Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 05, 2011

Michael rated it:

Umberto Eco's new novel The Prague Cemetery is a fictional account of the origins of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fake document first published at the turn of the 20th century which claims to reveal a Jewish plot to take over the world. Even though the text was proven to be a forgery in the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used The Protocols as justification for the Holocaust. The Protocols continued to be published after World War II, and is thought to be "the most the mos More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2011

José-contemplates-Saturn's Aurora rated it:

March 1897,piazza Maubert,near Paris,...by the Bièvre,an affluent of the La Seine river. Paris is not what it used to be, now with this pencil-sharpener called Eiffel Tower...so thinks sixty seven year old Simone Simonini. He wonders about his identity: "who am I"?.He defines himself by reference to others defects.He bashes rudely at other races and peoples. He repels grossly the Germans: their repugnant sweat smell, their language...their addiction to beer...no interesting art; even g More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Joe rated it:

Recommended pre reading for the "Prague Cemetery" is "The Protocol's of the Elders of Zion". It will give you a understanding of the intrigues that culminated in it publication and acceptance by the world of the "Age of Enlightenment" and the events that transpired in the 20th Century in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland Russia, France and the remainder of Europe and parts of Asia, even the United States.

Umberto Eco, the Master of History and a great writ More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2011

Daniel rated it:

Apesar de ser adepto empedernido dos romances anteriores, Umberto Eco ficou aquém neste seu último romance Il cimitero di Praga. Habitualmente capaz de destilar uma narrativa interessante a partir de diálogos enciclopédicos, Eco ficou-se desta vez por uma estória seca e sem ânimo. Ressalva feita, por ventura, à mestria técnica de quem consegue colar uma quantidade absurda de referências históricas numa estória baseada em actores e factos reais, já um hábito do autor. De facto, a ser verdade o q More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2012

Nate rated it:

This is the Forrest Gump of the conspiracy-theory historical fiction novel. A master forger influenced European history and personally met and inspired the likes of Freud, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Napolean III, Dumas, and I'm sure many others. His importance had a lot to do with filling in the blanks on anti-Semite material and conspiracies that influenced world wars and ultimately the holocaust. Some very interesting bits of history, although a bit buried beneath a few layers of multiple-persona More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2011

Gianluca rated it:

Libro molto interessante. La storia del protagonista è, ovviamente, una scusa per descrivere i tanti moti in atto in quel periodo storico.
...
Completare la lettura di questo libro è stato davvero difficile. Come al solito rimango deluso dai libri di Eco (Nome della Rosa a parte): vedo sempre l'autore intento a mostrarci le sue (indubbiamente) enormi conoscenze.

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Jan rated it:

De lofprijzingen voor Eco's nieuwste roman zijn overdadig. Ik begon dus vol verwachting aan deze roman. Eerlijk gezegd viel het me nogal tegen. Er wordt een gigantische kaartenbak vol feiten en ontwikkelingen over de lezer uitgestort.Ik vraag me echt af of iemand die weinig of geen kennis heeft van de geschiedenis van de 19e eeuw door de bomen het bos ziet. Het voornaamste thema, anti-semitisme en de protocollen van de Wijzen van Zion,is (natuurlijk) uiterst belangwekkend maar mijn advies is: zo More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Anja rated it:

Well indeed this is first one book from Umberto Eco in which I did not enjoy. Plot is all ready known, major theme is Zion protocols and history of Europe between the lines or however undercover.Something what is not mentioned in official history but is literally spoken between people. It is story about prejudices and judgement about Jewish people and history of it..Story about masonery..used/abused bu Den Brown and on the end seen from the eye's of Russian secret service. Nothing new, just one More...

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2012

Liam rated it:

When Umberto can keep Eco #1 the theoretician, semiotician, historian, lover of fakes forgeries and lists, under control and make him collaborate with Eco #2, the novelist, lover of books, devotee of Conan Doyle and Dumas, teller of stories, the results can be unique: Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum. When Eco #1 bullies Eco #2 into the corner, the results are downright unreadable whatever their conceptual framework.

In The Prague Cemetery the uneasy alliance works better than it More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Hub rated it:

Probably a lot of commentators on this book will have started off by sensibly stating this warning or something similar: Warning, this book is a take on the history of a document known as 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' The foundations of much modern anti-Semitism. You will be reading the memoires of a fictional character who, by his own free admission throughout the book, is trying to create fear and hysteria against various groups both political and ethnic for his clients needs.
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Sergei_kalinin rated it:

Сказать, что я люблю тексты Эко - это ничего не сказать! Я их обожаю :)

Имя розы, Маятник Фуко, Остров накануне, Баудолино и проч. (в т.ч. многочисленные тексты около этих тектов) - занимают почётное место на моих книжных полках, а также самый теплый уголок в моём сердце... Разумеется, "Пражское кладбище" я ждал с нетерпением, и...

