Foucault�s Pendulum

Warning: the following thread may contain spoilers.  If you have not read Foucault's Pendulum, please do not proceed further!

Hi, I finally finished Foucault's Pendulum.  I am eager to hear criticism from those in the AE forum who have read the book.   I thought that Eco did a fantastic job writing; the prose was certaintly more refined than that in the Da Vinci Code.  The ideas were profound and, indeed, the book looms large in breadth of religious, philosophical, and historical references.  In general, a superb read.

My complaints: that I am not proficient in Jewish studies or religious studies in general, and that I never studied Latin or French.  I must confess that I never heard of the many religious and cabalistic references the Eco makes in the novel.

I could not stop reading during the first half of the book.  Then, while reading the second half, I became a little crazy, just like the editors (perhaps that is Eco's intented effect on the reader).  I thought that the editors' fantasies were over the top, but of course, that would be Eco's point.  Lia's explanation was, after all, the simplest, and therefore, the most logical.

I liked the conclusion, the image of the double pendulum, and the shifting of tenses from past to present.

Please discuss your own views on the novel.

Well, those essays are are widely published and available in Portugal, easy to find in any bookstore.  I don't really know how available they might be where you're at. And yes, he has some stuff on semiology as well.