Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum

[Flowerdk4]

The book sounds very interesting!
I have read all the books the da vinci code is based on. I havent read Dan Browns book though and I dont think I will.

Thanks for the short but very good review of the book, Stewart!

Flower

 

[Stewart]

I finished reading this book not too long ago.

Final opinions, then?

 

[Ice]

I enjoyed it. I found it a slightly more challenging read that anything else I've picked up recently but thought it was very well written. After completing the book I went back and read your thread and subsequent links on the Count so as to find out more of the history. I would certainly recommend the book.

 

[Worm]

According to some reviews on Amazon,its said that a dictionary would be handy.
Is that so ?

 

[Ice]

I personally didn't require one

 

[Worm]

I personally didn't require one

Maybe you have a high vocabulary.

 

[funes]

It isn't so much, in my opinion, that the book requires a dictionary to be read, as it is that the text is very dense. In any event, don't get caught up in such details. Read it first, then go back and look up any words you haven't figured out.

 

[Worm]

I've bought it (cost me $15 though).I hope its good.

 

[Idril Silmaure]

It doesn't necessarily require a dictionary..it's not that the writing style is very difficult or anything, more like it makes references to a 1000 different things which it would be interesting to look up. An encyclopaedia, or just Google, would be handy to look for information on a lot of the things mentioned, but you can't let it bog you down, just go with the flow of it really.

 

[Shade]

I agree that Foucault's Pendulum is great. I read it to impress a girl , when it first came out in paperback (1990? 91?), so I have the gorgeous old Picador edition with the pendulum swinging toward you on the cover:



I reread it a few years later but haven't touched it in ten years or more so perhaps now is the time for a revisit. I remember being amused by the stuff on vanity publishing (see also Amis's The Information), and enjoying the evidence that you can 'prove' mysterious correspondences in just about anything when the figures are large enough. Also the final debunking

Spoiler

(the Da Vinci Code-like sacred text from which they extrapolate so much meaning turns out to be a laundry list)

is beautifully rationalist slap in the face to conspiracy theorists everywhere.

It's a shame that, in my view, Eco has yet to regain such giddy heights: The Island of the Day Before was ponderous, Baudolino I couldn't finish, and as a result I've no desire to read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. It would be nice if the Da-Vinci-Code-for-people-with-brains-style publicity that Foucault's Pendulum is now getting, eventually put it higher than The Name of the Rose in renown - the latter is great too, but Foucault is much more interesting.

 

[Worm]

I have the version which is available on Amazon.

 

[Idril Silmaure]

I have that edition too, got it in a charity shop, it's very nice indeed And I also have the edition which has the picture of Jacques de Molay and lots of colours on the cover .. HarperCollins I think. But yeah..somehow I have two editions.

 

[Worm]

I have the 'BallantineBooks' edition.Though,I dont understand the cover illustration.

 

[nhunter]

Foucault's Pendulum is an enjoyable read although personally I preferred In the Name of the Rose.

Pendulum is an expression of the author's rationalism and distrust, one might even say contempt, for the paranoiac "conspiracy theory". I believe it was inspired as a reaction to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, the DVC of its day.

 

[Jemima Aslana]

I got Pendulum for Christmas some years back, took me some time before I got around to reading it - so that didn't happen till last summer.

I enjoyed very much. I seldom pick up so heavy a book for leasure reading - I get plenty of the heavy stuff through my studies, so Pendulum was immediately put in the 'vacation-pile'. That was probably a wise decision. Had I attempted to read that after having read study books during the day my mind would've experienced a very uncomfortable melt-down - I must say, I too wonder how that man can know so much - it's mind-boggling, and I'm very envious

It's interesting, though, what with the DVC-craze Pendulum hasn't exactly been promoted visibly where I live as something along those same lines, whereas Holy Blood, Holy Grail is out in a new Danish translation in hardcover even.

One must wonder why they don't put Pendulum up there with them - perhaps for fear that people might realise it's better than the others?

Ah well, it's highly recommendable - I loved how confusing it is with jumping back and forth in time - kept me on my toes, and that's a place I like to be kept by a book hehe

 

[abecedarian]

I think I'll add this one to my short list. I'll make sure to keep my dictionary close at hand though, I may not be as smart as Ice

 

[blueboatdriver]

I'm reading it right now; about 250 pages in. I've used the dictionary a couple of times but like an earlier poster has said, try not to get bogged down with all the detail some of which could be checked out via Google. I'm really enjoying it and like others have said it blows Dan Browns, thrown togehter book, out of the water.

 

[abecedarian]

I ordered it from the library, so we'll see how long it takes to get here. I'm looking forward to it. It's not like there's nothing else to read around here, but this one sounds really interesting and you all seem to like it, so..maybe someday I can get to my Christmas books

 

[G4G]

I'm not going to finish this book. I think it's boring, and just an excuse for Eco to show off. There's an interesting story in there somewhere, but I can't be doing with all the intellectual babbling between the characters.

I had enough of Eco at college anyway.

 

[abecedarian]

I'm not going to finish this book. I think it's boring, and just an excuse for Eco to show off. There's an interesting story in there somewhere, but I can't be doing with all the intellectual babbling between the characters.

I had enough of Eco at college anyway.

How far did you get into the book before laying it aside? I'm bogged down somewhere just past 100 pages. I've got a lot on my mind lately, so that doesn't help either, but I'm wondering if I should move on too.