The Name of the Rose (novel)

Reading period: Q1 2011 – Q4 2013 (intermittently).

Spoiler alert

Plot

A pair of monks/friars came to the monastery, it was winter and they were called to solve the crimes happening there.
The plot takes place during seven days + comment of the narrator many years later.
Monks mysteriously die.
William and Adso investigate.
They get into the library with labyrinth.
- There are many volumes by “infidels” (Muslim authors from Africa).
They are only suspicious of some monks (e.g. librarian Malachi).
In the end, it’s shown to be caused by old monk Jorge who’s afraid that a book by Aristotle may destroy the faith/obedience of the people.
Some of the deaths were suicides, some of them murders and some were poisonings by the book (which was poisoned by Jorge).
The finale is tragic:
- abbot dies when baited by the Jorge into the library,
- Jorge wanting to destroy the book sets the whole library on fire,
- the fire later extends to the whole monastery and surroundings,
- everything is destroyed and the abbey is abandoned.

There are many characters to remember (especially when reading takes over two years).

in the end is killed/left to die by the old monk Jorge
- Jorge is actually responsible for all the deaths (indirectly)
- the book of Aristotles

inquisitor to come the the abbey
he wanted to get a victim, he revealed “heretic” history of one the monks (the cellarer?)