Classics Corner Birthday Book: The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery

Classics Corner Birthday Book: Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery




By Julie Sara Porter




Birthday: January 5 (1932-2016)




Spoilers: The Historical Mystery is a popular genre and within that, the Medieval Mystery even more so. The sub genre is filled with characters like Brother Cadfael, Sister Fidelma, Dame Frevisse, and others who solve murders in a world of feudal lords, religious conflicts, noble ladies, serfs, monks, nuns, Crusades, and plagues.




One of the earliest examples of the Medieval Mystery is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Since it was one of the first in the sub genre, much care and detail is spent on the time period and the conflicts within. It is a book that is large in Medieval history, but is not the best when it comes to the mystery.




Our detective is one William of Baskerville, a former Inquisitor turned monk wanting a quiet life. He travels with Adso of Melk, a young novice who acts as William's chronicler. The two are on assignment at an Italian monastery where a young illuminator has died. William is assigned to learn the cause of the man's death. Before the investigation is over, six more bodies are added and it becomes clear that there is a dangerous killer on the loose and the monastery is anything but holy.




Eco took great care in researching and writing about the Medieval period so The Name of the Rose is considerably longer than other Medieval Mysteries. Most of the attention is on the monks and how they thrive in this community. They are given various assignments such as herbalist, librarian, cellarer, and so on almost like their own small microcosm of society.

The monastery is beautifully described with it's ornate walls, isolated locations, and icons that many swear date back to Biblical days. (Showing that the tacky tourist souvenir and religious scam artist are not by any means new creations.) The highlight is the labyrinthine structure of the library in which the entire catalog is only known to the head and assistant librarians. The Abbey residents, William, and Adso are even forbidden from reading certain materials. Good luck trying to find them even if they wanted to. The library's structure is filled with twists and turns where a person can get hopelessly lost while searching for information. This is the type of Abbey that will do anything to protect that information.




Religious suspicion and paranoia is the order of the day. Various orders are held under suspicion such as the Franciscans. There are many times when William and the monks debate various philosophies such as whether Jesus Christ forbade laughter. There is much discussion about the End Times and whether the Antichrist is upon them.

Women are looked upon as vessels of sin and there is a passage where the lone female character in the book, an unnamed peasant girl, is tried as a witch and faces execution by burning. Even though Adso believes in the tenets against women, he is guilt stricken over what happened to her. Just as William did during the Inquisition when he felt remorse about torturing and executing human beings for violating how he saw God's laws. This is a world where many are so driven by their own narrow perspective of religion that anything that contradicts it is seen as evil.




While Eco described the Medieval era flawlessly, the mystery aspects fall a bit flat. William is a good detective, a sort of Medieval answer to Sherlock Holmes. At the beginning when he and Adso arrive at the abbey, William impresses the Abbot by using deductive reasoning to determine not only that they are missing a horse, but the horse's name. He also learned the hard way about true justice and that sometimes it goes against the laws of the day, the laws set by people in charge. Sometimes higher justice goes against societal justice and William knows this.




Adso is less interesting through the course of the novel. Mostly he just writes about William's adventures and has some what he believes are religious visions. However, Adso is writing this from the perspective when he is much older and has had more time to meditate on the nature of evil, guilt, and redemption. This encounter opened his eyes to concepts that he never really questioned and now has spent his more mature years doing nothing but questioning and dreading.




Other aspects to the mystery are somewhat flat. Many of the suspects are interchangeable except for two monks who hid their clandestine love affair from judgmental eyes. (and which Adso is aware of his own bisexual leanings) It's hard to tell many of them apart.

The murderer is pretty easy to figure out. Nearly every conversation that he has with William practically screams out his guilt. It takes away the suspense when the killer's identity is that apparent from the word go. In fact this book could just have easily worked as well, or better, as a dramatic historical novel about a young novice entering a monastery and whose personal beliefs contradict with those that he is taught.




The Name of the Rose is brilliant in capturing the the setting, conflict, and structure of the Medieval Era. It is not the best at mystery, but is second to none when it comes to history.