Book Review: The Name of the Rose

This is a review of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

This novel is set in an Italian monastery in 1327. The protagonist Adso of Melk is a novice accompanying his master William of Baskerville to investigate a murder. It's fun as a serial murder mystery, and it's interesting to think about the historical and ethical issues that are raised concerning knowledge, secrecy, reasoning, belief, etc.

William of Baskerville is himself a disciple of William of Occam, and at times his reasoning seems almost Bayesian: he says, "reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing," and then explains about the usefulness of conditional independence in simplifying inference.

At one point William tells an amusing parable reminiscent of a recent BBC article: "[i]f you wish to keep a place clean here, to prevent anyone from pissing on it, which t he Italians do as freely as dogs do, you paint on it an image of Saint Anthony with a wooden tip, and this will drive away those about to piss."

I gather from the introduction that the author, a semiotician, embedded a rich collection of references to more or less subtle points of Catholic theology that I missed but that others may enjoy.

Some descriptive passages are a bit florid but on the whole I enjoyed this book.

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England

This is a book review of The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer.

History is more fun without the politics

Context is a vital consideration for historical interpretation, but ask a history student to summarize what he's learned and you'll likely hear exclusively about famous people and events. Some of these people were colorful characters, and many of the events make for good stories. But this book focuses on the complement of that history, highlighting the crucial but normally subordinated milieu of an age.

Mortimer's guidebook tells of the customs, etiquette, food, clothing, laws, and economic conditions in which the 14th century English lived their lives. The book is written in a light-hearted style; it's a very entertaining way to cure some of your misconceptions and enrich your understanding of the period. Recommended.