, as well as a philosopher and a specialist in the Middle Ages. He taught at the University of Bologna from 1971, and English readers may know his academic book "A Theory of Semiotics." He died in Milan on 19 February 2016, aged 84.
"Il nome della rosa" was his first novel, published by Bompiani in 1980. It won the Strega Prize in 1981 and France's Prix Médicis Étranger in 1982, and Le Monde placed it 14th on its list of the 100 best books of the century. He went on to write six more novels, including "Foucault's Pendulum."
As for the title, Eco said he wanted something completely neutral. The rose, he explained, carries so many meanings that it has almost none left. It is a fitting joke for a book about reading signs.
Who will enjoy it
This is a strong choice for readers who love Sherlock Holmes and want something denser and stranger. It suits anyone drawn to the Middle Ages, to monasteries and manuscripts, or to novels that double as puzzles about meaning. It also makes a rich book-club pick for a group willing to take it slowly over several weeks.
If you know it from the screen, there is Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film with Sean Connery and Christian Slater, and a 2019 television series starring John Turturro, which aired on Rai 1 in Italy and premiered in the UK on BBC Two. Reading the book first is the better order, since both adaptations follow the plot.
Give the first day at the abbey a fair chance. Once you are inside the walls, it is hard to leave.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "The Name of the Rose" (Eco's 1980 debut novel, published by Bompiani; William Weaver's English translation of 1983; set in 1327 in a Benedictine abbey in northern Italy; a historical mystery that draws on semiotics, biblical analysis, and literary theory; narrated by the novice Adso of Melk, writing as an old man, with a Prologue; William of Baskerville as a Franciscan friar and former inquisitor; the theological disputation and the abbey as neutral ground between Pope John XXII and the Franciscans over apostolic poverty; the abbot asking William to look into a monk's suspicious death; the abbot named Abo of Fossanova; the dead monk named Adelmo of Otranto; seven days with chapters headed by canonical hours; the labyrinthine library and its debt to Borges's "The Library of Babel"; Latin quotations both authentic and apocryphal; described as postmodernist and as historiographic metafiction; Eco's remarks on the title; William's name alluding to Sherlock Holmes, "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and William of Ockham; Adso's name echoing Watson, and Adso's description of William resembling Watson's description of Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet"; over 50 million copies sold, among the best-selling books ever published; Strega Prize 1981; Prix Médicis Étranger 1982; 14th on Le Monde's list of the century's 100 best books; the 1986 film by Jean-Jacques Annaud with Sean Connery and Christian Slater; the 2019 miniseries with John Turturro on Rai 1, premiering in the UK on BBC Two) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose
- Wikipedia, "Umberto Eco" (born 5 January 1932 in Alessandria, Piedmont; died 19 February 2016 in Milan, aged 84; semiotician, philosopher, and medievalist; taught at the University of Bologna from 1971; "A Theory of Semiotics"; his seven novels and their years, including "Foucault's Pendulum") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco
- Wikipedia, "Apostolic poverty" (the doctrine that clergy should own no land and hoard no money) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_poverty
- Wikipedia, "Inquisition" (a Catholic judicial procedure used to investigate and try cases of heresy and related offenses) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
- Wikipedia, "The Library of Babel" (a story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
- Tokyo Sogensha, special page for the Japanese complete edition (Eco's later corrections and cuts to the text; the 2012 Italian edition adding them along with the author's note; the frame in which a narrator obtains a French translation of Adso's manuscript) https://special.tsogen.co.jp/ilnomedellarosa