The Notes of Father Adson from Melk fell into the hands of a future translator and publisher in Prague in 1968. On the title page of the French book from the middle of the last century it is stated that it is a transcription from a Latin text of the 17th century, allegedly reproducing, in turn, the manuscript , created by a German monk at the end of the 14th century. Investigations undertaken regarding the author of the French translation, the Latin original, as well as the identity of Adson himself, did not bring results. Subsequently, the strange book (possibly a fake, existing in a single copy) disappears from the view of the publisher, who added another link to the unreliable chain of retellings of this medieval story.
In his declining years, the Benedictine monk Adson recalls the events that he witnessed and participated in in 1327. Europe was rocked by political and church strife. Emperor Louis confronts Pope John XXII. At the same time, the pope is fighting the monastic order of the Franciscans, in which the reform movement of non-acquisitive spiritualists, who had previously been subjected to severe persecution by the papal curia, prevailed. The Franciscans unite with the emperor and become a significant force in the political game.
During this turmoil, Adson, then still a young novice, accompanies the English Franciscan William of Baskerville on a journey through the cities and largest monasteries of Italy. William - a thinker and theologian, a natural scientist, famous for his powerful analytical mind, a friend of William of Occam and a student of Roger Bacon - carries out the emperor's task to prepare and conduct a preliminary meeting between the imperial Franciscan delegation and representatives of the Curia. William and Adson arrive at the abbey where it is to take place a few days before the arrival of the embassies. The meeting should take the form of a debate about the poverty of Christ and the church; its goal is to find out the positions of the parties and the possibility of a future visit of the Franciscan general to the papal throne in Avignon.
Before even entering the monastery, Wilhelm surprises the monks who went out in search of the runaway horse with precise deductive conclusions. And the abbot of the abbey immediately turns to him with a request to conduct an investigation into what happened in the monastery strange death. The body of the young monk Adelmo was found at the bottom of the cliff; perhaps he was thrown from the tower of a tall building overhanging the abyss, called here the Temple. The abbot hints that he knows the true circumstances of Adelmo's death, but he is bound by secret confession, and therefore the truth must come from other, unsealed lips.
Wilhelm receives permission to interview all monks without exception and examine any premises of the monastery - except for the famous monastery library. The largest in the Christian world, comparable to the semi-legendary libraries of the infidels, it is located on the top floor of the Temple; Only the librarian and his assistant have access to it; only they know the layout of the storage facility, built like a labyrinth, and the system for arranging books on the shelves. Other monks: copyists, rubricators, translators, flocking here from all over Europe, work with books in the copying room - the scriptorium. The librarian alone decides when and how to provide a book to the person who requested it, and whether to provide it at all, for there are many pagan and heretical works here. In the scriptorium, William and Adson meet the librarian Malachi, his assistant Berengar, the translator from Greek, an adherent of Aristotle, Venantius, and the young rhetorician Benzius. The late Adelm, a skilled draftsman, decorated the margins of manuscripts with fantastic miniatures. As soon as the monks laugh, looking at them, blind brother Jorge appears in the scriptorium with a reproach that laughter and idle talk are indecent in the monastery. This man, glorious in years, righteousness and learning, lives with the feeling of the onset of the last times and in anticipation of the imminent appearance of the Antichrist. Examining the abbey, Wilhelm comes to the conclusion that Adelm, most likely, was not killed, but committed suicide by throwing himself down from the monastery wall, and the body was subsequently transferred under the Temple by a landslide.
But that same night, the corpse of Venantius was discovered in a barrel of fresh blood from slaughtered pigs. Wilhelm, studying the traces, determines that the monk was killed somewhere else, most likely in Khramin, and thrown into a barrel already dead. But meanwhile there are no wounds, no damage or signs of struggle on the body.
Noticing that Benzius is more excited than others, and Berengar is openly frightened, Wilhelm immediately interrogates both. Berengar admits that he saw Adelm on the night of his death: the draftsman’s face was like the face of a dead man, and Adelm said that he was cursed and doomed to eternal torment, which he described to his shocked interlocutor very convincingly. Benzius reports that two days before Adelmo’s death, a debate took place in the scriptorium about the admissibility of the ridiculous in the depiction of the divine and that holy truths are better represented in rude bodies than in noble ones. In the heat of the argument, Berengar inadvertently let slip, although very vaguely, about something carefully hidden in the library. The mention of this was associated with the word “Africa”, and in the catalog, among the designations understandable only to the librarian, Benzius saw the “limit of Africa” visa, but when, becoming interested, he asked for a book with this visa, Malachi stated that all these books were lost. Benzius also talks about what he witnessed while following Berengar after the dispute. Wilhelm receives confirmation of Adelm's version of suicide: apparently, in exchange for some service that could be related to Berengar's capabilities as an assistant librarian, the latter persuaded the draftsman to the sin of Sodomy, the severity of which Adelm, however, could not bear and hastened to confess to the blind Jorge, but instead absolution received a formidable promise of inevitable and terrible punishment. The consciousness of the local monks is too excited, on the one hand, by a painful desire for book knowledge, on the other, by the constantly terrifying memory of the devil and hell, and this often forces them to literally see with their own eyes something they read or hear about. Adelm considers himself already in hell and in despair decides to take his own life.
