"Idiot. Above her head was the only stable place in the cosmos, the only refuge from the damnation of the panta rei, and she guessed it was the Pendulum's business, not hers. A moment later the couple went off - he, trained on some textbook that had blunted his capacity for wonder, she, inert and insensitive to the thrill of the infinite, both oblivious of the awesomeness on their encounter - their first and last encounter - with the One, the Ein-Sof, the Ineffable. How could you fail to kneel down before this altar of certitude?"
- Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum*
* Shamefully out of print for too long, the book is newly available in a handsome new paperback from Harcourt. And although apparently too difficult for the likes of Laura Miller, it's a virtuouso turn and worth every minute. Anthony Burgess called it "An intellectual triumph," and - easy call - we're with him.
UPDATE: A Fool in the Forest has posted a lovely YouTube video of the "The Pendulum Itself in its natural habitat, the Museé des Arts et Metiérs in Paris."
This was the first Eco novel I read, and it remains my favourite. I love how what at times seems like a mess spiraling out of control pulls together into an incredibly tight fabric thanks to a single well-placed scene.
When was it out of print? Or was it only out of print in the US? I've seen copies at every book store (not counting used) over the last several years. Maybe it was just leftover copies?
Posted by: August | February 14, 2007 at 10:39 AM
A mass-market paperback was available for many years. One is sitting on the shelf at the bookstore where I work, and the same is no doubt true elsewhere even though that version has been technically out of print for a little while. It's good to see a handsomer version replace it, I must say.
I'm betting that Laura Miller wasn't thinking of Foucault's Pendulum when she complained about the cerebral excesses of his fiction. As August observed, FP is very controlled for a novel that crams so much between its covers. Island of the Day Before and Mysterious Flame, on the other hand, sometimes seem more like essays than novels. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se.
Posted by: James | February 16, 2007 at 09:58 AM