This volume of essays on the celebrated novel is the first of several books to be written in appreciation of Eco's remarkable accomplishment. The question all this raises is, how can such a novel be so popular-a detective set in a medieval monastery, which entertains at the same time as it deals with theology, history, politics, humanism, comedy, literary criticism, and just about everything else that makes up culture and society? Is it possible that a popular piece of fiction, accessible to general readers, can also address complex and profound ideas? Written by a distinguished professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, the novel was an immediate bestseller in Italy in 1980 and was subsequently translated into twenty languages to universal acclaim. Paperback publication rights brought the highest price ever paid for a translation, and in 1986 it became a major motion picture. The Name of the Rose was published in English in the United States in 1983 and remained on the best-seller list for forty weeks. The authors from a variety of language disciplines frequently draw on Eco's own scholarly commentaries to elucidate the novel. Eco's novel is examined in the light of several of the traditions from which it draws: theories of detective fiction, comedy, postmodernism, the apocalypse, semiotics, and literary criticism. It has received many international awards and accolades, such as the Strega Prize in 1981 and Prix Medicis Étranger in 1982, and was ranked 14th on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century list.The original essays gathered in this book make a beginning at exploring the cultural significance of The Name of the Rose in terms of its backgrounds and literary contexts. It has went on to sell over 50 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling books ever published. “An extraordinary work of novelistic art” (Harper’s). The novel presents clues for the reader to decode, but as the reader grapples with the novel’s deeper meanings, the mystery becomes secondary” (Columbia University Press).

Critically praised as a “brilliantly conceived adventure into another time” (SF Chronicle), the novel “encapsulates Eco’s semiotic theory, which describes how signs are produced and interpreted in the world. This “erudite murder mystery,” first published in 1980 as Il Nome della Rosa, was semiotics professor Umberto Eco’s first novel and proved an international bestseller. Jacket illustration from a manuscript of the Apocalypse. Boldly signed by the author on the title page, “Umberto Eco 16 June 83.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1980.įirst edition of one of the best-selling books of all-time, basis for the film starring Sean Connery.

Author of the name of the rose