"The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco: short. "Name of the Rose": main characters, main events

Il nome della Rosa ("The Name of the Rose") is a book that became the debut on the literary career of Professor Bologna University on the semiotics of U. Eco. For the first time the novel was published in the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty in the original language (Italian). The next work of the author, Foucault's Pendulum, was no less successful bestseller and finally brought the author into the world of great literature. But in this article we will retell the short content of "The Name of the Rose". There are two versions of the origin of the title of the novel. The historian Umberto Eco refers us to the era of the nominalists' arguments with realists who were discussing what will remain on behalf of the rose if the flower itself disappears. But also the title of the novel evokes an allusion with the love story line. Having lost his beloved, the hero Adson can not even cry over her name, because he does not know.

The novel "Matryoshka"

The work "The Name of the Rose" is very complex, multifaceted. The author from the very introduction puts the reader before the possibility that everything he will read about in this book turns out to be a historical fake. To some translator in Prague in 1968 fall "Notes of the father of Adson Melk." This book is in French, published in the middle of the nineteenth century. But it is a retelling of the Latin text of the seventeenth century, which, in turn, is the publication of a manuscript of the late fourteenth century. The manuscript was created by a monk from Melk. Historical research about the personality of the medieval author of notes, as well as the copyists of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, produced no results. Thus, the author of the novel filigreely removes from the authentic historical events of his work a brief content. "The name of the rose" is full of documentary errors. And for this novel criticized by academic historians. But what events do we need to know in order to understand the intricacies of the plot?

The historical context in which the novel takes place (summary)

"The Name of the Rose" refers us to the month of November one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven. At that time Western Europe was shaken by church strife. The papal curia is in the Avignon captivity, under the heel of the French king. John Twenty-Two is fighting on two fronts. On the one hand, he confronts the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis the Fourth Bavarian, and on the other hand he is fighting against his own ministers of the Church. Francis of Assisi, who initiated the monastic Order of the Brothers of the Less, advocated absolute poverty. He called for the renunciation of worldly riches in order to follow Christ. After the death of Francis, the papal curia, mired in luxury, decided to send his disciples and followers to the walls of the monasteries. This split the ranks of the members of the order. From it stood the Franciscan Spirituals, who continued to stand on the positions of apostolic poverty. The pope declared them heretics, and persecution began. The Emperor took advantage of this for his struggle for investment, and supported the Spiritualists. Thus, they become a significant political force. As a result, the parties went to negotiations. The Franciscan delegation supported by the Emperor and representatives of the Pope were to meet in an unnamed monastery on the borders of Savoy, Piedmont and Liguria. In this monastery and unfolds the main events of the novel. Recall that the discussion about the poverty of Christ and His Church is only a screen, behind which are tense political intrigues.

Historical Detective

The erudite reader will surely catch the connection between the novel Eco and the stories of Conan Doyle. To do this, it is enough to know its brief content. "The name of the rose" appears before us as the most thorough notes of Adson. Immediately there is an allusion to Dr. Watson, who described in detail the investigation of his friend Sherlock Holmes. Of course, both heroes of the novel are monks. Wilhelm Baskervilsky, whose little homeland forces us to recall the story of Conan Doyle about an ominous dog in the heathland, came to the Benedictine monastery on behalf of the emperor to prepare a meeting of spiritualists with representatives of the papal curia. But as soon as they approached the monastery with the novice Adson Melksky, the events began to unfold so swiftly that they brought the issues of the dispute about the poverty of the apostles and the Church to the background. The novel takes place in the period of one week. The mysterious murders that follow one another keep the reader in suspense all the time. Wilhelm, the diplomat, the brilliant theologian, and, as his dialogue with Bernard Guy, the former inquisitor testifies, found the culprit of all these deaths. "The name of the rose" is a book that, according to the genre, is a detective novel.

How a diplomat becomes an investigator

In the Benedictine abode, where a meeting of two delegations was to take place, the Franciscan Wilhelm of Baskerville and the novice Adson Melksky arrive a few days before the start of the dispute. In his course, the parties had to express their arguments about the poverty of the Church as the heiress of Christ and to discuss the possibility of the General of the Spirituals, Michael Tsesensky, arriving in Avignon to the papal throne. But only approached the gates of the monastery, the main characters meet the monks who ran out in search of the escaped mare. Here Wilhelm surprises everyone with his "deductive method" (another reference Umberto Eco to Conan Doyle), describing the horse and indicating the location of the animal. Abbot of the monastery, Abbone, struck by the deep mind of the Franciscan, asks him to deal with the case of a strange death that happened within the walls of the monastery. At the bottom of the cliff, the body of Adelma was found. It looked like he was thrown out of the window by a tower hanging over a precipice, called Khramyna. Abbon hints that he knows something about the circumstances of the death of draftsman Adelma, but he is bound by the promise of the secret of confession. But he gives Wilhelm the opportunity to investigate and interrogate all the monks in order to reveal the killer.

