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Baudolino

by Umberto Eco, William Weaver (Translator), R.C.S. Libri (Idea)

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 8,774 ratings · 436 reviews

It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.

Born a simple peasant in northern...more

Paperback, 544 pages

Published October 6th 2003 by Harcourt (first published 2000)

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Mar 16, 2013 Kyle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: countries-of-the-world-challenge

"in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges."

What would an Umberto Eco novel be without a pile of theological debate, historical references bordering on the obscure, and convoluted story-telling that makes your head spin? What would an Eco novel be without causing you to ask yourself "what the heck was that?" after you finish reading it? Or heaps of tongue-in-cheek phrases that make you wonder if he's being serious or mocking?

...the answer is, not much of...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Hansen Wendlandt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Umberto Eco’s novels are the Harvard doctorate to Dan Brown’s middle school nonsense. Whereas Brown fascinates the masses with half-truth historical art and religion, Eco is a stunning scholar, simply overwhelming the sophisticated reader, pleasurably, with ancient languages (“Ave, evcharisto, salam” (376)) and (sometimes arcane) belief systems. His characters may not be as deep or personable as less ambitious novels (“I decided that if this was my fate, it was useless for me to try to become li...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Ben Babcock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-read, fantasy, historical-fiction, mythology-remix, own

So many stories are themselves about stories and storytelling. There is something about this basic act of creation and communication that captivates the human mind and spirit. Storytelling necessarily blurs the line between truth and falsehood; there is no way to relate any story, even history, with perfect truth, for we are all fallible and subjective beings. And history—that patchwork quilt of stories that make the grandest narrative of them all—is probably more lies than truth. We are blessed...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Riku Sayuj marked it as on-a-break · review of another edition

resuming after a long break...

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Dec 20, 2010 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, historical, italian, translation, 2000s

Baudolino is a difficult book to summarise, because the more you read, the more you realise that the plot is merely incidental and the book is really about something else entirely. In fact, if you were to read this book for the plot you would be very confused very quickly. The story is a first person account by the eponymous Baudolino of his life, as told to Niketas whom he rescues from the sack of Constantinople. It chronicles his adventures from 1155 when he was adopted in all but name by Empe...more Baudolino is a difficult book to summarise, because the more you read, the more you realise that the plot is merely incidental and the book is really about something else entirely. In fact, if you were to read this book for the plot you would be very confused very quickly. The story is a first person account by the eponymous Baudolino of his life, as told to Niketas whom he rescues from the sack of Constantinople. It chronicles his adventures from 1155 when he was adopted in all but name by Emperor Frederick I up to the fourth Crusade which is the present day of the novel. In between he falls in love, studies in Paris, negotiates peace agreements, saves cities, and searches for the legendary kingdom of Prester John. However, what the book is really about (I think; it’s a bit difficult to tell with Eco) is what is true and what is not and how easily one can become the other.

Baudolino himself is established as an unreliable narrator from the very beginning of the novel. The book begins with him quite literally erasing history and writing his own story over the top of it when he scrapes clean some parchment containing historical records for his own personal use. He goes on to fabricate love letters which he considers more true than if they had really been sent to him by the object of his affection (who is of course, like Dante’s lady love, called Beatrice). He creates religious relics from household junk. He invents a letter from Prester John to Frederick which sends Baudolino and his friends off on an impossible journey to find the kingdom that they themselves have created, bearing a cup which they style as the grail. These stories not only take in others, but they even fool their creators as Baudolino and his friends seem to come to believe in their own fictions, so the reader stands no chance of working out what is true and what is not. Why should his first person narrative to Niketas be any more factual than any of this? And does it matter if it is true or a lie? Eco seems to be asking whether there is a difference at all, and with the amount of blurring that goes on in this book it is impossible to say.

