Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #281178 in Books
• Published on: 1990-11-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 656 pages

Synopsis
Colonel Ardenti tells three editors that he has discovered a coded message about a Templar plan, centuries old and of diabolical complexity, to tap a mystic source of power greater than atomic energy. The editors decide to have a little fun. Umberto Eco is the author of "The Name of the Rose".

From the Publisher
Brilliant
'Brilliant...A novel that is deeper and richer that The Name of the Rose' New York Times

'Brilliant, funny, encompassing everything you ever wanted to know about practically everything (including numerology, James Bond's foes, and the construction of sewers), this book is both extraordinarily learned and well plotted' Sunday Times

'Endlessly diverting...Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose' Time

Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired to have some fun by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truth.

'An intellectual adventure story, as ensational, thrilling and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo' Washington Post Book World

'Umberto Eco is literature's great magician...He offers us many passages of brilliance, and treats us to a Shakespearean alternation of paroxysm and intimacy, madness and wisdom. There is something here for everyone. His genius affords his readers a selection of delights that will make their heads spin' Le Monde

Customer Reviews

Superb Scholarship, a little tiresome.
The authorship is superb, the only fault being 150 pages 3/5s into the book where the endless nuances of hermetic, conspiratorial history do become a little tiresome and could be seriousy edited without anything being lost from the book. I'm confident in saying this because the characters are making this history up. That's the story, they are creating a false conspiracy, and Eco includes every subtle detail and nuance of the history and scholarship that goes into their work, which is a mite unnecessary.

Apart from that, I would highly recommend the book. The plotting is astounding, the characters sympathetic and the story ultimately interesting. One has to realise that Eco is playing a game with this novel, and to a certain extent it works as a satire to such conspiratorial ideas as are seen in the da vinci code. Also, this was written years before that particular book.

It's also really easy to read, it had me grippped (till the aformentioned section) from page one. I read it in less than a week and it's a long book.

Good stuff.

O.

Not a novel, a reference book of science and the occult
This is really not a novel at all, but a kind of narrative reference book that is surely aimed at rather obsessive enthusiasts of science and the occult in the middle ages. You don't learn much about the characters in this book, some of which are almost as cartoony and undeveloped as those you may find in a Dan Brown novel, and the plot moves on painfully slowly, constantly bogged down by pages of scholarship which, by about 400 pages in, I was happy to skip with no loss of continuity. Only in the last 150 pages or so does the plot start to move along at a more respectable pace. But the climax is frankly a bit of a let down.
I suppose the interesting thing this book does is establish that the real cranks and crackpots who are into all this stuff are prepared to believe almost anything. But if you're not obsessed with the subject matter to the same degree as the characters in this book, you can't help but ask: so what?
This is a long book, demanding many hours to plough through, and the result was disappointing.

Engaging but requires keen attention
This is the third of Eco's novels I have read. I am enamoured of his style and ultimately, this is why I enjoy his novels. As an Italian he displays mastery of the literary genre in another language - a remarkable ability.

Ultimately, I was unable to appreciate this particular novel's deep knowledge and arcana. That is a failing on my part. I imagine that many readers may face the same degree of bewilderment at the level of historical detail that fills many of the pages, and for those that can, you are in for a treat.

My admiration for Eco is definetely for style. I still enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum, but for the sound of the words rather than the plot.