...и после прочтения - "завис", оказался в растерянности и в недоумении...

Во-первых, что бы там ни говорили - More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2012

Sharon rated it:

Using Umberto Eco's own words,in writing this novel his "intention was to give the reader a punch in the stomach". To that end he has delivered as the novel showcases the "birth and development of anti-semitism. From Barruel onwards, hundreds of books and magazines with anti-semetic stereotypes have been published". Eco was "interested in recounting how through the accumulation of these stereotypes, the 'Protocols' were constructed". As conspiracy theories have i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Chip rated it:

Plausible. Witty. Satirical. Challenging. Educational. You should see my Google search history - early in the book I realized I knew a few of the major players (not well) and none of the others at all - so I Googled every name and place I came across and discovered that this is a well-researched book! No wasted words, no ornamentation, tight prose - a well crafted story on many levels. More accessible than earlier books, or maybe I'm getting better at researching. Read this book. Take out yo More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Marks54 rated it:

This was a tough book, but I liked it. It was also my first effort at reading Eco and I will likely try to reread this at some point.

The book is a historical novel about a political culture of hatred, racism, and paranoia that dominated parts of the European scene in the mid-19th century, especially after the revolutions of 1848 and the various revolutionary regimes, reaction, and political violence that followed it through the Italian revolution, the Franco-Prussian War, the assassin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Boris rated it:

Eco, Umberto (2010). Il cimitero di Praga. Milano: Bompiani. 2010.

Ci sono libri, si usa dire, che ti cambiano per sempre, dopo che li hai letti. Ci sono anche libri che ti scorrono sopra senza lasciare traccia, come l'acqual sulla livrea di una foca o sul culo di un'anatra. Con il solo rimpianto che, forse, avresti potutto occupare meglio il tuo tempo. Il cimitero di Praga appartiene a questa seconda categoria.

Ho provato a cercare di capire perché il professor Eco, uomo celeb More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

This book is historical fiction for fans of conspiracy theories! The main character is a forger who is creating a massive conspiracy and forging documents to discredit the Jewish people and depict them as hatching a scheme to take over the world. Essentially what he is creating evolves over time into "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a document that Hitler used to justify his treatment of the Jews even though it had been proven to be a forgery. The story travels through time an More...

0 comments like

Nov 23, 2011

George rated it:

Combining actual events and people with some creative embellishment and, most importantly, a fictional protagonist who plays a central role in many of these events, The Prague Cemetery is a literary exploration of conspiracies, prejudices, and politics in nineteenth-century Europe. It's a fascinating story, with lots of twists and turns, and complex (and unlikeable) characters. As someone with only a basic knowledge of topics like the Dreyfus affair and the unification of Italy, I was very inter More...

0 comments like

Nov 19, 2011

Richard marked it as to-read

The New York Times effused over this in their review, Umberto Eco and the Elders of Zion, published: November 18, 2011. The topic certainly sounds fascinating. Unfortunately, I’m wary of Eco — his most popular book is on border of accessibility, and the only other time I’ve tried reading him, I was quickly bewildered by the labyrinths of his narrative. Oddly, after reading the cited review, a little while later some quirk of my brain had substituted Salman Rushdie for Umberto Eco and was muc More...

0 comments like

Nov 17, 2011

Rene rated it:

Pražský hřbitov by si měl přečíst každý, koho zajímá geneze drbu, proč se recyklují spiklenecké teorie, u kterých se mění jen nedůležitá časoprostorová určení a role aktérů, anebo jak snadno se dají reinterpretovat události velkých dějin i privátní poklesky.

Po přečtení knihy pochopíte, jak funguje mozek člověka, který třeba:

1) S vážnou tváří snáší důkazy o spiknutí amerických tajných služeb 11. září 2001.

2) Vidí listopad 1989 jako dokonalou souhru záměrů KGB, Charty More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 09, 2011

Care rated it:

[B]The Prague Cemetery[/B] by Umberto Eco ✰✰✰

In general I am a huge fan of Umberto Eco, and as such I was eagerly awaiting the release of the English translation of [B]The Prague Cemetery[/B]. I am sad to say that all of those elements that I love about Eco’s writing-the intelligent plotting, the dense prose, the belief in his reader’s ability to follow where he leads-have been carried to excess with this one.

The story is narrated by three voices, two of which are one person More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Rodrigo rated it:

Uma delícia! Umberto Eco em sua melhor forma! Uma história de falsificacoes, dissimulacoes e teoria da conspiracao. O mais genial é quando se descobre que todos os personagens sao reais e as histórias idem. Algumas coisas eu conhecia bem (O caso Dreyfus, os Protocolos dos Sabios do Siao...) mas outras, como o "affair" Leo Taxil sao completamente surrealistas, impressionantemente reais. A parte da Italia Garibaldina, onde o livro comeca é talvez um pouco mais complicada de seguir, pela More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Juan-Pablo rated it:

Most readers of Umberto Eco's new book will have great precedents in his earlier works: the mysterious "Name of the Rose" or the magic "Baudolino". Those are great sagas with all the complexity that characterize the author, but with an engaging and unified plot. Unfortunately, "The Prague Cemetery" disappoints in all these fronts (I was also disappointed by "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana").