William tries to examine the manuscripts and books on Venantius's desk in the scriptorium. But first Jorge, then Benzius, under various pretexts, distract him. Wilhelm asks Malachi to put someone on guard at the table, and at night, together with Adson, he returns here through the discovered underground passage, which the librarian uses after he locks the doors of the Temple from the inside in the evening. Among the papers of Venantius, they find a parchment with incomprehensible extracts and cryptographic signs, but on the table there is no book that William saw here during the day. Someone makes their presence known in the scriptorium with a careless sound. Wilhelm gives chase and suddenly a book that fell from the fugitive falls into the light of the lantern, but the unknown man manages to grab it before Wilhelm and escape.
At night, fear guards the library stronger than locks and prohibitions. Many monks believe that terrible creatures and the souls of dead librarians wander among books in the dark. Wilhelm is skeptical about such superstitions and does not miss the opportunity to study the vault, where Adson experiences the effects of illusion-generating distorting mirrors and a lamp soaked in a vision-inducing composition. The labyrinth turns out to be more complicated than Wilhelm expected, and only by chance they manage to discover the exit. From the alarmed abbot they learn about the disappearance of Berengar.
The dead assistant librarian is found only a day later in the bathhouse located next to the monastery hospital. The herbalist and healer Severin draws Wilhelm's attention to the fact that Berengar has traces of some substance on his fingers. The herbalist says that he saw the same ones at Venantius, when the corpse was washed from the blood. In addition, Berengar's tongue turned black - apparently the monk was poisoned before he drowned in the water. Severin says that once upon a time he kept an extremely poisonous potion, the properties of which he himself did not know, and it later disappeared under strange circumstances. Malachi, the abbot and Berengar knew about the poison. Meanwhile, embassies are coming to the monastery. Inquisitor Bernard Guy arrives with the papal delegation. Wilhelm does not hide his dislike for him personally and his methods. Bernard announces that from now on he himself will investigate incidents in the monastery, which, in his opinion, strongly smack of the devil.
Wilhelm and Adson again enter the library to draw up a plan for the labyrinth. It turns out that the storage rooms are marked with letters, from which, if you go through in a certain order, conventional words and names of countries are made up. The “limit of Africa” is also discovered - a disguised and tightly closed room, but they do not find a way to enter it. Bernard Guy detained and accused of witchcraft a doctor's assistant and a village girl, whom he brings at night to gratify the lust of his patron for the remains of monastery meals; Adson had also met her the day before and could not resist the temptation. Now the girl’s fate is decided - as a witch she will go to the stake.
The fraternal discussion between the Franciscans and the pope's representatives turns into a vulgar fight, during which Severin informs William, who remained aside from the battle, that he found a strange book in his laboratory. Their conversation is heard by the blind Jorge, but Benzius also guesses that Severin discovered something left from Berengar. The dispute, which resumed after a general pacification, was interrupted by the news that the herbalist was found dead in the hospital and the murderer had already been captured.
The herbalist's skull was fractured by a metal celestial globe standing on the laboratory table. Wilhelm is looking for traces of the same substance on Severin’s fingers as Berengar and Venantius, but the herbalist’s hands are covered with leather gloves used when working with dangerous drugs. The cellarer Remigius is caught at the scene of the crime, who tries in vain to justify himself and declares that he came to the hospital when Severin was already dead. Benzius tells William that he was one of the first to run in here, then watched those entering and was sure: Malachi was already here, waited in a niche behind the curtain, and then quietly mixed with other monks. Wilhelm is convinced that big book no one could get out of here secretly and if the murderer is Malachi, she must still be in the laboratory. Wilhelm and Adson begin their search, but lose sight of the fact that sometimes ancient manuscripts were bound several times into one volume. As a result, the book goes unnoticed by them among others that belonged to Severin, and ends up with the more perceptive Benzius.
Bernard Guy holds a trial of the cellarer and, having convicted him of once belonging to one of the heretical movements, forces him to accept the blame for the murders in the abbey. The inquisitor is not interested in who actually killed the monks, but he seeks to prove that the former heretic, now declared a murderer, shared the views of the Franciscan spiritualists. This allows him to disrupt the meeting, which, apparently, was the purpose for which he was sent here by the pope.
To William’s demand to give the book back, Benzius replies that, without even starting to read, he returned it to Malachi, from whom he received an offer to take the vacant position as an assistant librarian. A few hours later, during a church service, Malachi dies in convulsions, his tongue is black and there are marks on his fingers that are already familiar to Wilhelm.
The abbot announces to William that the Franciscan did not live up to his expectations and the next morning he must leave the monastery with Adson. Wilhelm objects that he has known about the sodomy monks, the settling of scores between whom the abbot considered the cause of the crimes, for a long time. However the real reason not this: those who know about the existence of the “limit of Africa” in the library are dying. The abbot cannot hide that William’s words led him to some kind of guess, but he insists all the more firmly on the Englishman’s departure; Now he intends to take matters into his own hands and under his own responsibility.
But Wilhelm is not going to retreat, because he has come close to the decision. By a chance hint from Adson, he manages to read the key that opens the “limit of Africa” in the secret writing of Venantius. On the sixth night of their stay in the abbey, they enter the secret room of the library. Blind Jorge is waiting for them inside.
Wilhelm expected to meet him here. The very omissions of the monks, entries in the library catalog and some facts allowed him to find out that Jorge was once a librarian, and when he felt that he was going blind, he first taught his first successor, then Malachi. Neither one nor the other could work without his help and did not take a single step without asking him. The abbot was also dependent on him, since he received his position with his help. For forty years the blind man has been the sovereign master of the monastery. And he believed that some of the library's manuscripts should forever remain hidden from anyone's eyes. When, due to the fault of Berengar, one of them - perhaps the most important - left these walls, Jorge made every effort to bring her back. This book is the second part of Aristotle’s Poetics, considered lost, and is dedicated to laughter and the funny in art, rhetoric, and the skill of persuasion. In order for its existence to remain a secret, Jorge does not hesitate to commit a crime, because he is convinced: if laughter is sanctified by the authority of Aristotle, the entire established medieval hierarchy of values will collapse, and the culture nurtured in monasteries remote from the world, the culture of the chosen and initiated, will swept away by the urban, grassroots, area.
