The novel The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is full of allusions and wordplays. The author writes this novel for an erudite reader, who is able to understand all the references and details Eco is incorporating throughout the novel. Eco creates his characters implicitly referring to other literary heroes or personalities from the real world. The most remarkable example is one of the main characters William of Baskerville. .
According to Professor Anderson's Web page, Eco's "Brother William of Baskerville" (Eco 13) is the allusion to Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskerville. In chapter 13 Sherlock Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville examine the Baskerville estate's collection of family members" portraits. They find the portrait of Sir William Baskerville, whom Eco uses as a prototype for his hero, perhaps, suggesting that The Name of the Rose is a detective story ("Study Pages").
The physical appearance of Brother William given in the Prologue strikes the reader because of its similarity to Dr. Watson's first description of Sherlock Holmes from A Study in Scarlet: "His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision." Adso describes William with the slight variation: "Brother William's physical appearance was at that time such as to attract the .
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attention of the most inattentive observer. His height surpassed that of a normal man and he was so thin that he seemed still taller. His eyes were sharp and penetrating; his thin and slightly beaky nose gave his countenance the expression of man on the lookout, save in certain moments of sluggishness of which I shall speak" (Eco 15).
