Il nome della Rosa ("The Name of the Rose") is a book that has becomedebut in the literary field of Professor of the University of Bologna on semiotics U. Eco. For the first time the novel was published in the year 1910 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' disputes 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, since he does not know.
The novel "Matryoshka"
The work "The Name of the Rose" is very complicated,multidimensional. The author from the very preface 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 is a book 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, did not yield any 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" sends us in November month one thousandthree hundred and twenty-seven. At that time Western Europe was being queried 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 opposes 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 stand out 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 just a screen, behind which are tense political intrigues.
Historical Detective
An erudite reader will surely catch the connectionnovel Eco with 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 small 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 Melk, how events began to unfold so swiftly that they took the issues of the dispute about the poverty of the apostles and the Church in 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 evidenced by his dialogue with Bernard Guy, the former inquisitor, volunteered to find the culprit of all these deaths. "The Name of the Rose" is a book that, according to the genre, is a detective novel.
As a diplomat becomes an investigator
In the Benedictine abode, where it was supposed to bea meeting of two delegations will 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 discuss the possibility of the arrival of the general of the Spiritualists, Michael Tsesensky, 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 a runaway 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 the abyss, called Khramyna. Abbon hints that he knows something about the circumstances of the death of the draftsman Adelma, but he is bound by the promise of the secret of confession. But he enables Wilhelm to investigate and interrogate all the monks in order to reveal the killer.
Hramina
Abbon allowed the investigator to examine all the cornersthe 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 difficult to call it suicide: the body of the adherent of the teachings of Aristotle Venantia was sticking out of the barrel of pig's blood (Christmas was approaching, and the monks were cutting cattle for making sausages). The killed man also worked in the script. 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, whichwill become the center of the intrigue of the narrative of the novel "The Name of the Rose", the heroes 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 associated 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 can not keep up with the events. He can not prevent a 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 Jork'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 complex labyrinth. The heroes barely found a way out of him, having experienced the action of all kinds of traps: mirrors, lamps with a dizzying 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 with a very poisonous substance.
Great Politics
С прибытием в монастырь двух делегаций In parallel with the detective begins to develop and the "political" line of the plot of the book "The Name of the Rose." The novel is full of historical flaws. Thus, the Inquisitor Bernard Guy, having arrived 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.
Murder weapon
While William was watching the fight, Severin came.He said that he had found a strange book in his infirmary. Naturally, this is the same one that he brought out from the Berengar library, since his body was found in a bathhouse near the hospital. But Wilhelm can not excommunicate, and after a while everyone is shocked by the news of the death of the doctor. Severin's skull was broken, and the kelhar Remigius was captured at the crime scene. He claims that he found the doctor already dead. But Benzius, a very quick-witted young monk, told Wilhelm that he ran into the infirmary first, and then watched those entering. He is confident that the librarian Malachi was here and was hiding somewhere, and then mixed with the crowd. Realizing that the murderer of the doctor had not yet managed to take out the book brought here by Berengar, Wilhelm looks through all the notebooks in the infirmary. But he misses that several texts of manuscripts can be sewn into one volume. Therefore, the book gets more thoughtful Benzius. The novel “The Name of the Rose” is not for nothing that readers' reviews call very multifaceted. The plot again brings the reader to the plane of big politics. It turns out that Bernard Guy arrived at the monastery with the secret aim to thwart the negotiations. For this, he took advantage of the murder that hit the monastery. He accuses the crimes of the former dolchinianin, claiming that Balthazar shares the heretical views of the spirituals. Thus, on all of them lies part of the blame.
Solving the mystery of the mysterious book and the sequence of murders
Bencius gave the volume of Malachi, without even opening it,since he was offered the post of assistant librarian. And it saved his life. Because the pages of the book were saturated with poison. Malachi also felt his effect on himself - he died in convulsions during the Mass. His tongue and fingertips were black. But then Abbon summons Wilhelm and firmly announces that he must leave the cloister the next morning. The abbot is convinced that the cause of the killings was the settling of accounts between the soddlers. But the Franciscan monk-investigator is not going to give up. After all, he has come close to solving the riddle. He guessed the key that opens the "Limit of Africa" room. And on the sixth night of their stay in the monastery, William and Adson get into the library again. “The Name of the Rose” is a novel by Umberto Eco, the narration of which then flows slowly, like a calm river, then it develops swiftly, like a thriller. In the secret room, uninvited guests are already waiting for blind Jorge. In his hands is the same book - the lost single copy of Aristotle's work “On Laughter”, the second part of “Poetics”. This “gray cardinal”, who kept everyone under his command, including the abbot, while still sighted, imbued the pages of the book he hated with poison so that no one could read it. Aristotle enjoyed great reverence among theologians in the Middle Ages. Jorge feared that if laughter was confirmed by such authority, the whole system of his values, which he considered the only Christian, would collapse. For this, he lured the abbot into a stone trap and broke the mechanism that unlocks the door. A blind monk invites Wilhelm to read the book. But having learned that the mystery of the sheets saturated with poison is known to him, he begins to absorb the sheets himself. Wilhelm is trying to take away a book from the old man, but he, having a great orientation in the maze, runs away. And when he is overtaken, he pulls out a lamp and throws it into the ranks of books. Spilled butter immediately covers the parchments with fire. Wilhelm and Adson miraculously escaped from the scene of the fire. The flame from the Khramina is transferred to other buildings. After three days, only smoking ruins remain on the site of the richest monastery.
Is there a moral in a postmodern composition?
Humor, allusions and references to other worksliterature, a detective plot superimposed on the historical context of the beginning of the fourteenth century, is not all the "chips" that lure the reader to The Name of the Rose. An analysis of this work makes it possible to judge that there is a deep meaning behind the apparent entertainment. The protagonist is not at all Wilhelm of Canterbury and certainly not the humble writer Adson. This is the Word that some are trying to reveal and silence others. The problem of inner freedom is raised by the author and rethought again. A kaleidoscope of quotations of famous works on the pages of the novel more than once makes an erudite reader smile. But along with witty syllogisms, we also encounter a more important problem. This idea of tolerance, the ability to respect the universal world of another person. The question of the freedom of speech, the truth that must be “proclaimed from the roofs” is opposed to the presentation of one’s rightness as the last resort, attempts to impose one’s point of view not by conviction but by force. Nowadays, when the atrocities of ISIL proclaim European values as an unacceptable heresy, this novel seems even more relevant.
"Notes on the fields" Name of the rose ""
После выхода в свет роман за считаные месяцы стал bestseller. Readers simply flooded the author of "The Name of the Rose" letters with questions about the book. Therefore, in nineteen eighty-third year, U. Eco let in curious people into his “creative laboratory”. "Notes on the margins of the Name of the Rose" are written wittily and amusingly. In them the author of the bestseller reveals the secrets of a successful novel. Six years after the release of the novel, The Name of the Rose was taken to film. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud involved in the filming of famous actors. Sean Connery skillfully played the role of Wilhelm Baskerville. Young but very talented actor Christian Slater reincarnated in Adson. The film was a great success at the box office, justified the investment in it and won numerous awards at film contests. But Eco himself was very unhappy with this adaptation. He believed that the screenwriter greatly simplified his work, making it a product of popular culture. Since then, he has refused all directors who have asked for the opportunity to film his works.