Jorge admits that he understood from the very beginning: sooner or later Wilhelm would discover the truth, and watched how step by step the Englishman approached it. He hands Wilhelm a book, for the desire to see which five people have already paid with their lives, and offers to read it. But the Franciscan says that he has unraveled this devilish trick of his, and restores the course of events. Many years ago, having heard someone in the scriptorium expressing interest in the “limit of Africa,” the still sighted Jorge stole poison from Severin, but did not immediately use it. But when Berengar, out of boasting to Adelm, one day behaved unrestrainedly, the already blind old man goes upstairs and saturates the pages of the book with poison. Adelmo, who agreed to a shameful sin in order to touch the secret, did not take advantage of the information obtained at such a price, but, seized with mortal horror after confessing to Jorge, he tells Venantius about everything. Venantius gets to the book, but in order to separate the soft parchment sheets, he has to wet his fingers on his tongue. He dies before he can leave the Temple. Berengar finds the body and, fearing that the investigation will inevitably reveal what happened between him and Adelm, transfers the corpse to a barrel of blood. However, he also became interested in the book, which he snatched almost from Wilhelm’s hands in the scriptorium. He brings it to the hospital, where he can read at night without fear of being noticed by anyone. And when the poison begins to take effect, he rushes into the bath in the vain hope that the water will quench the flames that are devouring him from the inside. This is how the book gets to Severin. Jorge's messenger, Malachi, kills the herbalist, but dies himself, wanting to find out what is so forbidden in the item that made him a murderer. The last in this row is the abbot. After a conversation with Wilhelm, he demanded an explanation from Jorge, moreover: he demanded to open the “limit of Africa” and put an end to the secrecy established in the library by the blind man and his predecessors. Now he is suffocating in a stone bag of another underground passage to the library, where Jorge locked him and then broke the door control mechanisms.
“So the dead died in vain,” says Wilhelm: now the book has been found, and he managed to protect himself from Jorge’s poison. But in fulfillment of his plan, the elder is ready to accept death himself. Jorge tears the book and eats the poisoned pages, and when Wilhelm tries to stop him, he runs, accurately navigating the library from memory. The lamp in the hands of the pursuers still gives them some advantage. However, the overtaken blind man manages to take away the lamp and throw it aside. Spilled oil starts a fire; Wilhelm and Adson rush to get water, but return too late. The efforts of all the brethren, raised by alarm, lead nowhere; The fire bursts out and spreads from the Temple, first to the church, then to the rest of the buildings.
Before Adson’s eyes, the richest monastery turns into ashes. The abbey burns for three days. By the end of the third day, the monks, having collected the little that they managed to save, leave the smoking ruins as a place cursed by God.
Retold
Composition
In the novel “The Name of the Rose” Umberto Eco paints a picture medieval world, accurately describes historical events. For his work, the author chose interesting composition. In the so-called introduction, he reports that he came across an old manuscript of a monk named Adson, who talks about the events that happened to him in the 11th century. As a guarantee of nervous tension, the author is captured by Adson’s terrifying story and rearranges it for modern reader. The further account of events is supposedly a translation of an ancient manuscript. Adson's manuscript itself is divided into seven sections according to the number of days dedicated to the service. Thus, the action in the novel takes place over seven days.
The story begins from the prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Adson's work refers us to the events of 1327. It must be said that Umberto Eco, as a sincere expert on the Middle Ages, is extremely accurate in the events described.
So, the events take place at the beginning of the 14th century. A young monk, Adson, on whose behalf the story is told, assigned to the learned Franciscan William of Baskerville, arrives at the monastery. Wilhelm, who was an inquisitor, is assigned to investigate unexpected death monk Adelmo of Otran. Wilhelm and his assistant begin to conduct the investigation; they are allowed to talk and walk everywhere except the library. But the investigation reaches a point of despair, since all traces of the crime lead to the library, which is main value and the abbey treasury, which contains huge amount priceless books. Even monks are prohibited from entering the library, and books are not issued to everyone. In addition, the library is a labyrinth, with legends about “will-o’-the-wisps” and “monsters” associated with it. Wilhelm and Adson visit the library under cover of darkness, from which they manage to escape with some difficulty. There they encounter new mysteries.
Wilhelm and Adson learn about the secret life of the abbey (meetings of monks with corrupt women, homosexuality, drug use). Adson himself is seduced by a local peasant woman. At this time, new murders occur in the abbey (Venantius is found in a barrel of blood, Berengar of Arundel in a bath of water, Severin of Santa Emmer in his room with herbs), connected with the same secret, which leads to the library, namely to a certain book. Wilhelm and Adson manage to partially unravel the labyrinth of the library and find a hiding place - a walled room in which the treasured book “The Border of Africa” is preserved.
To solve the murders, Cardinal Bertrand of Podget arrives at the abbey and immediately gets down to business. He detains Salvatore, a wretched freak who, wanting to attract the attention of a woman with the help of a black cat, a rooster and two eggs, was detained along with an unfortunate peasant woman. The woman (Adson recognized her as his friend) was charged with witchcraft and thrown into prison.
When the cellarer Remigius finished drinking in despair, he takes upon himself all the murders: Adelma from Ontanto, Venantius and Salvemek “for being too learned,” Berengar of Arundel “out of hatred for the library,” Severin of Sant’Zmeran “for collecting herbs "
But Adson and Wilhelm manage to unravel the mystery of the library. Jorge, a blind old man, the chief keeper of the library, hides from everyone the “Border of Africa”, in which another book is preserved - Aristotle’s “Poetics”, which is of great interest, around which there are endless disputes in the abbey. Hook, for example, is forbidden to laugh in the abbey. Jorge condemns everyone who laughs or even draws without permission funny pictures. In his opinion, Christ never laughed, and he forbids others to laugh. Everyone treats Jorge with respect. They fear him. Jorge was the actual ruler of the abbey for many years, he knew and kept all its secrets from others, and when he began to go blind, he allowed a monk to the library, who did not understand anything, but obeyed him. When the situation got out of control and many people wanted to unravel the mystery of “The Borders of Africa” and take possession of Aristotle’s book, Jorge steals poison from Severin’s laboratory and saturates the pages of the treasured book with it. The monks, leafing through the pages and wetting their fingers with saliva, gradually die. With the help of Malachy, Jorge kills Severin and closes the abbot, who also dies.
Wilhelm and his assistant are investigating all this. In the end, Jorge gives them to read Aristotle’s “Poetics,” which contains thoughts about the sinfulness of laughter. According to Aristotle, laughter has educational value; he equates it to art. For Aristotle, laughter is a “good, pure force.” Laughter can free you from fear; when a person laughs, he does not think about death. However, the law can only be adhered to through fear. From this idea “a Luciferian spark could fly out,” from this book “a new, crushing desire could be born to destroy death through liberation from fear.” This is what Jorge is so afraid of. All his life, Jorge did not laugh and forbade others to do so; this gloomy old man, who hides the truth from everyone, defended untruth.
During the pursuit, Jorge Adson loses the lantern and a fire breaks out in the library, which cannot be extinguished. Three days later the entire abbey burns to the ground. Only a few years later, Adson, traveling in those places, comes to the ashes, finds some precious scraps, and then, one word at a time, can restore at least a small list of lost books. Such an interesting plot of the novel. “The Name of the Rose” is a kind of detective story, the action of which takes place in a medieval monastery.
At first, W. Eco wanted to call the book “Abbey of Crimes,” but such a title set readers up for detective story and would confuse those who are only interested in intrigue. The author’s dream of calling the novel “Adson with Melk” seems to take a neutral position. The title “The Name of the Rose,” notes W. Eco, suited him, “since the rose is a symbolic figure, so saturated with content that it has almost no content... The title, as intended, disorients the reader... The title should confuse thoughts, not discipline them " Thus, the writer emphasizes that the text is alive in its own life. Hence new, different interpretations, to which the title of the novel should set the tone.
Italo Calvino, a famous Italian writer of the 20th century, whose work is also associated with modernism, wrote: “Who are we, who are any of us, if not a combination of experience, information, reading and fiction? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, a register of objects, a set of games that are continuously mixed and ordered in arbitrary combinations. With his novel, W. Eco brought home the justice of this. The novel is accompanied by “Marginal Notes” of “The Name of the Rose,” in which the author brilliantly talks about the creation of his novel. The novel ends Latin phrase, which is translated as follows: “Rose by name, the former - with ours in further names" As the author himself notes, it raised many questions, so the “Marginal Notes” of “The Name of the Rose” begin with an “explanation” of the contents of the title.
“I wrote a novel because I wanted to,” writes the author. I think this is reason enough to sit down and start talking. I started writing in March 1978. I wanted to poison the monk. I think that any novel is born from such thoughts. Other pulp is born by itself.”
The novel takes place during the Middle Ages. The author writes: “At first I was going to settle the monks in a modern monastery. But since any monastery, and especially an abbey, is still alive with the memory of the Middle Ages, I woke up the medievalist in me from hibernation and began to delve into my own archive. 1956 monograph on medieval aesthetics, one hundred pages from 1969 on the same topic; several articles; class medieval culture in 1962, in connection with Joyce; finally, in 1972 - a large follow-up from the Apocalypse and illustrations for the interpretation of the Apocalypse by Beat of Lieban: in general, my Middle Ages were maintained in combat readiness. I raked out a pile of materials - notes, photocopies, extracts. All this was selected, starting in 1952, for rather incomprehensible purposes: for the history of freaks, for a book about medieval encyclopedias, for the theory of lists... At some point I decided that since the Middle Ages are my mental everyday life, it would be easier to place the action directly in the Middle Ages "
“So, I decided that the story would not only be about the Middle Ages. I decided that the story would begin from the Middle Ages, from the mouth of a chronicler of that era,” writes the author. For this purpose, Umberto Eco re-read a huge number of medieval chronicles, “learned rhythm, naivety.” According to Eco, working on a novel is a cosmological undertaking: “For a story, first of all, it is necessary to create a certain world, arranging it as best as possible, thinking through the details. In the world I created, History played a special role. Therefore, I endlessly re-read medieval chronicles and, as I read, I realized that I would inevitably have to introduce things into the novel that I didn’t even think about at first - for example, the struggle for poverty and the persecution of the Inquisition on the floor of the brothers.
Il nome della Rosa (“The Name of the Rose”) is a book that debuted on literary field Professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna U. Eco. The novel was first published in nineteen eighty in the original language (Italian). Next piece author, "Foucault's Pendulum", was an equally successful bestseller and finally introduced the author into the world great literature. But in this article we will retell summary"In the name of the rose." There are two versions of the origin of the novel's title. Historian Umberto Eco takes us back to the era of debates between nominalists and realists, who debated what would remain of the name of the rose if the flower itself disappeared. But the title of the novel also evokes an allusion to love line plot. Having lost his beloved, the hero Adson cannot even cry over her name, since he does not know it.
Roman-Matryoshka
The work “The Name of the Rose” is very complex and multifaceted. From the very preface, the author confronts the reader with the possibility that everything he reads about in this book will turn out to be a historical fake. In 1968, a certain translator in Prague received the Notes of Father Adson of Melk. This is a book on French, published in the mid-nineteenth century. But it is also a retelling of a seventeenth-century Latin text, which, in turn, is an edition of a late fourteenth-century manuscript. The manuscript was created by a monk from Melk. Historical research into the identity of the medieval author of the notes, as well as the scribes of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, has not yielded any results. Thus, the author of the novel delicately crosses out from reliable historical events a brief summary of your work. “The Name of the Rose” is replete with documentary errors. And academic historians criticize the novel for this. But what events do we need to know about in order to understand the intricacies of the plot?
Historical context in which the novel takes place (summary)
“The Name of the Rose” sends us to the month of November one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven. At that time Western Europe rocked by church strife. The papal curia is in “Avignon captivity”, under the heel of the French king. John the Twenty-Second is fighting on two fronts. On the one hand, he opposes the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Fourth of Bavaria, and on the other, he is fighting against his own servants of the Church. Francis of Assisi, who founded the Friars Minor, advocated absolute poverty. He called for giving up worldly wealth in order to follow Christ. After the death of Francis, the papal curia, mired in luxury, decided to send his students and followers into the walls of the monasteries. This caused a split among the members of the order. From it emerged the Franciscan Spiritualists, who continued to take the position of apostolic poverty. The pope declared them heretics, and persecution began. The Emperor took advantage of this in his struggle for investiture, and supported the spiritualists. Thus, they become a significant political force. As a result, the parties entered into negotiations. The Franciscan delegation, supported by the emperor, and representatives of the Pope were to meet in an unnamed monastery on the borders of Savoy, Piedmont and Liguria. The main events of the novel unfold in this monastery. Let us remember that the discussion about the poverty of Christ and His Church is only a screen behind which intense political intrigues are hidden.
Historical detective
An erudite reader will certainly recognize the connection between Eco's novel and Conan Doyle's stories. To do this, it is enough to know its brief content. “The Name of the Rose” appears before us as the most careful notes of Adson. Here an allusion is immediately born about Doctor Watson, who in more detail described the investigations of his friend Sherlock Holmes. Of course, both heroes of the novel are monks. William of Baskerville, whose small homeland makes us recall Conan Doyle's story about an ominous dog on the moors, came to the Benedictine monastery on behalf of the emperor to prepare a meeting of spiritualists with representatives of the papal curia. But as soon as he and novice Adson of Melk approached the monastery, events began to unfold so rapidly that they relegated the issues of the dispute about the poverty of the apostles and the Church to the background. The novel takes place over a period of one week. Mysterious murders that follow one after another keep the reader in suspense all the time. Wilhelm, a diplomat, a brilliant theologian and, as evidenced by his dialogue with Bernard Guy, a former inquisitor, volunteered to find the culprit of all these deaths. “The Name of the Rose” is a book that is a detective novel in genre.
How a diplomat becomes an investigator
Where the meeting of the two delegations was supposed to take place, the Franciscan William of Baskerville and the novice Adson of Melk arrive a few days before the start of the dispute. During its course, the parties had to express their arguments regarding the poverty of the Church as the heir of Christ and discuss the possibility of the arrival of the spiritual general Michael Tsezensky in Avignon to the papal throne. But only upon approaching the gates of the monastery, the main characters meet the monks who ran out in search of the runaway mare. Here Wilhelm surprises everyone with his “deductive method” (another Umberto Eco reference to Conan Doyle), describing the horse and indicating the location of the animal. Abbon, amazed by the Franciscan's deep mind, asks him to look into the case of a strange death that happened within the walls of the monastery. Adelm's body was found at the bottom of the cliff. It looked like he had been thrown from the window of a tower hanging over the abyss, called the Temple. Abbon hints that he knows something about the circumstances of the death of the draftsman Adelmo, but he is bound by a vow of secrecy of confession. But he gives Wilhelm the opportunity to investigate and interrogate all the monks in order to identify the killer.
Temple
Abbon allowed the investigator to examine all corners of the monastery, except the library. She occupied the third, top floor of the Temple - a giant tower. The library had the reputation of the largest book depository in Europe. It was built like a labyrinth. Only the librarian Malachi and his assistant Berengar had access to it. The second floor of the Temple was occupied by a scriptorium, where scribes and illustrators worked, one of whom was the late Adelm. After conducting a deductive analysis, Wilhelm came to the conclusion that no one killed the draftsman, but he himself jumped from the high monastery wall, and his body was carried by a landslide under the walls of the Temple. But this is not the end of the novel and its summary. The Name of the Rose keeps the reader in constant suspense. The next morning another body was discovered. It was difficult to call it suicide: the body of Venantius, an adherent of the teachings of Aristotle, was sticking out of a barrel of pig’s blood (Christmas was approaching, and the monks were slaughtering cattle to make sausages). The victim also worked in a scriptorium. And this forced Wilhelm to pay more attention to the mysterious library. The riddle of the labyrinth began to interest him after Malachi’s rebuff. He alone decided whether to provide the book to the monk who requested it, citing the fact that the repository contained many heretical and pagan manuscripts.
Scriptorium
Not being allowed into the library, which will become the center of intrigue in the narrative of the novel “The Name of the Rose,” the heroes Wilhelm and Adson spend a lot of time on the second floor of the Temple. Talking with the young scribe Benzius, the investigator learns that in the scriptorium two parties are silently, but nevertheless fiercely confronting each other. Young monks are always ready to laugh, while older monks consider fun to be an unacceptable sin. The leader of this party is the blind monk Jorge, who is reputed to be a holy righteous man. He is overwhelmed by eschatological expectations and the end of times. But the draftsman Adelm so skillfully depicted the funny animals of the bestiary that his comrades could not help but laugh. Benzius let it slip that two days before the illustrator’s death, a silent confrontation in the scriptorium turned into a verbal skirmish. The discussion was about the admissibility of depicting the funny in theological texts. Umberto Eco uses this discussion to lift the veil of secrecy: there is a book in the library that could decide the debate in favor of the champions of fun. Berenguer let slip the existence of labor, which was associated with the words “the limit of Africa.”
Deaths connected by one logical thread
“The Name of the Rose” is a postmodern novel. The author, in the image of William of Baskerville, subtly parodies Sherlock Holmes. But, unlike the London detective, the medieval investigator does not keep up with events. He cannot prevent the crime, and murders follow one after another. And in this we see a hint of “Ten Little Indians” by Agatha Christie. But all these murders, one way or another, are connected with the mysterious book. Wilhelm learns the details of Adelm's suicide. Berengar persuaded him to have a sodomite relationship, promising for this a certain service that he could perform as an assistant librarian. But the draftsman could not bear the weight of his sin and ran to confess. And since the adamant Jorge was the confessor, Adelm could not ease his soul, and in despair he took his own life. It was not possible to interrogate Berengar: he disappeared. Feeling that all the events in the scriptorium are connected with the book, Wilhelm and Adson enter the Temple at night, using an underground passage, which they learned about by spying on the librarian’s assistant. But the library turned out to be a complex labyrinth. The heroes barely found a way out of it, having experienced the effects of all sorts of traps: mirrors, lamps with mind-numbing oil, etc. The missing Berengar was found dead in the bathhouse. The monastery doctor Severin shows Wilhelm strange black marks on the fingers and tongue of the deceased. The same ones were discovered earlier in Venantius. Severin also said that he had lost a bottle of a very toxic substance.
Big politics
With the arrival of two delegations to the monastery, in parallel with the detective story, the “political” plot line of the book “The Name of the Rose” begins to develop. The novel is replete with historical flaws. Thus, inquisitor Bernard Guy, having arrived on a diplomatic mission, begins to investigate not heretical errors, but criminal crimes - murders within the walls of the monastery. The author of the novel immerses the reader in the vicissitudes of theological disputes. Meanwhile, Wilhelm and Adson enter the library a second time and study the layout of the labyrinth. They also find the “limit of Africa” - a tightly locked secret room. Meanwhile, Bernard Guy is unusual for himself, judging by historical sources, uses methods to investigate murders. He arrests and accuses the doctor's assistant, the former Dolcinian Balthazar, and a beggar girl who came to the monastery to sell her body for scraps from the refectory of witchcraft. A scientific dispute between representatives of the Curia and spiritualists turns into a trivial fight. But the author of the novel again takes the reader away from the plane of theology into the exciting genre of detective fiction.
Murder weapon
While Wilhelm was watching the fight, Severin arrived. He reported that he had found a strange book in his infirmary. Naturally, this is the same one that Berengar took out of the library, since his body was found in a bathhouse not far from the hospital. But Wilhelm cannot leave, and after a while everyone is shocked by the news of the doctor’s death. Severin's skull was fractured, and the cellarer Remigius was captured at the scene of the crime. He claims that he found the doctor already dead. But Benzius, a very shrewd young monk, told William that he ran to the infirmary first, and then watched for those entering. He is sure that the librarian Malachi was here and was hiding somewhere, and then mixed with the crowd. Realizing that the killer of the doctor had not yet managed to take out the book brought here by Berengar, Wilhelm looks through all the notebooks in the infirmary. But he overlooks the fact that several manuscript texts can be sewn into one volume. Therefore, the more perceptive Benzius gets the book. It is not for nothing that reader reviews call the novel “The Name of the Rose” very multifaceted. The plot brings the reader back to the plane big politics. It turns out that Bernard Guy arrived at the monastery with the secret goal of disrupting the negotiations. To do this, he took advantage of the murders that befell the monastery. He accuses the former Dolcinian of the crimes, claiming that Balthasar shares the heretical views of spiritualists. Thus, they all share some of the blame.
Solving the mystery of a mysterious book and a series of murders
Benzius gave the volume to Malachi without even opening it, since he was offered the post of assistant librarian. And it saved his life. Because the pages of the book were saturated with poison. Malachi also felt its effect - he died in convulsions right during the mass. His tongue and fingertips were black. But then Abbon calls William to him and firmly announces that he must leave the monastery the next morning. The abbot is confident that the reason for the murders was to settle scores between homosexuals. But he is not going to give up. After all, he had already come close to solving the riddle. He solved the key that opens the "Africa's Reach" room. And on the sixth night of their stay in the monastery, Wilhelm and Adson again entered the library. “The Name of the Rose” is a novel by Umberto Eco, the narrative of which either flows slowly, like a calm river, or develops rapidly, like a thriller. In the secret room, blind Jorge is already waiting for uninvited guests. In his hands is that same book - the lost single copy of Aristotle’s work “On Laughter,” the second part of “Poetics.” This “gray cardinal,” who kept everyone in subjection, including the abbot, while still sighted, soaked the pages of the book he hated with poison so that no one could read it. Aristotle enjoyed great reverence among theologians in the Middle Ages. Jorge feared that if laughter was confirmed by such authority, then his entire system of values, which he considered to be the only Christian ones, would collapse. To do this, he lured the abbot into a stone trap and broke the mechanism that unlocked the door. The blind monk invites Wilhelm to read a book. But having learned that he knows the secret of the sheets soaked in poison, he begins to absorb the sheets himself. Wilhelm tries to take the book from the old man, but he, having a good sense of direction in the labyrinth, runs away. And when they overtake him, he pulls out the lamp and throws it into the rows of books. The spilled oil immediately engulfs the parchments in fire. Wilhelm and Adson miraculously escape from the scene of the fire. The flames from the Temple spread to other buildings. Three days later, only smoking ruins remain on the site of the richest monastery.
Is there a moral in postmodern writing?
Humor, allusions and references to other works of literature, a detective plot superimposed on the historical context of the early fourteenth century - these are not all the “tricks” with which “The Name of the Rose” attracts the reader. Analysis of this work allows us to judge that behind the apparent entertainment lies deep meaning. Main actor is not William of Canterbury, and certainly not the humble author of the notes, Adson. This is the Word that some are trying to reveal and others are trying to drown out. The problem of internal freedom is raised by the author and rethought again. Kaleidoscope of quotes famous works on the pages of the novel more than once makes the erudite reader smile. But along with witty syllogisms, we also encounter more important problem. This idea of tolerance, the ability to respect the universal world of another person. The issue of freedom of speech, the truth, which must be “proclaimed from the rooftops,” is opposed to the presentation of one’s rightness as the last authority, to attempts to impose one’s point of view not by persuasion, but by force. In a time when the atrocities of ISIS make European values intolerable heresy, this novel seems even more relevant.
“Notes on the margins of “The Name of the Rose””
After its publication, the novel became a bestseller in a matter of months. Readers simply flooded the author of “The Name of the Rose” with letters with questions about the book. Therefore, in nineteen eighty-three, U. Eco finally allowed the curious into his “creative laboratory.” “Notes on the margins of “The Name of the Rose”” are written witty and entertaining. In them, the bestselling author reveals the secrets of a successful novel. Six years after the novel's publication, The Name of the Rose was filmed. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud was involved in the filming famous actors. skillfully played the role of William of Baskerville. The young but very talented actor Christian Slater played Adson. The film was a great success at the box office, was worth the investment and won numerous awards at film competitions. But Eco himself was very dissatisfied with this film adaptation. He believed that the screenwriter greatly simplified his work, making it a product popular culture. Since then, he has refused all directors who asked for the opportunity to film his works.
Pierre Bezukhov's love for Natasha
war peace love bezukhov
Subject true love and spiritual beauty is one of the main ones in the novel “War and Peace”. It should be noted that almost all the heroes of the novel are subjected to the test of love. They come to true love and mutual understanding after experiencing suffering, torment, and going through many obstacles.
When Pierre met Natasha, he was amazed and attracted by her purity and naturalness. “This same look of hers sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the gaze of this funny, lively girl he wanted to laugh himself, not knowing why” (volume 1). Feelings for her had already timidly begun to grow in his soul when Bolkonsky and Natasha fell in love with each other. The joy of their happiness mixed in his soul with sadness. “Something very important is happening between them,” Pierre thought, and a joyful and at the same time bitter feeling made him worry... Yes, yes,” Pierre confirmed, looking at his friend with tender and sad eyes. The brighter the fate of Prince Andrei seemed to him, the darker his own seemed to him” (volume 2). Unlike Andrey, kind heart Pierre understood and forgave Natasha after the incident with Anatoly Kuragin. At first he despised her: “The sweet impression of Natasha, whom he had known since childhood, could not be combined in his soul with new ideas about her baseness, stupidity and cruelty.” Although Pierre tried to despise Natasha, when he saw her, exhausted and suffering, “a never-before-experienced feeling of pity filled Pierre’s soul.” Love entered his “soul, which blossomed towards a new life.” In my opinion, Pierre understood Natasha because her connection with Anatole was similar to his infatuation with Helen. Pierre was captured external beauty Helen, but her “mystery” turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity, depravity. Natasha was also carried away by Anatole’s external beauty, and in communication “she felt with horror that there was no barrier between him and her.” But also “it never occurred to her that from her relationship with Pierre could come not only love on her part, or, even less, on his part, but even that kind of tender, self-recognizing, poetic friendship between a man and a woman, which she knew several examples” (volume 3).
When Natasha felt bad, she “was only happy with Pierre. It was impossible to treat her more tenderly, more carefully and at the same time more seriously than Count Bezukhov treated her. Natasha unconsciously felt this tenderness of treatment and therefore found great pleasure in his company” (volume 3). He was the only one who brought joy and light into the Rostov house when Natasha was tormented by remorse, suffered, and hated herself for everything that happened. She did not see reproach or indignation in Pierre's eyes. He idolized her. And Natasha idolized him only because he existed in the world and that he was her only consolation. He was dear to her and lived in her heart all this time “I don’t know myself, but I wouldn’t want to do anything that you wouldn’t like. I believe you in everything. You don't know how important you are to me and how much you have done for me. Kinder, more generous, I don’t know a better person than you” (volume 3).
