What did you think of Eco's Foucault's Pendulum?

This is one of my favorite books, but I'm not sure what your question means.

Are you asking if Eco believes the conspiracy theory that appears in the novel? If so, the answer would be "Definitely not." The central conspiracy is made up by characters in the book as a game. It isn't true at all, and their main piece of evidence (a mysterious list written in French) is totally fictional.

If you're asking about the characters in the book, then they do come to believe that they might be on to something with their conspiracy theory. I'm sure this does sometimes happen in real life. People can become fixated on ideas and come to believe things they once knew were not true. They may even convince others. In "Foucault's Pendulum", other people also suspect that the main characters have valuable information about the secret treasure of the Templars...and these other people may be willing to kill to get it.

As to how Dan Brown measures up to Eco, he doesn't. Umberto Eco's novels are well written and intellectually challenging. They also contain lots of very well researched history. None of this is true of "The Da Vinci Code". Brown succeeded in writing an exciting page-turner, but it's a stupid book full of false historical claims and obvious factual errors. It's also incredibly poorly written. I don't just mean in terms of plot and characterization, although those are quite bad, but Brown can't even manage decent syntax or appropriate word choice. As a stylist, he's downright incompetent.

That said, anyone looking for light reading or an exciting adventure story would be better off with "The Da Vinci Code". "Foucault's Pendulum" would be a terrible choice for a book to take on a trip to the beach. It's a challenging and complicated novel, and many people find it boring or confusing. I've known university professors who confessed they just couldn't get through it.

i read and enjoyed it years ago. Eco is a real scholar and while he knows his subject I am pretty sure he doesn't believe it; all his books are very different but the theme of eventually finding that the answer you seek is one that has been made up is in the pendulum and also in The Name of the Rose. he's a far more challenging writer; his books are not ones most would read on a plane or a beach. Dan Brown's books are thrilling potboilers, enjoyable in a trashy sort of way but have no real substance.

I hated it. Eco in no way misses an probability to exhibit off his esoteric arcane benefit , which he does on the value of the story. He does now no longer plenty weave a narrative as brag approximately he plenty he's prevalent with of. he's real overrated. His mysterious flame of Queen Loana was additionally particularly risky, crap ending exceptionally. The discover of the rose was seen his magnificent , probable because of the actuality it was a action picture notwithstanding i might notwithstanding grant him a pass. i've got won his books, in many situations because of the actuality they have been products- they are protecting up my mattress.