By far my favourite part of this book was Baudolino’s own manuscript which begins the novel, written in a strange, hybrid language which is a mixture of Latin and how he thinks his native tongue ought to sound if it were to be written (and kudos to William Weaver for finding a way to translate this so that it works in English). This is so very medieval in spirit, right down to his having scraped the parchment clean of another text and written his own story over the top of it (although parts of the original manuscript still show through at points), that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. This was the first in a long series of in jokes for medievalists which I found enormously entertaining but I’m not sure would have been appreciated as much by someone without this background; even with my education in this area, at times I felt as though I needed to read armed with an encyclopedia of the medieval world to pick up on everything and I’m sure I missed a great deal. Eco may be writing fiction, but this book is very scholarly, employing and satirising a whole host of medieval tropes and conventions, from Provencal troubadour verse to debate on religious heresies, from courtly love to fantastic travelogues and from philosophy to the inexplicable lists, ubiquitous in medieval literature. Baudolino is a gold mine of satire on the middle ages, but it is hard work to read.(less)

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Jul 14, 2008 Roy rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Umberto Eco fans

There were three reasons why I read this book. One, Eco, I'd heard so much talk about his work (fiction and non-). Two, the setting, the Middle Ages, a historical period that is a bit of a gap for me. Three, an unreliable narrator, Usual Suspects is one of my favorite movies for this reason. Fictional stories are all lies, but in that world, you expect truth, but when you find out the fiction you are experiencing is also a fiction, well that is just delicious.

I enjoyed Baudolino's world where l...more

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Jan 23, 2008 MkB rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a total sucker for medieval stories, which made up for the fact that I know sweet eff-all about the various finer points of Christian theology that so much of the book revolves around. I suspect the novel might be rather boring if you're into neither knights nor Jesus.

Predictably, the language is complex and interesting (a testament to the translator as well), and carries the novel through some of the slow passages. There's also a convenient point at which the story breaks pretty cleanly fro...more

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Nov 24, 2009 The Chaotic Reader rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

"Sometimes, when what we've sought is almost within our grasp, we make our faith a lie so that we don't have to give up our quest by achieving its goal."

When I finished Thomas Pynchon's V. last month, the sentence above was my entire review of it because I felt that was the most important thing I took away from that reading of the book. As I read V. I sensed it possessed a similarity of "aura" with Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Toward the end of Baudolino I received V.'s message again from...more

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Dec 20, 2011 C.e. Crowder rated it 5 of 5 stars

Baudolino is in his sixties when he saves a minister of Constantinople during its sacking by the Fourth Crusade. This provides opportunity for him to recount his life story, one that begins as a historical fiction centered in the Holy Roman Emperor in the company of Barbarossa, but lends itself to fantasy once he engages upon a journey that leads him into an unlikely version of the middle east and India.

I liked The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, but this novel was easily the most fun...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Nick D rated it 2 of 5 stars

In "The Name of the Rose", Umberto Eco managed the extraordinary feet of balancing his philosophical preoccupations against the needs of story-telling. "Baudolino" is even more ambitious--taking on the nature of story-telling itself--but achieves less. The forum for Eco's musings is an invented character, Baudolino, who travels Zelig-like between the real events around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th: a couple of Crusades, the fall of Constantinople, the wars of Frederick Barbaross...more In "The Name of the Rose", Umberto Eco managed the extraordinary feet of balancing his philosophical preoccupations against the needs of story-telling. "Baudolino" is even more ambitious--taking on the nature of story-telling itself--but achieves less. The forum for Eco's musings is an invented character, Baudolino, who travels Zelig-like between the real events around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th: a couple of Crusades, the fall of Constantinople, the wars of Frederick Barbarossa, the struggle between Italian cities and that confederation that Voltaire famously called neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. Baudolino spins his tale, mostly in third person, to the Byzantine chronicler Niketas Choniates, inventing personages and borrowing them (most notably, Barbarossa and Choniates) along the way. The first part centers around Baudolino's accumulation of friends, his adoption by and relationship with Barbarossa, up to the death of the non-Holy nor Roman Emperor. The second part is a tale of Baudolino's friends and companions (an Abdul who is not an Arab, a probably fictitious tale-teller borrowed from Eschenbach's Parzival, a rabbi, a few historical figures, and some of the novel's seemingly endless supply of Genoese) as they travel across lands people by beings out of science fiction, in pursuit of two of the Middle Ages' greatest fixations: the Holy Grail and the kingdom of Prester John, the mythological Christian ruler. Tales are spun within tales and it becomes evident early on that the main game is using the history of the Middle Ages and its sloppy approach to verification to make some comments about the creation of stories: there's an invented map, populated by invented creatures, a proliferation of false holy relics, a classic murder plot (how is a man killed in a locked room?). "Baudolino" is a textbook case of the sum amounting to less than the parts, or perhaps too much of a middling thing. Perhaps I would feel differently if I had not just read Choniates' chronicle, and developed a great affection for that most ironic and skeptical of witnesses, mourning the destruction of the Constantinople he loved at the hands of people come to liberate the Holy Land. There are some well-borrowed set pieces from Choniates: the truly agonizing death of the Emperor Andronikos and the sack of Constantinople. But, at the end, Baudolino is no William of Baskerville, the endless spinning of tales within tales lacks the tension of the murder in a monastery, and the discussion of medieval inventions is not as compelling as the fine points of theology and the lost book on comedy by Aristotle in Eco's earlier novel.(less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Geir rated it 3 of 5 stars

