My experience with trying to read Umberto Eco in English has not been happy; I have found him difficult to read—in English. In Italian, though, he is much more possible, even a pleasure. His work is dense, i.e. full of detail you at first question. Then, you understand it's purpose and power. All the detail, most of it entered into two different diaries, that is quite intimate draws the reader into the horrid schemes of a mercenary forger, impersonator, traitor, spy, murderer, and conspiracy monger. If the reader is not drawn into the character through these details, then why read the novel at all? There is another reason: practically all other characters in the novel (Wikipedia counts at least thirty) are important if not well-known historical personailities, and what happens to them or what they do has been historically documented and well-known. Eco only fills in with more detail than an ordinary history book is likely to offer. He offers not only a chance to review the gross outlines that any history buff would recognize, but also reports the conversations, habits, thoughts, misgivings,which, bolstered by Eco's imagination become palpable.The historical period (1860 to 1898) is rather compact, though stretching somewhat earlier to the protagonist's childhood, which again attests to the density of detail, while at the same time rendering more approachable a discovery either new or renewed of its major events.The protagonist, Simone Simonini, is thoroughly and professionally unfeeling, except for his gluttonous love of French and Italian cuisine and, on the other hand, his aversion to physical contact with the opposite sex. At the end of his life, however, he feels he has done his duty, perverse as it may have been, and feels he has much to be proud of. A haunting,oddly informative, worthwhile read.

Magnifik!