The Name of the Rose

At a Glance

In 1327, the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk arrive at a wealthy Benedictine abbey in northern Italy to prepare for a theological debate. Seven monks die in seven days, each death linked to a forbidden book — Aristotle's lost second volume of the Poetics, on comedy and laughter. William unravels the labyrinthine library's secrets and identifies Jorge of Burgos, a blind elder monk, as the killer. Jorge has poisoned the book's pages to prevent anyone from reading Aristotle's defense of laughter, which he believes would undermine the authority of the Church. In the final confrontation, Jorge eats the poisoned pages and sets the library ablaze. The greatest collection of knowledge in Christendom burns to ash. Adso narrates the story decades later, an old man who has learned that the pursuit of signs leads only to more signs, never to final truth.

Why This Book Matters

The Name of the Rose proved that a novel drenched in medieval philosophy, Scholastic theology, and semiotic theory could become a global bestseller. It sold over fifty million copies and single-handedly created the genre of the 'intellectual thriller' — a detective story whose real mystery is epistemological. Before Eco, the assumption was that literary theory and popular fiction were incompatible. After Eco, that assumption was permanently retired.

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