The Name of the Rose, first published in Italian in 1980 and in English in 1983, was both a critical and popular success, staying at the top of the bestseller lists for weeks, and eventually selling more than a million copies in hard cover and more in paper back. The novel has remained in print for more than two decades, and continues to generate a large body of critical commentary. While academic interest might have been predicted, given Eco's reputation as a scholar, the popular response to the book took all by surprise. Who could have imagined that a long, complicated, multi-layered novel, set in the fourteenth century and with long passages of untranslated Latin, German, and French would appeal to the world-wide reading public?
Contemporary reviews find a variety of reasons for its appeal. Masolino.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 594 words. This
study guide contains 9,837 words (approx. 33 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The Name of the Rose Access Pass.
