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Summary: Italians sometimes deserve more attention
Review: I am amazed that this novel - the most popular, the best-loved, the most imitated in Italy during the latest 20 years- is so little known abroad.
It is a very good historical novel, full of intense and fascinating characters, which can reliably belong to European Middle Age. Eco' s culture is immense: he can easily quote from Latin, ancient French or other languages. But the big mystery in this book is an ancient Greek manuscript, the book _On Comedy_ fom Aristotle's _Poetics_. It is very hard to believe that such a manuscript really existed, and, as a matter of fact, at the end of the novel it gets destroyed. A terrible loss for the main character, Guglielmo di Baskerville, but a dreadful victory for superstition and ignorance.
Tje plot is very intriguing (it is a detective story). Some friars are murdered, and nobody can understand the reason...nobody excepting Guglielmo. Who is nothing but Sherlock Holmes, while his young assistant, Adso, is nothing but Watson...
But the reference to Conan Doyle is not the real purpose of this splendid book, where you find such an enchanting gothic atmosphere as very rarely you can do. The real matter is the rescue of European culture, which nowadays seems to be overwhelmed by the so called 'globalization'.
I suggest this reading to everyone, American, Asian or African people.
The movie is not so bad...Jean-Jacques Annaud understood very well Eco's lesson. But the book is something very, very special.
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Summary: mispelling
Review: The word "name" in Italian is spelled "nome", not "noma". :) btw, I love this book.
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Summary: Notes on This Edition
Review: This isn't a critical review, but just a note to remind everyone that this edition is indeed in the original Italian (rare to find on Amazon.com), and includes a post-script appendix not included in the original releases. P.S., just this once, don't rent the movie. Treat yourself and see how much more you get out of it.
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