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''The Name of the Rose'', a novel by Umberto Eco , is a Murder Mystery set in an Italian Monastery in the year 1327 . First published in Italian in 1980 under the title '''''Il nome della rosa''''', it appeared in 1983 in an English translation by William Weaver . PLOT SUMMARY Along with his apprentice Adso of Melk (named after the Benedictine abbey Stift Melk ), the Franciscan friar William Of Baskerville journeys to an abbey where a murder has been committed. As the plot unfolds, several other people mysteriously die. The protagonists explore a labyrinthine medieval library, the subversive power of laughter, and come face to face with the Inquisition . It is left primarily to William's enormous powers of logic and deduction to solve the mysteries of the abbey. On one level, the book is an excellent exposition of the Scholastic Method which was very popular in the 14th Century . William demonstrates the power of Deductive Reasoning , especially Syllogisms . He refuses to accept the diagnosis of ''simple demonic possession'' despite Demonology being the traditional Monastic explanation. Despite the abbey being under the misapprehension that they are experiencing the last days before the second coming of Christ (a topic closely examined in the book), William, through his Empirical mindset, manages to show that the murders are, in fact, committed by a more corporeal instrument. By keeping an open mind, collecting facts and observations, following pure intuition and the Dialectic method, he makes decisions as to what he should investigate, exactly as a scholastic would do. The story also demonstrates the crucial importance of chance in any investigative endeavor. Though William's theorized solutions do not exactly match the actual events of the cases, he could not have solved the abbey's mysteries without them. CHARACTERS ;Primary characters:
;At the monastery :
;Outsiders :
MAJOR THEMES Eco, being a famous Semiotician , is hailed by semiotics students who like to use his novel to explain their arcane discipline. The techniques of telling stories within stories, partial fictionalization, and purposeful linguistic ambiguity are prominent in Eco's narrative style. The solution to the central murder mystery hinges on the contents of Aristotle's book on Comedy, of which No Copy Survives ; Eco nevertheless plausibly describes it and has his characters react to it appropriately in their medieval setting, which, however, though realistically described, is partly based on Eco's scholarly guesses and imagination. It is virtually impossible to untangle fact/history from fiction/conjecture in the novel. ALLUSIONS To other works The name of the central character, William of Baskerville, alludes both to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (compare '' The Hound Of The Baskervilles '') and to William Of Ockham (see the next section). The name of the narrator, his apprentice Adso, is among other things a pun on Simplicio from Galileo Galilei 's Dialogue; Adso = '''ad''' '''S'''implici'''o''' ("to Simplicio"). It is also a play on Holmes' friend Dr. Watson . As usual in Eco's novels, there is a display of " features a blind librarian. In addition, a number of other themes drawn from various of Borges' works are used throughout "The Name of the Rose": labyrinths, mirrors, sects, and obscure manuscripts and books. Eco spent some time at the University Of Toronto while writing the book. The stairs in the monastery's library bear a striking resemblance to those in Robarts Library . Throughout the book, there are Latin quotes, authentic and apocryphal. There are also discussions of the philosophy of Aristotle and of a variety of Millenarist heresies, especially those associated with the Fraticelli . Numerous other philosophers are referenced throughout the book, often anachronistically, including Wittgenstein . The "poisoned page" theme is in a classic Chinese novel ''Jin Ping Mei'', usually translated into English as '' The Golden Lotus ''. To actual history, geography and current science William of Ockham, who lived during the time of the novel, first put forward the principle known as " Ockham's Razor ": often summarised as the ''dictum'' that one should always accept as most-likely the simplest explanation that accounts for all the facts (a method used by William of Baskerville in the novel). The book describes monastic life in the 14 century. The action takes place at a Benedictine abbey during the controversy surrounding the Apostolic Poverty between branches of Franciscans and Dominicans (see Renewed Controversy On The Question Of Poverty .) The Spirituals abhor wealth, bordering on the Apostolics or Dulcinian Heresy . A number of the characters, such as the Inquisitor Bernard Gui and the Minorite Michael Of Cesena , are historical figures, though the novel's characterization of them is not always historically accurate. The book also highlights a tension that existed within Christianity during the medieval era: the Spirituals, one faction within the Franciscan order, demanded that the Church should abandon all wealth, and some heretical sects began killing the well-to-do, while the majority of the Franciscans and the clergy took to a broader interpretation of the gospel. ADAPTATIONS ''The Name of The Rose'' was made into a Film in 1986 , directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Sean Connery as William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as Adso. A play adaptation in two parts was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 commencing Sunday 16 July 2006 and ending Sunday 23 July 2006. A radio spoof inspired by the film adaptation was made as part of the ''Creme De La Crime'' series by Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt on BBC Radio 4. A Spanish videogame adaptation was released in 1987 under the title La Abadía Del Crimen ( The Abbey Of Crime ). A modern remake is underway , and is largely complete. TRIVIA
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