The story follows a man (Simonini) that wakes up w More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2011

Fedecentrico rated it:

Esiste una raccolta di brani di Frank Zappa, intitolata Have I offended someone?, pubblicata postuma nel 1997. Sfogliando le pagine del libretto, è possibile leggere un elenco di popolazioni, classi sociali e minoranze etniche e religiose, attaccate dal musicista durante la sua carriera. Il nome dell’antologia ha qualcosa in comune con questo libro di Umberto Eco, i cui i personaggi, immersi in un clima antisemita, finiscono in realtà per dare vita ad un romanzo caotico e confuso; l’attenzione d More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2011

Damiano rated it:

(versione completa su www.nuotonelpomeriggio.it)

Forse non è bene leggere Il cimitero di Praga, il sesto romanzo del professor Eco. Forse non è bene scriverne. Dipende dall’età.
Non fraintendetemi. Non credo nelle categorie, non credo nei giovani, non credo nei vecchi. Nascere prima o dopo non cambia molto. L’unica tassonomia plausibile divide il mondo in coglioni e no. Cantava il poeta: l’età non c’entra affatto, quando si è coglioni, si è coglioni. Ecco, questo non è un romanzo per giovani, li r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Adam rated it:

This was a slog for me. Historical fiction often is. There's something about the cleverness of taking actual people and events and arranging aspects of them into some kind of narrative which never really transcends ornamentation. I keep thinking of Oliver Stone's film W, which took things Bush actually said and showed them being resaid in another, more linear, context for our...entertainment?...while ignoring (or asking us to ignore, at least) the fact that we, the audience, could go to youtube More...

2 comments like

Jan 19, 2012

BW rated it:

http://bw.tumblr.com/post/16152233430/pr...

I finished the new Umberto Eco novel today, Prague Cemetery. I described it in about 47 different ways to various people, trying to get at the core of what made me like it and feel distanced from it all at the same time.

It’s an odd book, like Eco’s fiction can be. His focus on history can lead to a pretty glacial narrative pace. That’s definitely the case here, it’s not a fast book, and not an easy one. Honestly, the fictional concei More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2012

Alexander rated it:

God, but this was tiresome bollocks.

I gave up at 19%. One of only three Kindle books (of 65) I haven't finished this year. It got to the point where I was actively avoiding my Kindle. I read the massive printed 'The Fat Duck Cookbook' at the same time, preferring to heft that huge, lumpen thing around rather than wade through more of the insect-flecked molasses of Eco's prose. One day it might turn into amber, but for now it's just dirty honey.

It made me hate my Kindle. T More...

5 comments like

Oct 16, 2011

Susu rated it:

Der Meister der verzwirbelten Geschichten hat wieder zugeschlagen. Inmitten realer Gestalten, die zum Teil so skurril handeln, dass man sie eigentlich hätte erfinden müssen, entdeckt Simonini die Fälscherei als Lebensunterhalt. Zwischen Kirche, Freimaurern, Geheimpolizei und Allerweltsbetrügern schlägt er sich geschickt durchs Leben - leider überholt ihn das fast selber in der Gestalt des Abbé Dalla Piccola. In Rückblicken rekonstruiert Simonini seine Karriere von Kindesbeinen an - inklusive ant More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2011

Davide rated it:

Superlativo Eco! Chi dice il contrario 1) non ha la scolarizzazione adeguata per comprenderlo, 2) non è onesto intellettualmente, 3) vada a leggere Topolino.

Capolavoro oggettivo.
Applausi all'intreccio davvero molto complesso, così tanto che mi fa interrogare su come faccia Eco a pianificarlo. Perché è evidente che non può essere frutto di una scrittura di getto, ma piuttosto trattasi di un lavoro scientifico dove ogni singolo avvenimento fa parte di un progetto più ampio.

More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Natxo rated it:

Tradicionalment els llibres d'Umberto Eco deixen la sensació que no es té prou bagatge cultural per aprofitar-los, i aquest no és una excepció. Sempre sembla que caldrà recuperar-los més endavant, quan s'hagi llegit molt més i s'entenguin millor.
El cementiri de Praga no té res a veure amb el Nom de la rosa i sí moltes semblances amb el Pèndul de Focault, on la dificultat de surar entre centenars de referències literàries, historiogràfiques i històriques és constant i màxima. Dit això, el l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews