Summary of the work - Sykalo Eugen 2023

Short summary - Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" is a labyrinthine work of great complexity and sophistication. The novel takes place in the late 20th century, and is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Casaubon. Casaubon is an editor and publisher in Milan, Italy, who becomes involved with a group of intellectuals who are researching the occult and the esoteric.

The novel is divided into ten sections, each of which is named after a different sephirot of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Each section is further divided into several chapters, and the novel as a whole is structured like a labyrinth, with many twists, turns, and dead ends.

The plot of the novel revolves around a secret society called the "Knights Templar," who have supposedly been guarding a great secret for centuries. Casaubon and his friends become obsessed with uncovering this secret, and they create a computer program called the "Abulafia," which is designed to generate connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information.

As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the Knights Templar, Casaubon and his friends become increasingly paranoid and delusional. They begin to see hidden messages and conspiracies everywhere, and they become convinced that they are being watched and pursued by mysterious figures known only as the "Unknown People."

The key turning point in the novel comes when Casaubon and his friends discover a manuscript that supposedly contains the secret knowledge of the Knights Templar. They believe that they have finally uncovered the truth, but in reality, the manuscript is a fake, created by one of their own as a cruel prank. This realization leads Casaubon to a breakdown, and he becomes convinced that he is being pursued by the Unknown People.

The final section of the novel is $titled "Keter," which is the highest sephirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. In this section, Casaubon is shown to have descended into madness, and he becomes convinced that he is a modern-day Messiah. The novel ends with his descent into madness, leaving the reader to wonder whether any of the conspiracy theories and occult knowledge that Casaubon and his friends uncovered were real, or whether they were simply the product of their own delusions.

In conclusion, "Foucault's Pendulum" is a complex and deeply philosophical novel that explores the nature of truth, knowledge, and the human mind. It is a labyrinthine work that challenges the reader to question everything they think they know, and to consider the possibility that reality is not always what it seems.