The Name of the Rose
1980 • 556 pages
Ratings142
Average rating4
15
Ratings142
Average rating4
"The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon - all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity.
He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night.""--BOOK JACKET.
Reviews with the most likes.
If this weren’t a book club book, I would have DNF’ed so fast. I’m thoroughly convinced the author wrote this book solely to flex his knowledge of 14th century Catholicism. Many of the chapters added not a single meaningful thing to the plot and were tortuous to read. Finding enjoyable parts of this book was like panning for gold and just about as successful. That being said, it’s clearly very highly regarded so maybe it’s just not for me.
I've finished. I'm not rating it though because I just don't feel like I should. I didn't dislike this, but I didn't really like it either. I feel like I understood very little of it - all the religious and philosophical stuff went over my head. :/ I'm glad to have read it though because I'd always heard about it. It didn't live up to what I expected though.
There is a lot that I missed because I don't know Latin, but it was still a great book. Maybe I should re-read, now that there are several Latin-English translation sites.
Ugh... This book didn't age well. The murder mystery drowns in the political/religious/historical background, irrelevant to main plot. Personally, I also found it hard to read something narrated by a deeply religious character.
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