The book that was a worldwide bestseller in the 80s is back in hardcover and in a box together with “Foucault’s Pendulum” and “Prague Cemetery”
Italian writer, philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco (1932-2016) loved to hold the cap of the pen he was using in his mouth. It was a tic that helped her focus. And so it was, engrossed, that he sketched the character designs for what was to become his great success, the novel The Name of The rosepublished in 1980. And, despite the unrivaled heritage in the studies of philosophy of art, communication and literature, it was with this book of fiction that Eco became a worldwide bestseller.
And that’s right The Name of The rose the brightest title of a box set released this week by Record, which also leads Foucault’s pendulum (published in 1988) e Prague cemetery (2010), all in hardcover and revised text. The novelty, however, is the collection of caricatures and maps sketched by Eco when he was preparing to write The Name of The rose.
“Do the drawings, or sketches, attest to the meticulous preparatory work before writing the novel, which began in 1978 and whose publication only took place in October 1980?” comments the editor mario andreosein a Zoom conversation with Stadium.
Andreose worked alongside Eco for 35 years, precisely his most intensely creative period. “He was a great storyteller and joker, and at the same time, when he started a project, he devoted all his knowledge to achieve what he considered the best result.”
Indeed, in the conception of the Italian writer, an artistic object is not something finished, with a univocal and closed interpretation dictated by its creator, but a bundle that brings together different styles. That is, the aesthetics of painting is not dissociated from that of cinema, for example, but one is complementary to the other.
So, inside The Name of The rose, Eco uses a fictional story to bring together various areas of culture such as history, philosophy, medieval aesthetics and semiotics. The result is a crime thriller in which he recreates the gloomy and repressive atmosphere of monasteries and the contrasts within the Church.
The irony is that Eco was invited by a publisher who wanted to publish short detective novels written by “non-novelists”. But Eco has delivered a suspense novel of over 500 pages and set in the Middle Ages, whose dense reading, full of quotes and dates, still challenges the common reader.
“Currently, the book has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide since its launch,” says Andreose, who quotes Eco’s own words to justify the importance of the drawings: “To narrate, you must first build a furnished world as much as possible down to the last detail – once the world is built, the words will almost come by themselves”.
Thus, the reader will be able to discover, at the end of this edition of The Name of The rosea visual material that shows “the identity and physiognomy of the main protagonists, with the rapid and astute stroke typical of the author, which will justify his invention to know which words to put in his mouth”, observes Andreose.
Accurate in his research, Eco also traced layouts and plans for abbeys, castles, labyrinths, as well as offering a portrait of daily life in the fourteenth century, such as the tools used in agricultural work, especially in the production of wine and oil. “His attention is also paid to every architectural detail, such as the number of steps of a spiral staircase, to define the duration of the dialogue of the characters as they move from one place to another”.
Andreose recalls how the book took so long to become successful: many didn’t believe the public would be interested in such a dense read, despite being beautifully thought out. “A French publisher refused to publish the book, justifying that Eco was a fantastic essayist and that he didn’t need to appeal to fiction. The Name of The rose has become a bestseller, that same French publisher asked us for a second chance by releasing Foucault’s pendulum.”
According to Andreose, the success of The Name of the Rose can be explained by the formula of the plot. “As a young man, Eco was interested in ancient writings and detective novels, especially those of Arthur Conan Doyle and your character Sherlock Holmes – The Baskerville Hound it was one of his favorites. So with those tools, he was able to unite the scholarly with the popular.”
The film version, directed by Jean Jacques Annaud in 1986 it also achieved a huge popular success, which made the writer refuse a request for Stanley Kubrick film Foucault’s pendulum. “Eco didn’t want to associate his name with successes. But look Eyes tightly closed (1999), Kubrick’s last feature film, to note elements of Eco’s book: the secret society, people with masks – an atmosphere identical to that of Foucault.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
