Foucault's Pendulum

umberto eco william weaver

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.

Genres fictionhistorical fictionmysteryliteratureclassicsitalian literaturethrillerphilosophyitalynovels

641 pages, Paperback

First published October 4,1988

Literary awards

pen translation prize, premio bancarella, ars translationis,

Places

italy, milan lombardy,

This edition

Format: 641 pages, Paperback
Published: June 1, 2001 by Vintage
ISBN: 9780099287155
ASIN: 0099287153
Language: English

Characters More characters

Jacopo Belbo

...
Diotallevi

...
Casaubon

...
Signor Casaubon

The narrator. He had been a student in 1970s Milan, working on a thesis on the history of the Knights Templar while taking in the revolutionary and counter-revolutionary activities of the students around him....
Belbo

An editor in a publishing house....
Dr. Diotallevi

A cabalist....

About the author

umberto eco

Umberto Eco was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory, as well as Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes.
Eco wrote prolifically throughout his life, with his output including children's books, translations from French and English, in addition to a twice-monthly newspaper column "La Bustina di Minerva" (Minerva's Matchbook) in the magazine L'Espresso beginning in 1985, with his last column (a critical appraisal of the Romantic paintings of Francesco Hayez) appearing 27 January 2016. At the time of his death, he was an Emeritus professor at the University of Bologna, where he taught for much of his life. In the 21st century, he has continued to gain recognition for his 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism", where Eco lists fourteen general properties he believes comprise fascist ideologies.