There are some books that provide you entertainment,some that provide you food for thought but there are books that provide you both, while making you curse yourself for not having such an extraordinary book much earlier. The Name of the Rose, or rather, in its true form, Il Nomma della Rosa, by Umberto Eco, is such an underrated classic. It is written in Italian, but the translated work is excellent. You may even call Umberto Eco, the author, as an inspiration to Dan Brown.  It serves as a veiled paradigm to authors such as Brown and Ashwin Sanghi, who thrive under the genre of semiotics. The story follows William of Baskerville through the eyes of young Adso of Melk, as they visit a monastery in Italy to investigate the death of a young monk. William is depicted as a medieval Sherlock Holmes, for the story is set in the 1300s , and it is clear that Eco has based his protagonist after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character. Adso of Melk serves as William's Watson, and the book follows the thought process of those times, which are unorthodox to say the least, and sometimes operates on a such a high level of spirituality, religion, which when combined with the language that Eco uses, masterfully capture the reader's imagination. After some time some of the interest that the book set by its fast pace may wane off, as the speed decreases substantially as the novel progresses, as both William and Adso learn several things about philosophy, spirituality, and religion. This is a classic, but not for those who seek Arnold Schwarzenegger style entertainment in books