Hramina

Abbon allowed the investigator to examine all the corners of the monastery, except the library. She occupied the third, upper floor of the Khramin - a giant tower. The library was famous for the largest book depository in Europe. It was built as a labyrinth. Only the librarian Malachi and his assistant Berengar had access to it. The second floor of the Khramin was occupied by a scriptorium, where copyists and illustrators worked, one of which was the late Adelme. After deductive analysis, Wilhelm came to the conclusion that nobody was killing a draftsman, but he himself jumped from a high monastic wall, and his body was moved by a landslide under the walls of the Khramyna. But this does not end the novel and its brief content. "The name of the rose" keeps the reader in constant tension. The next morning, another body was found. It was hard to call it suicide: the body of the adherent of the teachings of Aristotle Venantia was sticking out of a barrel of pig's blood (Christmas was approaching, and the monks were cutting livestock for making sausages). The murdered man also worked in the scripts. And this made Wilhelm pay more attention to the mysterious library. The mystery of the labyrinth began to interest him after the rebuff of Malachi. He alone decided whether to provide the book to the monk who requested it, citing the fact that the repository contains many heretical and pagan manuscripts.

Scriptorium

Not being admitted to the library, which will become the center of the intrigue of the narrative of the novel "The Name of the Rose," the characters Wilhelm and Adson spend a lot of time on the second floor of the Khramyna. Talking with the young scribe Benzia, the investigator learns that in the scripts in silence, but, nevertheless, the two parties fiercely confront each other. Young monks are always ready to laugh, while older monks consider merriment an unacceptable sin. The leader of this party is a blind monk Jorge, who is a saintly righteous person. He is overwhelmed by the eschatological expectations of the coming of Antichrist and the end of time. But the draftsman Adelm so skilfully portrayed the amusing animals of the bestiary, that his comrades could not help laughing. Bentius let slip that two days before the illustrator's death, the silent confrontation in the scriptory passed into a verbal skirmish. It was about the admissibility of the ridiculous in theological texts. Umberto Eco uses this discussion to open the veil of secrecy: in the library is stored a book that can solve the dispute in favor of champions of fun. Berenguer spoke about the existence of labor, which was connected with the words "the limit of Africa".

Deaths associated with a single logical thread

"The Name of the Rose" is a postmodern novel. The author, in the image of Wilhelm Baskerville, subtly parodies Sherlock Holmes. But, unlike the London detective, the medieval investigator is not keeping up with the events. He can not prevent crime, and murders follow one after another. And in this we see a hint of Agatha Christie's Ten Negroes. But all these murders, one way or another, are connected with a mysterious book. Wilhelm learns the details of Adelma's suicide. Berengar inclined him to a Sodomite connection, promising for this some service that he could perform as an assistant to the librarian. But the draftsman could not stand the weight of sin and ran to confess. And since the confidant was Jorge's adamant, Adelm could not relieve the soul, and in despair brought his life to an end. Interview Berengar did not work: he disappeared. Feeling that all events in the scriptorium are connected with the book, Wilhelm and Adson enter the Khramin at night using the underground passage, which they learned about after looking after the assistant librarian. But the library proved to be a complicated labyrinth. The heroes barely found a way out of him, having experienced the action of all kinds of traps: mirrors, lamps with a drowning consciousness of oil, etc. The missing Berengar was found dead in a bath. Monastery doctor Severin shows Wilhelm strange black marks on the fingers and language of the deceased. The same were found earlier in Venantia. Severin also said that he had lost a vial of very toxic substance.

Great Politics

With the arrival of the two delegations in parallel to the detective, the "political" line of the plot of the book "The Name of the Rose" begins to develop. The novel is full of historical flaws. Thus, the inquisitor Bernard Guy, arriving with a diplomatic mission, begins to investigate not heretical errors, but criminal crimes - murders within the walls of the monastery. The author of the novel immerses the reader in the vicissitudes of theological disputes. Meanwhile, Wilhelm and Adson re-enter the library and study the labyrinth plan. They also find the "limit of Africa" - a tightly locked secret room. In the meantime, Bernard Guy is uninformed, judging by historical sources, methods are investigating murders. He arrests and accuses in witchcraft an assistant doctor, a former Dolcininian Balthasar and a beggar girl who came to the monastery to trade her body for the sake of scraps from the refectory. The scholarly debate between the representatives of the curia and the spiritualists turns into a trivial fight. But the author of the novel again leads the reader from the plane of theology into the exciting genre of the detective.