Umberto Eco is a writer that both captivates his readers and makes them think. He is not an "easy" writer but has a way with words, sentences that can either fascinate you or frustrate you.

The Name of the Rose (1980), a historical mystery set in a 14th century monastery. Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, aided by his assistant Adso, a Benedictine novice, investigates a series of murders at a monastery that is to host an important religious debate. The novel contains many direct or indire...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Incurious rated it 4 of 5 stars

Con “Baudolino” Eco torna al romanzo – September 11, 2000 La Repubblica. Laura Lilli interviews Eco about his forthcoming novel. (Italian)

Laura Lilli: Who is Baudolino?

Umberto Eco: He is a boy who lives in the countryside near Marengo, which is more or less where the city of Allessandria was born in 1168 under the appropriate patronage of Saint Baudolino. Baudolino is a little rascal, similar to the scoundrels that exist in many indigenous mythologies: in Germany they call him Schelm, in England...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Bojan Tunguz rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Baudolino” is a fanciful and mythical novel by Umberto Eco, set in the twelfth century Europe and the Near East. Eco, best known for his masterwork “The Name of the Rose,” returns with “Baudolino” to the theme medieval Europe, albeit of somewhat earlier date. The eponymous protagonist of this novel finds himself adopted by an accident by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, which sets him on the path of high adventure. During Baudolino’s years of study in Paris, he befriends a motely crew of thi...more “Baudolino” is a fanciful and mythical novel by Umberto Eco, set in the twelfth century Europe and the Near East. Eco, best known for his masterwork “The Name of the Rose,” returns with “Baudolino” to the theme medieval Europe, albeit of somewhat earlier date. The eponymous protagonist of this novel finds himself adopted by an accident by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, which sets him on the path of high adventure. During Baudolino’s years of study in Paris, he befriends a motely crew of thinkers, poets, and adventurers, and with their help conjures a plan to discover the land of mythical Prester John, who supposedly lives somewhere far in the East. Most of the second half of the novel concerns the journey of Baudolino and his companions. Most of the stories in here are told from the Baudolino’s perspective, as he narrates them to Niketas Choniates, a famous twelfth century Byzantine historian, whose life he had saved during the sacking of Constantinople.

Frederick I and Niketas Choniates are just a couple of actual historical characters who appear in “Baudolino” under very unusual and highly fabricated circumstances. Eco knows his history very well, and is able to push the plausibility into the lacunae of our knowledge and fill them up with fanciful interconnected narrative. In the latter part of the book, though, he almost completely abandons any appeal to realism, and takes the reader on a wild ride through some of the most fantastic and imaginative scenes taken from the medieval myth and lore.

Both readers and the literary critics have not in general been impressed by any of the Eco’s fictional works, with the notable exception of the “Name of the Rose.” That book had propelled Eco well into the stratosphere of modern literary celebrities, and he’s been able to capitalize on that reputation for the better part of the last three decades. Unfortunately, “Baudolino” does nothing to repair the generally low impression that Eco’s later novels had left. Despite the dazzling displays of erudition and mastery of medieval history and lore, the novel doesn’t have a sense of unified and coherent narrative. The characters are very colorful, but they lack the depth of emotion and are not very convincing as actual flash and blood individuals. It’s almost as if Eco had tried to develop every character around a particular idea. This can sometimes work in a short story, but in order for the reader to care about them over the course of a long novel, they needed to poses a lot more verisimilitude to the actual human beings.

