SOURCE: “Jorge Borges, Author of The Name of the Rose,” in Poetics Today,Vol. 13, No. 3, Fall, 1992, pp. 425–45.

In the following essay, Corry shows the influence of Borges's fictions on Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.

Few books have been as quickly and unanimously acclaimed throughout the world as Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose (1983 [1980]). Its most obvious reading—as a detective story—is probably also its most exciting one; throughout the development of the plot, the reader's effort is concentrated on answering one question: Whodunit? But besides the book's value as a fine mystery novel, The Name of the Rose has fostered a brisk commentary industry from the very first day of its appearance on the shelves.¹ It quickly became a commonplace that the secret of the book's somewhat surprising success derives from the multitude of layers underlying its plot; this multilayered structure renders the book...