Pierre never said anything about his feelings for Natasha; The idea of her transported him instantly to another, bright area of mental activity, in which there could be no right or wrong, to the area of beauty and love, for which it was worth living” (Volume 3).
Pierre retained his love for Natasha, went through many obstacles with her, and, having met Rostova, he did not recognize her. They both believed that after everything they had experienced, they would be able to feel joy, love awoke in their hearts: “suddenly it smelled and filled with long-forgotten happiness, and the forces of life began to beat, and a joyful madness took possession of them.” “Love has awakened, life has awakened.” The power of love revived Natasha after the mental apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei. Natasha's love was Pierre's reward for all the hardships and mental anguish. She, like an angel, entered his life, illuminating it with warmth and gentle light. Finally, Pierre found happiness in life.
Nobody knows whether Natasha would be happy if she married Andrei or not. But I think that she will be better off with Pierre, because they love each other and respect each other. At the same time, Tolstoy does not connect them at the beginning of the novel, I think, because both Pierre and Natasha had to go through all the trials, all the torment and suffering in order to find happiness. Both Natasha and Pierre did enormous spiritual work, carried their love through the years, and over the years so much wealth accumulated that their love became even more serious and deeper. Only a sensitive and understanding person can approach happiness, because happiness is the reward for the tireless work of the soul.
The family of Natasha and Pierre is an image ideal family, according to Tolstoy. That family where husband and wife are one, where there is no place for conventions and unnecessary affectation, where the sparkle of eyes and a smile can say much more than long, confusing phrases. It was most important for Natasha to feel Pierre’s soul, to understand what worries him, to guess his desires, “she felt that those charms were now only funny in the eyes of her husband, she felt that her connection with her husband was maintained not by those poetic feelings, but by what -different, indefinite, solid, like the connection of her own soul with her body.”
Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace"
Pierre's explanation with Natasha Rostova.
That evening Pierre went to the Rostovs to fulfill his assignment.
Natasha, emaciated, with a pale and stern face (not at all ashamed as Pierre expected her), stood in the middle of the living room.
When Pierre appeared at the door, she hurried, apparently undecided whether to approach him or wait for him. Pierre hurriedly approached her. He thought that she would give him her hand, as always; but she, coming close to him, stopped, breathing heavily and lifelessly lowering her hands, in exactly the same position in which she went out into the middle of the hall to sing, but with a completely different expression.
“Pyotr Kirilych,” she began to speak quickly, “Prince Bolkonsky was your friend, he is your friend,” she corrected herself (it seemed to her that everything had just happened and that now everything is different).
- He told me then to turn to you...
Pierre silently sniffled, looking at her. He still reproached her in his soul and tried to despise her; but now he felt so sorry for her that there was no room for reproach in his soul.
- He is here now, tell him... so that he just... forgives me.
- She stopped and began to breathe even more often, but did not cry.
“Yes... I’ll tell him,” Pierre said, “but...” He didn’t know what to say.
Natasha, apparently, was frightened by the thought that could come to Pierre.
“No, I know it’s over,” she said hastily.
- No, this can never happen. I am tormented only by the evil that I did to him. Just tell him that I ask him to forgive, forgive, forgive me for everything... -
She shook all over and sat down on a chair.
A never-before-experienced feeling of pity filled Pierre's soul.
“I’ll tell him, I’ll tell him again,” said Pierre, “but... I would like to know one thing...
“What do we know?” asked Natasha’s gaze.
- I would like to know if you loved...
- Pierre did not know what to call Anatole, and blushed at the thought of him - did you love this bad man?
“Don’t call him bad,” said Natasha.
“But I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything...” She began to cry again.
And one more thing more feeling Pierre was overcome with pity, tenderness and love. He could hear the tears running under his glasses and hoped they wouldn't be noticed.
“Let’s say no more, my friend,” said Pierre.
His meek, gentle, sincere voice suddenly seemed so strange to Natasha.
- Let’s not talk, my friend, I’ll tell him everything; but I ask you one thing - consider me your friend, and if you need help, advice, you just need to pour out your soul to someone - not now, but when it is clear in your soul - remember me.
- He took and kissed her hand.
“I’ll be happy if I’m able to...” Pierre became embarrassed.
- Don't talk to me like that: I'm not worth it! - Natasha screamed and wanted to leave the room, but Pierre held her hand. He knew he needed to tell her something more. But when he said this, he was surprised at his own words.
“Stop it, stop it, your whole life is ahead of you,” he told her.
- For me? No! “Everything is lost for me,” she said with shame and self-humiliation.
- Is everything gone? - he repeated. - If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best man in the world and if I were free, I would be on my knees right now asking for your hand and love.
For the first time after many days, Natasha cried with tears of gratitude and tenderness and, looking at Pierre, left the room.
Pierre, too, almost ran out into the hall after her, holding back the tears of tenderness and happiness that were choking his throat, not falling into his sleeves, put on his fur coat and sat down in the sleigh.
- Now where do you want to go? - asked the coachman.
'Where? - Pierre asked himself. -Where can we go now? Is it really to the club or on a visit?′
All people seemed so pitiful, so poor in comparison with the feeling of tenderness and love that he experienced; in comparison with the softened, grateful look with which she looked at him the last time because of her tears.
“Home,” said Pierre, despite the ten degrees of frost, opening his bear coat on his wide, joyfully breathing chest.
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Bach's music
Read by Viktor Astrakhantsev