Parts of the novel are intended as a tongue-in-cheek criticism and lampooning of the medieval inter-Christian controversies and disputes. This in itself has some appeal, and it leads to some of the funnier situations and scenes in the book, but even here Eco manages to go overboard and overwork his points. Overall, “Baudolino” is an interesting exercise in adapting comedia dell’arte for the modern audience, but unfortunately it is too overwrought and overstylized for it to be either amusing or engrossingly thought provoking. It’s still an interesting enough novel, and if you are into the medieval history then you’ll find a lot of curious and fascinating material in it.
(less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Judith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

Baudolino once again shows Eco’s amazing ability to turn what may be a boring pseudo-historical narrative into something hilarious, occasionally cheeky, and always insightful.

If Baudolino is to be believed, he was single-handedly responsible for the canonization of Charlemagne, was responsible for the propagation of the myth of Prester John, and indirectly fueled Frederick’s ill-fated Third Crusade. The story that Umberto Eco created fits so perfectly behind history as we know it that it’s somet...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, fiction

Translated by William Weaver. A 12th-century tall tale of court intrigue, mystery, Mysteries and lies, narrated by the titular character. Baudolino is a peasant with a gift for tongues and a born liar. He meets Frederick Barbarossa as a young boy and gets into the emperor’s good graces; from there his life takes off, as me takes part in the century’s monumentous events, from the founding of Alessandria to the siege of Constantinople. He dedicates his life, as well, to finding the lost Nestorian...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Christian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world

I am absolutely thrilled by this book. Umberto Eco weaves a Forrest Gump-like tale through history leading up to Marco Polo.

Prior to Marco Polo's travels, fantastic stories would be told by "travelers" who had seen amazing things... a river of rocks that flowed like water, humans with a single huge leg, or no head and faces in their chests, etc. As people traveled further and documented their travels (like Marco Polo), these wild fantasies were slowly debunked, and the world lost some of its mor...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Sam Dupont rated it 5 of 5 stars

Il n’est plus nécessaire de présenter Umberto Eco, cet académique qui s’est imposé comme un auteur majeur de roman historique avec un seul roman à son actif, le brillant « Le nom de la rose » dont l’adaptation cinématographique en a fait fantasmer plus d’un (enfin, au moins un). Vingt-cinq ans après la sortie de ce premier roman remarquable et remarqué, il n’a à son actif que 5 romans dont le dernier n’est sortit qu’en 2004, « La mystérieuse flamme de la reine Loana », qui nous plonge dans un ma...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Lis Carey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: f-sf

Is this a fantasy? It's hard to say with any certainty. Undoubtedly we see many fantastic and magical things as Baudolino recounts his journeys, but Baudolino's a liar.

We meet Baudolino in 1204, as Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the Fourth Crusade. He rescues a high-ranking court official and historian, Niketas Choniates--a real person who did survive the sack of the city and subsequently wrote a history of Byzantium including the story of the sack. He then asks Niketas to listen t...more Is this a fantasy? It's hard to say with any certainty. Undoubtedly we see many fantastic and magical things as Baudolino recounts his journeys, but Baudolino's a liar.

We meet Baudolino in 1204, as Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the Fourth Crusade. He rescues a high-ranking court official and historian, Niketas Choniates--a real person who did survive the sack of the city and subsequently wrote a history of Byzantium including the story of the sack. He then asks Niketas to listen to his own story, so that he can work out the meaning of it--if any.

Calling this an unreliable narrative is a gross understatement. Baudolino himself says that he habitually confuses what he wants to see with what he does see, and has often told colorful tales rather than the boring truth. An additional layer of unreliability is added by the fact that he's telling this tale entirely from memory, the journal he had kept for years having been lost in the course of his journeys. So this is a tale told from unreliable memory, most of it years after the fact, of an habitual liar.

