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Loading... Foucault's Pendulum (original 1988; edition 1988)by Umberto Eco
Work detailsFoucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (1988)
 cjyurkanin | May 22, 2013 |  In short: It's a Knights Templar type book, but weighted down with a mass of historical facts and sub plots. Some literary types set out to create a new conspiracy theory to sell to the masses with unintended consequences. Warning: this is not a fast paced thriller, at least not for the majority of the read. It's a impressive book, but not always a 'pleasant' easy going read. I don't think I've ever come so close to the sensation I get after heavy exercise as I approached the final few pages (or percent as I read the ebook version) That exhausted glow of happiness that you survived, that you actually made it to the end, yet translated to reading. I'm serious in this, there was triumph as I came to the close; I'm very glad I've done it, but I'm not sure I want to do it again for a while. And I generally like a good tombstone of a book. The slightly manic conversations between the protagonists as they brain storm ideas for the new 'theory' throwing in facts and references at random are where things bog down and there are a LOT of these moments, too many at times. While it created a nice sense of mania with these whirlwinds of thought, there are only so many times a reader can be spun around at speed before just thinking: I've been around in this circle before, progress please. But progress does come and when it does it's written in a wonderful style. Curiously, I've read the author's newest work, The Prague Cemetery, prior to this, and found it a much more balanced read and probably a better reading experience;in many ways both texts expand on similar themes and settings. Maybe Umberto Eco is mellowing as the years pass, which might not be a bad thing. These books are so good they really should be accessible to as many people as possible. Recommended, but be ready to pace yourself. (  ) Hubster | May 12, 2013 | I was browsing and realized I had started this book not that long ago (last year? the year before?). I didn't finish it and never even realized it, maybe I quit it and forgot, or lost it somewhere. I know I wasn't enjoying myself. Maybe if I had got past the halfway point I would have liked it. I didn't. I've read comments here about how the first 200-300 pages aren't really about anything. I'm sure that's why I put it down. That's just nonsense and kind of pisses me off. I'm not interested in a writer wasting my time in order to show the essential nature of time, and how it can be wasted. bongo_x | Apr 6, 2013 | I wanted to like this better than I did. There were some things I enjoyed, like the sheer ridiculousness of The Plan. But there were some things I really hated, like the shitty way this book treated female characters. Grr. Overall, if it hadn't been a short audiobook, I wouldn't have finished it. (  )1  GinnyTea | Mar 31, 2013 | Forget Dan Brown and others of the same ilk. This is the original rolled-neatly-into-one conspiracy theory to end all others. Eco is a Professor of Semiotics in Italy, and uses his vast understanding of symbolism to create a compelling read. ( ) Scribble.Orca | Mar 31, 2013 |
 Umberto Eco has launched a novel that is even more intricate and absorbing than his international best seller The Name of the Rose. Unlike its predecessor, Foucault's Pendulum does not restrict its range of interests to monastic, medieval arcana. This time Eco's framework is vast -- capacious enough to embrace reams of ancient, abstruse writings and a host of contemporary references or allusions... True believers, skeptics, those waffling in between: all are in for a scarifying shock of recognition. You may call the book an intellectual triumph, if not a fictional one. No man should know so much. It is the work not of a literary man but of one who accepts the democracy of signs. .... To see what Mr. Eco is really getting at, the reader of his fiction or pseudofiction should consult his scholarly works, where observation and interpretation are not disguised as entertainment. I don't think ''Foucault's Pendulum'' is entertainment any more than was ''The Name of the Rose.'' It will appeal to readers who have a puritanical tinge - those who think they are vaguely sinning if they are having a good time with a book. To be informed, however, is holy. I doubt if we will see a more exhilarating novel published this year, and you don't have to take a reviewer's word for it: can 600,000 Italians be wrong? U ovom delu Eko se lucidno podsmehnuo svim teorijama zavere od srednjeg veka do danas. Posle čitanja ovog romana sigurno je da će mnogi čitaoci pohrliti da obogate svoja saznanja o alhemiji, kabali i srednjovekovnim tajnim društvima. U ovom romanu Eko se lucidno podsmehnuo svim teorijama zavere od srednjeg veka do danas. Is contained in
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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It's always nice to find little things in used books: Appears to be a quiche recipe and a pressed leaf.
Done. And unsatisfied. Three ambiguous stars that could as easily fall towards one as they could to five. Perhaps it might have been better to have read this when it first came out, the sensational topics of conspiracies and Knights Templar having been all done to death in the past 20 years. Perhaps I should have waited until I was assured of a week of uninterrupted days at a beach house at the Outer Banks of North Carolina so as to be able to lose myself in the endless dialogue. Perhaps another Eco book will cure me of my inability to say I appreciate the author. Perhaps. Or perhaps the author really is pulling one over on everybody like the unreliable narrator of this novel. (