Il nome della rosa.

Milan: Bompiani,, 1980. First edition, first printing, of the author's debut novel. It was awarded Italy's most prestigious award for fiction, the Strega Prize, in 1981. With over 50 million copies sold worldwide and translated in more than 40 languages, this is one of the bestselling books ever published. Il nome della rosa "gained international acclaim for its humorous blending of medieval theology and postmodern deconstruction of narrative; it represented the same union of medieval scholasticism and contemporary popular culture that had defined Eco's early research. The astonishing success of this book made Eco at the center of global attention... The Name of the Rose was an 'open text', a complex novel that could hold several layers of interpretation" (Sibley, p. 244). The sense of ambiguity and uncertainty which permeates the story is mirrored in its title; in his later Postcript to the Name of the Rose (1984), Eco explained that he chose it "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left". The book was adapted into a film in 1986, starring Sean Connery in the leading role. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, map endpapers. With dust jacket. Contents lightly toned as often; unclipped jacket bright and sharp, minimal creasing at edges, couple of tiny marks: a near-fine copy in like jacket. Rochelle Sibley, "Eco, Umberto" in Michael, D. Sollars, Companion to the World Novel, 1900 to the Present, 2008.