As a young boy in twelfth-century Italy, Baudolino sets out on the road to fortune and adventure by telling a passing foreign knight that St. Baudolino has appeared to him and told him that Frederick Barbarossa would conquer Terdona (with which he was then at war.) Since the passing knight is Frederick Barbarossa, this prediction naturally goes down very well. In short order, Baudolino has thoroughly charme d the emperor, and is adopted as his son. He is raised in Frederick's court, and eventually, having no taste for war, is sent to Paris to study and returns to be a ministerial of the imperial court. There are elements of secret history to the story, as Baudolino becomes responsible for the founding of the city of Alessandria and the canonization of Charlemagne, amongst other things. In alternating sections, we get the story of Baudolino's rescue of Niketas and his family and their escape from Constantinople, and Baudolino's lifetime of colorful adventures, including his lifelong fascination with the fabled kingdom of Prester John. After Frederick's death, this fascination leads to Baudolino and a group of good friends and more dubious allies setting out for the distant east, following one expedition member's memories of a map claiming to show the way. In the course of their journey, they meet most of the creatures out of the more fantastic mediaeval bestiaries, including unicorns, but also skiapods ponces, and blemmyae, and encounter other wonders.

One of those "other wonders" is a raging river of stone, cutting off the route to Prester John's kingdom. Baudolino's Jewish companion, Rabbi Solomon, had told them of this wonder and its features that make it an unc rossable obstacle: the river flows with a powerful current for six days, and stops completely on the Sabbath. Jews, of course, cannot cross it on the Sabbath. Gentiles could, but when the stones stop, an impassable barrier of flames springs up on both riverbanks. They reach river, look in vain for a way to cross it at or above its source, and eventually give up, travelling downriver again to wait for its Sabbath stoppage. When this happens on schedule, they wait for the flames--and nothing happens:

"So you see you mustn't always believe what they tell you," Baudolino concluded. "We live in a world where people invent the most incredible stories. Solomon, this is a tale you Jews put into circulation to prevent Christians from coming to these parts."

Well, Baudolino--and Eco--certainly ought to know, at least about people inventing incredible stories.

This is a beautifully written book, a delight to read, and there's no need to wonder, as with Isabel Allende's City of the Beasts, whether Eco was well served by his translator.(less)

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Feb 18, 2010 Jenna rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was a struggle for me to get through. It was also a strange sort of awakening- as the story progressed I realized it was getting further and further away from the truth- but wait, does that mean the the story was deviating from reality, or perhaps, it was all a lie from the beginning and I was only realizing now that it wasn't the truth? What to believe? Was any of it real?

That last question is how I left the end of the book feeling. Was any of it real? Does it matter? To me, yes, it d...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Jim Leffert rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a long, sprawling, wearying at times but ultimately satisfying and touching medieval (late 12th century) tale. It encompasses many stories: First, Baudolino, of humble peasant stock but blessed with a gift of languages, encounters the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and becomes his adopted son. Second, Baudolino gets an education and serves as advisor to this intelligent but also ruthless monarch, as Frederick conducts diplomacy and cruelly wages war on upstart towns in Germany a...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookmooch, historical-fiction, i-own

While I enjoyed the book, at points it was simply too rambling and ridiculous. I recognize that Eco was trying to tackle a difficult set of concepts (writing a story that is being told to the 'author,' who is recounting it; tackling Medieval conceptions of the world and theology; relativity of truth v. fiction), but often I simply found character decisions or attitudes a bit implausible. Until the very end, it didn't seem that any of the main characters had any malice towards each other, or towa...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Johnny D rated it 4 of 5 stars

If a library of medieval history and philosophy wrote a book, this would be it. Except the library would have to be bitten by some kind of radioactive Puck (the mischievous sprite, not the flat black disc used in hockey).

Stop trying to picture this ridiculous metaphor in your head, it really was a poor introduction to my review.

Basically, Umberto Eco's brain is a library of medieval history and philosophy, but he delivers the goods with a twinkle in his eye and a streak of mischief.

Baudolino is...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Anastasia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biblioteca-civica, contemporanei, italia, per-scuola

Io me lo sentivo che Eco ed io c'azzeccavamo poco l'uno con l'altra.
Lo guardavo sempre con un misto di riluttanza e allo stesso tempo curiosità. Sarà perché da piccola aprii per caso L'isola del giorno prima e richiusi il libro dopo aver letto le prime pagine, sentendomi abbastanza allucinata e confusa. A quei tempi per me era semplicemente ridondante e quasi geroglifico (per una che era abituata a Geronimo Stilton..).
Di fatto da quel momento in poi si stampò in me l'associazione di Eco come una...more

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Aug 03, 2010 Jorge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reconozco que, antes de leer a Umberto Eco, me sentía intimidado por él. Su aura de filósofo y semiólogo me daba pavor y me imaginaba que sus novelas serían una especie de ensayo hermético plagado de citas en latín, guiños para historiadores y referencias a textos que nunca leeré.

