Eco's novel draws broadly on a now well-established tradition of thrillers that are rooted in meticulous detail and extensive research. Similarities with the works of writers like John le Carre, Frederick Forsyth, and Len Deighton abound, although Eco's subject is more cosmic than global. It seems clear that Eco wrote another novel in a style very similar to that of The Name of The Rose. Eco's sources, as distinct from his literary precedents, are limited not just to the Judeo-Christian traditions of Western civilization, but extend to Oriental and African wisdom. The scope of the epigraphs for the 120 chapters in Fou-cault's Pendulum range from Shakespeare and Dante to Woody Allen and a Professor of Engineering at Columbia University. One of the convincing, if frivolous, literary precedents for Eco's second voluminous novel is Dashiell Hammett's novel (and its three film versions, especially John Houston's 1941 movie) The Maltese...