The Name of the Rose is the first novel of Italian writer, professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna Umberto Eco. It was first published in Italian in 1980.
The novel is presented as an embodiment of the theoretical ideas of Umberto Eco’s postmodern work put into practice. It includes several layers of meaning, available to different readerships. For a relatively wide audience, The Name of the Rose is a challenging detective narrative in historical scenery, for a little narrower - a historical novel with a lot of unique information about the age and partly decorative detective story, for even more narrow - the philosophical-cultural thinking of the difference between the medieval world and the modern, of the nature and purpose of literature, its place in the history of mankind, and similar problems.
After the The Name of the Rose was published, the author received from the readers many letters with questions about the novel. He then wrote a clever and entertaining explanation, "Notes on The Name of the Rose ". Thus, Eco supplemented his artistic masterpiece with a masterpiece among essays.
In 1986, the novel was made into a movie. The director of the film "The The Name of the Rose" was Jean-Jacques Annaud. Despite numerous awards and the film's success at the box office, Umberto Eco himself was dissatisfied with the embodiment of his book on the screen. Since then, he never gave permission for the filming of his works.