Pero no. Aunque sigue demostrando su erudición en historia, lenguas y filosofía medieval, Eco tiene una prosa sencilla y elegante. Crea personajes interesantes y divertidos, trabaja situaciones absurdas y surrealistas y...more Reconozco que, antes de leer a Umberto Eco, me sentía intimidado por él. Su aura de filósofo y semiólogo me daba pavor y me imaginaba que sus novelas serían una especie de ensayo hermético plagado de citas en latín, guiños para historiadores y referencias a textos que nunca leeré.

Pero no. Aunque sigue demostrando su erudición en historia, lenguas y filosofía medieval, Eco tiene una prosa sencilla y elegante. Crea personajes interesantes y divertidos, trabaja situaciones absurdas y surrealistas y hasta se da el lujo de reinterpretar la historia a través del relato de Baudolino, ficticio hijo adoptivo de Federico Barbarroja, emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico durante la segunda mitad del siglo XII.

La novela es la historia de un viaje, la epopeya de una búsqueda destinada al fracaso y guiada por mentiras: la invención de un reino fantástico que se sitúa más allá del Paraíso Terrenal, el uso de mapas que ven la Tierra como un tabernáculo y las absurdas discusiones teológicas sobre la naturaleza de Cristo y la perfección o imperfección de Dios. Todo esto colorido por las anécdotas de la constante guerra de Barbarroja con las revoltosas provincias italianas del imperio, que un día le hacen la guerra al emperador para, al día siguiente, aliarse con él para sacar provecho de una provincia rival.

Comedia picaresca, odisea absurda, tributo a Murphy, relato de ficciones que se apegan a la realidad hasta el punto en que, en ocasiones, el lector no está seguro de qué es verdad y qué es invención de Baudolino y del mismo Eco. Incluso un relato de detectives se cuela en la historia para darle una nueva y trágica interpretación a la muerte de Federico Barbarroja, quien, según la historia, murió ahogado mientras iba camino a Tierra Santa para liberar Jerusalén.

Baudolino es una de esas novelas gigantescas, no sólo porque sea larga, sino principalmente porque tiene un sinfín de aristas, de temas e historias entrelazadas. Tiene un montón de guiños históricos, cierto, pero que no entorpecen la lectura, sino que la enriquecen. Y tiene también muchas referencias a las discusiones filosóficas medievales, que, vistas con nuestros ojos, no parecen más que una absurda discusión de sordos sobre si María es la madre de Dios hecho carne, si Jesús fue adoptado por Dios, si Jesús era Cristo o sólo un profeta más e incluso si Dios es el verdadero creador del universo o sólo un impostor. Todo esto se mezcla con historias de estudiantes libidinosos en París, traficantes de reliquias, monstruos fantásticos y trágicas historias de amor.

Quizás sirva para interiorizarse en el tema leer un poco antes sobre los cristianismos heréticos que se desarrollaron entre el siglo Iº y XII (el maniqueísmo, el gnosticismo, el catarismo...) y tener nociones básicas sobre Federico Barbarroja, Las Cruzadas y el Imperio Bizantino, aunque ninguno de estos conocimientos son necesarios para disfrutar la novela: la investigación histórica puede hacerse después.(less)

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Aug 24, 2012 Michael Alexander added it

THIS is adorable and brilliant and lovely and amazing, like Eco decided his research for "Name of the Rose" was too much fun not to write a sloppy picaresque in the ruins. Baudolino is kind of the Zelig of the Silk Road but way more unreliable and sneaky and bizarre. Some of the greatest geeky medieval history jokes of all time, like the gnostic female satyr he romances who cries out "I've lost my apathy!" at their first kiss, or the death of Frederick Barbarossa as a locked room mystery, or the...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Ratiocination rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not having been too impressed with The Island of the Day Before, it took me a while to get back to this one, which I picked up at the same time. I'm glad that I finally did. I'd have no hesitation recommending this to someone who enjoyed The Name of the Rose: Including Postscript-- they strike a similar balance. The historical setting is very strong, the narrator is interesting and well-realized, and there's literary depth rather than the self-conscious cleverness that often passes for it.

