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Title: Baudolino by Umberto Eco, William Weaver ISBN: 0-15-602906-5 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 06 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.05 (66 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Of the Holy Grail, Prester John, Unicorns, and More ...
Comment: This is one of the great shaggy dog stories of all time. But, as the author is Umberto Eco, it means that a whole lot of other things are going on as well. Baudolino is a barely literate Northern Italian peasant who somehow a close friend of Frederick I Barbarossa, the 12th Century Holy Roman Emperor. He feels grateful to his emperor, and strives to take his leadership to the next level, by an embassy to the lost Christian realm of Prester John. As a suitable gift to the mythical ruler, Baudolino takes an old drinking cup of his father's and calls it the Holy Grail.
Frederick goes along with the whole scheme -- anything to escape those endless wars with the petty Northern Italian states -- and sets out to the East. History states that Frederick drowned while crossing a river enroute to the Third Crusade. Eco invents a classical locked-room mystery to account for the emperor's death, and late in the book provides a neat answer that also satisfies the historians.
The whole story is told to a Byzantine official whom Baudolino saves. While they escape the ravages of the Fourth Crusade with its sacking of Constantinople, Baudolino spins an incredible tale encompassing much of the medieval bestiary and then some. On one hand, he is the most incredible liar who never lived: His kingdom of Prester John is located in one of those eternally disgruntled Muslim states of Central Asia in which, if there were ever any unicorns, they were long served as shish-kebabs.
There is a story about Freud and a mythical patient who spins out a long story for the great psychologist. "That's very interesting," said Freud. When the patient admits that the whole story was bogus, the response was, "That's even more interesting!"
Baudolino IS the Middle Ages personified, except for the minor detail that he is not much of a believer in this age of faith. Where the old maps say, "there be dragons here," Baudolino shows you the dragons. Perhaps, a more true statement is that Baudolino is the Medieval Imagination personified. Bogus or not, he created worlds within worlds that are endlessly enthralling. Be prepared for a wild ride in what must be one of the best books written in the last ten years.
Rating: 5
Summary: Adventures in the Middle Ages
Comment: We write the year 1204, and the Fourth Crusade is about to hit Constantinople. And there is Baudolino, youth of simple peasant stock, who is a stellar liar and linguist. This aptitude at languages brings him to the attention of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa who will keep him nearby. Barbarossa later sends him to Paris to study, and Baudolino takes up with some strange characters. But soon he has a new goal to pursue: Finding the Holy Grail and to bring it as a present to Prester John, the fabled Christian ruler over the Orient. And so our hero goes traveling from West to East, finally returning to his native village. Barbarossa has drowned in the meantime, and Baudolino tells most of his story to the Greek historian Niketas Choniates.
As usual, Mr. Eco will have his fun, and that in various languages. He guides us through long philosophical discourses and tries to pull the reader's leg now and then. One has to get joy out of this in order to call this a wonderful, intelligent book that is so very worthwhile reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: Magniloquently Mad
Comment: Yes, yes of course this novel isn't for everyone, and I must confess that I had a bit of a lark composing the negative reviews in my head that I was sure this lush novel would receive after reading it. In general, I was spot on. See here, if you don't enjoy immersing yourself in the arcana and minutiae of the Middle Ages, if you don't enjoy taking off through the picaresque pages of a book as if upon a fiery charger bent on some epic quest, regardless of the exhilarating fact that you don't quite know where you are heading, than this book is not for you---Neither is the classic, Don Quixote, I might add---But if you do enjoy such adventures, saddle up with ye olde lance in hand and prepare for a richly imaginative trek.-I might also add that I found the story of Baudolino's love for Hypatia quite beautiful and moving in its own right. 5 Swirling stars!
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Title: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0345368754 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 13 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears ISBN: 1573229865 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0156001314 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 28 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, William Weaver ISBN: 0140259198 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0156007517 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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