Foucault's Pendulum [B0548]

1988 HCDJ Book Club Edition, in nice clean condition - with a worn/torn dust jacket (see photo). "An encyclopedic detective story . . . An intellectual triumph."--Anthony Burgess. "Foucault's Pendulum is Eco's magical mystery tour of the Western mind. . . . With this book, Eco puts himself in the grand and acerbic tradition of Petronius, Rabelais, Swift, and Voltaire."--Chicago Tribune.

Infused with history and crackling suspense, Umberto Eco's celebrated international bestseller is a cerebral classic, prescient of our own times, about a literary joke that goes terribly awry, unexpectedly plunging its creators into mortal danger.

A man named Colonel Ardenti tells three cynical book editors that he has discovered a coded message about a centuries-old Knights Templar plan to tap a mystic source of power greater than atomic energy. The editors, bored from tooling with manuscripts on the occult and inspired by the colonel's outlandish claims, devise a literary prank for their own amusement. They enter bits of information on the Knights Templar, Satanic initiation rites, Rosicrucianism, the measurements of the Great Pyramid, and supernatural and occult phenomenon into a computer and create a map indicating a point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled--a point located at Foucault's Pendulum in Paris. The editors are convinced they've devised the ultimate literary joke, a game to consume conspiracy theorists, mystical buffs, and everyone else fool enough to play. But their joke becomes all too terrifyingly real when people begin to disappear mysteriously, beginning with the Colonel. . . .

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Absolutely astounding romp. Bring a dictionary and have a couple of translation tools ready! This was my kind of book. I adore new and complex words. I love looking up the quotes in French, German, and Latin and I love that there were passages that had to be translated but, once understood, added a luxurious velvet to the situation. Like eating a chocolate and discovering a rich well of flavor inside that accented and elevated the taste of the candy. Eco was most assuredly a man of letters and a scholar. And a polyglot medievalist with a most devious and intricate mind. I recommend this book with highest praise and regards. It is a difficult yet most satisfying read and definitely not for those who find themselves easily taxed by superlative syntax."; "Very pretentious. Reading this was way too much work to be enjoyable."; "Highly imaginative and well written - the author plays with the English language like a virtuoso. Bizarre characters and plot which always evolved and kept my interest."; "One aspect of Foucault's Pendulum that resonated with me was its exploration of how easily fiction can be mistaken for truth when it aligns with existing biases and desires. This theme remains pertinent, especially in today's age of misinformation. While some readers might find the extensive historical details overwhelming, I appreciated the intricate narrative and the challenge it presented. Foucault's Pendulum is not just a novel; it's an exploration of the human psyche's complexity and our relentless quest for meaning, even where there might be none."