Eco's thoughts on his astonishingly successful novel were originally published in an Italian journal in 1983, and subsequently reprinted as a free supplement to the Italian paperback edition of the book. This translation by William Weaver may therefore seem rather expensive for such a brief piece, but it contains a lot of fascinating information for Name of the Rose enthusiasts, as well as for those interested in Eco's theoretical work on semiotics and art.

In fact Eco speaks here from the viewpoint of a literary theorist (especially the theorist of the 'open' work of art) as much as that of an author, one result of which is a refusal to give an explicit interpretation of his book. The novel is a 'machine for generating