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PRAISE FOR FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM "An intellectual adventure story, as sensational, thrilling, and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo."--THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD "Endlessly diverting . . . Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose."--TIME
Product Description
Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel to have some fun. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truth
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not an easy read, indeed the first forty pages or so make some of the most intense demands on the reader of any book I have ever read, but if you have a love of the mysterious, the obscure and the sinister it is well worth persisting with. The way the story unfolds is quite ingenious and you will, if nothing else, learn a huge amount of obscure history along the way.
The basic premise of the plot is actually quite simple: three editors in a Milan publishing house specializing in wildly whacky works on the mystical and the occult begin, for their own amusement, to make speculative connections between the various way-out theories put forward in the manuscripts submitted for publication. To their amazement it soon transpires that they might be on to something, something so important that their own lives are suddenly put at risk.
Eco clearly had great fun with this, throwing every crack-pot theory and esoteric religious belief into the mix. The Templars are there, of course, as are the Rosicrucians, the darker branches of the Catholic church and the Masons. The Hollow Earth theory is given a spin, Khabbala is discussed, Dr Dee puts in an appearance and the measurements of the great pyramids in Egypt provide the answers to nearly everything. It is all beautifully explained, so outlandishly implausible that maybe, just maybe, it has to be true......
For a novel which is primarily about obscure branches of knowledge and the play of ideas the characters are actually surprisingly well drawn: Casaubon, the narrator of the story wondering just what it is they have stumbled upon; Belbo with his melancholy sense of the colourful road not travelled; Diotallevi, mild and knowledgeable, getting slightly drunk on mineral water, and the mysterious Aglie, who appears to have all the answers. Or, perhaps, all the answers bar one...
If you're looking for something imaginative and challenging, something which could perhaps be described as the Da Vinci Code's immeasurably smarter brother, then this could be for you. Demanding, but well worth the effort.
The basic premise of the plot is actually quite simple: three editors in a Milan publishing house specializing in wildly whacky works on the mystical and the occult begin, for their own amusement, to make speculative connections between the various way-out theories put forward in the manuscripts submitted for publication. To their amazement it soon transpires that they might be on to something, something so important that their own lives are suddenly put at risk.
Eco clearly had great fun with this, throwing every crack-pot theory and esoteric religious belief into the mix. The Templars are there, of course, as are the Rosicrucians, the darker branches of the Catholic church and the Masons. The Hollow Earth theory is given a spin, Khabbala is discussed, Dr Dee puts in an appearance and the measurements of the great pyramids in Egypt provide the answers to nearly everything. It is all beautifully explained, so outlandishly implausible that maybe, just maybe, it has to be true......
For a novel which is primarily about obscure branches of knowledge and the play of ideas the characters are actually surprisingly well drawn: Casaubon, the narrator of the story wondering just what it is they have stumbled upon; Belbo with his melancholy sense of the colourful road not travelled; Diotallevi, mild and knowledgeable, getting slightly drunk on mineral water, and the mysterious Aglie, who appears to have all the answers. Or, perhaps, all the answers bar one...
If you're looking for something imaginative and challenging, something which could perhaps be described as the Da Vinci Code's immeasurably smarter brother, then this could be for you. Demanding, but well worth the effort.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Foucault's Pendulum is very dense at the beginning and you wonder if you need wikipedia open to accompany your reading, but important concepts become clear as you're reading. The beauty of the novel is that it makes you question what is real, what is fiction, what is science and what is psychology and as you approach the end of the novel, everything ties together in what is beautiful, shocking and will stay with you for the rest of your life.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a day were the "The Da Vinci Code" is the bed time book of scores of families -- and other books are riding the popularity of it -- "Foucaults' Pendulum" remains the undisputed and unmatched book on "conspiration theories" and alternative christian interpretation. It's interesting that a work plainly marked as fiction and that doesn't pose for anything else is more well researched and backed than books that try to sell an "authoritary" look.
This book, while not without some small shortcomings, is adictive and extremely compelling. The Templars, the Priory, Christ, R+C, the Cathars, the FM, the Grail, all this and much, much more is connected in a game-like manner by the main characters in the book. The dialogues are witty and the characters well-developed.
It's harder to read than other books of the genre, but in a way "Foucault's Pendulum" is in it's own genre... the sheer ammount of information presented, the use of several languages, the use of unheard of symbols and facts, all combines to make the book a bit dense but very rewarding.
Eco, at the same time he exposes the leaps of faith and logic that some theories make in the way of reaching a suitable conclusion, shows the joy and motivation in the process of contructing alternative theories and even fleshes out some extremely interesting historic connections.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Foucault's Pendulum review
A bit difficult to get into but one you get hooked it is a great book. It is miles above the normal far-fetched conspiracy books. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Henk
Not The Da Vinci Code for Grown-ups
I couldn't have picked a more difficult book as my first review. This sat on my bookshelf for twenty years before dusting it off and having another go. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Moon Blossom
The pendulum swings
SAFE READING - NO SPOILERS
If you would like content details, go to the book's description; none here. Read more
If you would like content details, go to the book's description; none here. Read more
Published 9 months ago by RR Waller
Hard Work But Ultimately Rewarding
I came to Foucault's Pendulum after greatly enjoying Name of the Rose and this is a very different book altogether. Read more
Published 10 months ago by B. D. Hopkins
Tough going but well worth it
This is an absolutely fascinating, engrossing story and brilliantly written - but how to describe it? Read more
Published 15 months ago by Zanna T. Laws
Pretentious drivel...
No other book has incensed me so much for being an utter waste of my
time nor driven me to write such a negative review. Read more
time nor driven me to write such a negative review. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Tango_Alpha_Bravo
Brilliant
Not much to add to previous reviews, except to mention that the Turkish edition has more than 100 footnotes and a dictionary in the back, which help clarify the author's liberal... Read more
Published on 23 May 2010 by Z de MC
Lighten Up!
As initiates into the Orden del Cruz Rosado, Umberto, Dan and I pondered on the best means by which we could draw attention from our Hermandad, and concluded that hiding it in... Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by Steve Keen
the perfect antidote to the da vinci code
This is the 3rd eco book i've read , it is a difficult read like all his books but it is a good book . Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2009 by D. S. Sample
Eco is a polymath . . .
. . . so don't go near this wonderful book if you know that the things you don't know are not worth knowing. Read more
Published on 21 April 2009 by Yellow Duck
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