Answer the following in 125-150 words:
What made the American publisher think that the novel, ‘The Name of the Rose’ won’t sell well in America? What actually happened? What was the secret of its success?
Solution
The American publisher thought that the novel The Name of the Rose won't sell in America because it was a country where nobody had seen a cathedral or studied Latin. Also, a lot of books had been written on medieval past far before him but they were not huge successes.
The novel, however, sold two or three million copies in the U.S.
Umberto Eco rightly pointed out that the success is a mystery. It is not possible to know the exact reason behind a book’s success or failure; one can only make wild guesses. Perhaps the time in history when it was written proved favourable for its success. According to Mukund, the novel’s setting in the medieval past might have contributed to its success even though many novels on the same topic have failed to get as much success.
