Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24273 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

From Publishers Weekly
If a copy (often unread) of The Name of the Rose on the coffee table was a badge of intellectual superiority in 1983, Eco's second novel--also an intellectual blockbuster--should prove more accessible. This complex psychological thriller chronicles the development of a literary joke that plunges its perpetrators into deadly peril. The narrator, Casaubon, an expert on the medieval Knights Templars, and two editors working in a branch of a vanity press publishing house in Milan, are told about a purported coded message revealing a secret plan set in motion by the Knights Templars centuries ago when the society was forced underground. As a lark, the three decide to invent a history of the occult tying a variety of phenomena to the mysterious machinations of the Order. Feeding their inspirations into a computer, they become obsessed with their story, dreaming up links between the Templars and just about every occult manifestation throughout history, and predicting that culmination of the Templars' scheme to take over the world is close at hand. The plan becomes real to them--and eventually to the mysterious They, who want the information the trio has "discovered." Dense, packed with meaning, often startlingly provocative, the novel is a mixture of metaphysical meditation, detective story, computer handbook, introduction to physics and philosophy, historical survey, mathematical puzzle, compendium of religious and cultural mythology, guide to the Torah (Hebrew, rather than Latin contributes to the puzzle here, but is restricted mainly to chapter headings), reference manual to the occult, the hermetic mysteries, the Rosicrucians, the Jesuits, the Freemasons-- ad infinitum . The narrative eventually becomes heavy with the accumulated weight of data and supposition, and overwrought with implication, and its climax may leave readers underwhelmed. Until that point, however, this is an intriguing cerebral exercise in which Eco slyly suggests that intellectual arrogance can come to no good end.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Student of philology in 1970s Milan, Casaubon is completing a thesis on the Templars, a monastic knighthood disbanded in the 1300s for questionable practices. At Pilades Bar, he meets up with Jacopo Belbo, an editor of obscure texts at Garamond Press. Together with Belbo's colleague Diotallevi, they scrutinize the fantastic theories of a prospective author, Colonel Ardenti, who claims that for seven centuries the Templars have been carrying out a complex scheme of revenge. When Ardenti disappears mysteriously, the three begin using their detailed knowledge of the occult sciences to construct a Plan for the Templars[...] In his compulsively readable new novel, Eco plays with "the notion that everything might be mysteriously related to everything else," suggesting that we ourselves create the connections that make up reality. As in his best-selling The Name of the Rose, he relies on abstruse reasoning without losing the reader, for he knows how to use "the polyphony of ideas" as much for effect as for content. Indeed, with its investigation of the ever-popular occult, this highly entertaining novel should be every bit as successful as its predecessor. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/89. -- Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation)

Customer Reviews

too much, too much, too much...
After reading The Name of the Rose and enjoying it quite a bit, I was interested to try Foucault's Pendulum which is a classic work in its own right. However, I found the book very hard to follow for the first half because of the constant discussions between the main characters about all the Occult esoterica and mainstream theology they learned over their careers as if they're competing with each other on who knows the most arcane detail. Their discussions, planning, scheming and research just seemed so grandiose, so overwhelmingly demonstrative that the long esoteric debates muted away the rest of the story to develop in the background so the ending seems abrupt and evokes little reaction from the reader. When it came, my reaction was "oh well, there's the end." Perhaps I missed something in this book...

A Dense, Difficult Mess; Barely Worth It
I've always thought of Moby Dick as a blending of two different novels: one is a compelling, Shakespearean epic of the highest order; the other, which consists of Melville's exposition on the history & science of whaling, is an ambitious, gratuitous mess that (in my opinion) gets in the way of the narrative.

I've come to think of Foucault's Pendulum in the same way: it's half a compelling, satirical meditation on the nature of conspiracy, with an engrossing plot, incredibly sympathetic characters, scintillating mystery, and surprising humor; and half excessive, gratuitous exposition on historical secret societies and arcana that, while occasionally interesting, gets tiresome before long. I am not exaggerating when I say that half the book consists of this type of writing. Earlier reviewers have claimed that it only STARTS that way but gets better; I completely disagree.

I think a part of the problem is Eco's writing style. He's an academic, and therefore is already predisposed towards the overindulgent writing that pervades academia. Excessive verbosity doesn't make you an intellectual, or a sophisticate; it just makes you excessively verbose. In the case of Moby Dick, Melville's narrative is enough to get around the ridiculous exposition. In Eco's case, the book very nearly collapses under the weight of Eco's prose.

Some people will no doubt find the endless exposition on history's conspiracies and arcana fascinating, and frankly I could understand why. It can be very interesting, engrossing stuff. Something also needs to be said for a literary challenge; tough reading can be its own reward. But most people have their limits.

I originally took other reviewers' advice and forced myself to read every sentence on every page, thinking that it would get better. I learned my lesson after two hundred pages, after becoming exceedingly frustrated and bored. I advise any interested readers that, while there is a lot to like about this book, there is no shame in skimming early and often if you feel the need.

Great Book, Worth Reading However Many Times It Takes
I am in total agreement with those reviewers who said a)the book made them feel smarter upon completion, and b)it takes multiple readings to finally put all the pieces of this complex puzzle together. But how rewarding!!! You want a real intellectual challenge? Take on The Glass Bead Game. It'll give your grey matter a run for its money.

I got a totally different take on reading Foucault's Pendulum for the first time, when I was a young 20-something, than I did upon re-reading it at age 46. But for that matter, ditto on Wuthering Heights: first time at 14, second time more than two decades later.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone through the Rootabaga Stories books by Carl Sandburg, and they still ultimately delight. Look 'em up.