This i...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Emily Briggs rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gloriously unreliable from start to end, the lies and deceit of the narrator and protagonist, Baudolino, become an art form.

Lying, and the inherent falsehood of storytelling, is shown as both a wonderful and a terrifyingly destructive force. Eco skilfully reveals both sides of the human capacity for self-construction. Baudolino and his friends are simultaneously lazy no-hopers who scrounge their existences from those who fall for their lies, and heroes of a great search for a land of truth and b...more

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Sep 30, 2010 40 Forte rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: too-often-overlooked

Eco is once again the king of the "story within the story" and the unreliable narrator.

With Baudolino we get his familiar fascinations with the Holy Grail, and the medieval concepts of paradise. In Foucault's Pendulum we are let in on the falseness of the plot as its main characters create a story in front of the reader.

Baudolino takes a similar approach, but one in which it is never outlined for us which parts of his tale are true specifically. Baudolino already has his tale mapped out before h...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Flo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another great book by master of Italian literature Umberto Eco, Baudolino takes the reader into the struggle for power in northern Italy, the Holy Roman Empire of German nation and the Byzantium from ~1150 to ~1210. Besides the historical journey Baudolino also visits strange lands in the east full of horrendous creatures and strange people.
The historical (still fiction) and the mythological/magical parts of the journey are really well written, full of know and unknown phenomena, historical ane...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Drew Patrick Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People Who Want Smart Fiction

This review is from the PFS Book Club. More on the website.

What I Liked: Eco manages to cram this book full of so many things: there's the a hero's quest for the Holy Grail (with the needed echoes of King Arthur's knights), several romances, metafiction with the most unreliable narrator I've ever seen, a continuous study of religion and how it effects people, allusions up the wazoo, and multiple languages weaving in and out of the text. It's amazing to see a master at his work and still have a p...more This review is from the PFS Book Club. More on the website.

What I Liked: Eco manages to cram this book full of so many things: there's the a hero's quest for the Holy Grail (with the needed echoes of King Arthur's knights), several romances, metafiction with the most unreliable narrator I've ever seen, a continuous study of religion and how it effects people, allusions up the wazoo, and multiple languages weaving in and out of the text. It's amazing to see a master at his work and still have a plot and characters to speak of. Lesser writers wouldn't be able to manage it.

The story, filled with fantastical elements, is engaging, and Baudolino, our main character, is captivating, mostly because the reader is never quite sure when he's telling the truth. But my favorite parts are when Eco speaks about writing and storytelling, when he confesses the truths that all stories are lies but we tell them anyways. It's these insights into the nature of humanity that I enjoyed the most.

What I Didn't Like: With a frame story, especially one that continues to go back and forth, sometimes the plot itself can be jarring and events can be forgotten. Niketas himself is something of a cypher and unlikeable character, leading to a partially unsatifying but still somewhat predictable ending. I think the reader did deserve to know a little more about what was true and what was not. Should the reader doubt the entire tale or just the fantastical portions? It's an interesting question but one that the book doesn't make full use of.

There are also quite a number of background characters in Eco's novel, from Baudolino's hometown, his band of adventures, the people he knews within the empire, the people he meets on the journey, and those with him in the present. Let's be honest: that's far too many background characters. While most of them have a place in the story, few of them actually have any sort of personality or description to make them remotely memorable. And Eco doesn't always remind his readers who someone is when they show up again.

Last ThoughtAn enjoyable book packed with more allusions and metatextual studies than I've ever seen and one that only falters in the smaller character moments.(less)

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About Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco is an Italian writer of fiction, essays, academic texts, and children's books, and certainly one of the finest authors of the twentieth century. A professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, Eco’s brilliant fiction is known for its playful use of language and symbols, its astonishing array of allusions and references, and clever use of puzzles and narrative inventions. His per...more

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Quotes from Baudolino

“What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?” — 57 people liked it

“There, Master Niketas,’ Baudolino said, ‘when I was not prey to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. A bit with the help of wine, and a bit with that of the green honey. There is nothing better than imagining other worlds,’ he said, ‘to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn’t yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.” — 7 people liked it

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