question_answer 10)

What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, The Name of the Rose?    

Answer:

Eco began writing narratives at the late age of about fifty. This satisfied his love for narration. He had become even more renowned after the publication of The Name of the Rose, although he had written five novels against over 40 scholarly works of non-fiction.   He said that The Name of the Rose was a serious novel. It was a detective story at one level but it also dug into metaphysics, theology, and medieval history. Yet, it was enjoyed by a large audience. Umberto Eco wasn't surprised but the journalists and some publishers were because they believed that people did not enjoy difficult reading experiences. Eco felt that there was a percentage of readers who did not want easy experiences. Even if they did enjoy reading trash, it was not all the time. Many books had been written about the medieval past but the reason for the success of his book was unknown. He felt that perhaps if he had written The Name of the Rose ten years earlier or ten years later, it wouldn't have been the same success.