Weapon of Murder

While Wilhelm was watching the fight, Severin came. He said that he found in his infirmary a strange book. Naturally, this is the one that was taken from the library Berengar, as his body was found in a bathing place near the hospital. But Wilhelm can not leave, and after a while everyone is shocked by the news of the death of a doctor. The skull of Severin was broken, and at the scene of the crime the shipwright Remigii was captured. He claims to have found the doctor already dead. But Bentius, a very ingenious young monk, told Wilhelm that he had rushed to the infirmary first, and then watched the incoming. He is sure that the librarian Malachi was here and somewhere was hiding, and then mixed with the crowd. Realizing that the healer's killer had not yet managed to take out the book, brought here by Berengar, Wilhelm looks through all the notebooks in the infirmary. But he overlooks that several texts of manuscripts can be sewn into one volume. Therefore, the book gets a more ingenious Bentius. The novel "The Name of the Rose" readers' reviews are not in vain called very multifaceted. The plot again takes the reader into the plane of big politics. It turns out that Bernard Guy arrived in the monastery with a secret purpose to disrupt the negotiations. To do this, he used the killings that befell the abode. He accuses the former Dolcinian of crimes, arguing that Balthazar shares the heretical views of the spiritualists. So, on all of them lies part of the guilt.

The solution of the mystery of the mysterious book and the sequence of murders

Bentius gave Malachi's volume without even opening it, because he was offered to take the post of assistant librarian. And this saved his life. Because the pages of the book were soaked in poison. Malachi felt his influence on him too: he died in convulsions right at the time of the Mass. His tongue and fingertips were black. But then Abbon summons William to himself and firmly announces that he must leave the monastery the next morning. The rector is sure that the reason for the murders was the reconciliation of bills between the men. But the Franciscan monk investigator is not going to give up. After all, he came very close to solving the riddle. He unraveled the key that opened the room "The Limit of Africa." And on the sixth night of his stay at the monastery, Wilhelm and Adson again enter the library. "The Name of the Rose" is the novel by Umberto Eco, whose narrative is flowing slowly, like a calm river, it is developing swiftly, like a thriller. In the secret room of uninvited guests the blind Jorge is already waiting. In his hands is the same book - the lost one copy of Aristotle's work "On Laughter", the second part of "Poetics." This "gray cardinal", who kept everyone under his control, including the abbot, while still seeing, permeated the pages of the book he hated him with poison so that no one could read it. Aristotle enjoyed great piety from theologians in the Middle Ages. Jorge was afraid that if laughter was confirmed by such authority, then the whole system of his values would collapse, which he considered the only Christian. For this, he lured the stone trap of the abbot and broke the mechanism that unlocked the door. A blind monk suggests that Wilhelm read the book. But having learned that the secret of the sheets soaked in poison is known to him, he begins to absorb the sheets himself. Wilhelm tries to take the book away from the old man, but he, perfectly oriented in the labyrinth, runs away. And when they overtake him, he tears out the lamp and throws it into the ranks of the books. Spilled oil immediately covers the parchments with fire. Wilhelm and Adson miraculously escape from the scene of the fire. The flame from the Khramin is transferred to other buildings. Three days later, only the smoking ruins remain in the place of the richest monastery.

Is there a moral in the postmodern composition?

Humor, allusions and references to other works of literature, a detective plot superimposed on the historical context of the beginning of the fourteenth century, is not all the "chips" that attract the reader "The Name of the Rose". Analysis of this work allows you to judge that behind the apparent entertainment lies a deep meaning. The main character is not Wilhelm Canterbury, and even less modest author of notes Adson. This is the Word that is trying to identify some and drown others. The problem of inner freedom is raised by the author and re-interpreted. A kaleidoscope of quotations of famous works on the pages of the novel more than once makes the erudite reader smile. But along with witty syllogisms, we meet and posing a more important problem. This idea of tolerance, the ability to respect the universal world of another person. The issue of freedom of speech, truth, which must be "proclaimed from the roofs", resists the idea of its rightfulness as a last resort, attempts to impose its point of view not with persuasion, but with force. In our time, when the atrocities of IGIL proclaim European values an unacceptable heresy, this novel seems even more urgent.

«Notes on the fields" The Name of the Rose "»

After the publication of the novel in a matter of months became a bestseller. Readers simply overwhelmed the author of "The Name of the Rose" with letters asking questions about the book. Therefore, in the year Nineteen Eighty-Three, W. Eko let the curious into his "creative laboratory". "Notes on the fields" The Name of the Rose "are written wittily and amusing. In them, the best-selling author reveals the secrets of a successful novel. Six years after the release of the novel "The Name of the Rose" was screened. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annot involved in the filming of famous actors. Sean Connery skillfully performed the role of Wilhelm Baskerville. Young, but very talented actor Christian Slater turned into Adson. The film was a great success at the box office, justified the funds invested in it and was awarded numerous awards at film contests. But Eko himself was very unhappy with this adaptation. He believed that the writer greatly simplified his work, making it a product of mass culture. Since then, he has denied all directors who asked for the opportunity to film his works.