The Name of the Rose

Eco's most famous novel is 'The Name of the Rose'. It is a detective story set in a medieval monastery, but it also deals with philosophy, religion and medieval history: in many ways, a serious and difficult book.

Yet it was a huge success: it sold between 10 and 15 million copies.

Why? Eco thinks journalists and publishers are wrong to believe that people only want easy, light reading ('trash'). Many readers want difficult books that make them think, at least sometimes; they do not want everything made easy.

His American publisher, he says, liked the book but expected to sell only about 3,000 copies, because Americans had never seen a cathedral or studied Latin. In fact, American readers bought two or three million.

In the end, Eco says the book's success is a mystery. Perhaps if he had written it ten years earlier or later, it would not have done so well. No one can predict which book will succeed.