Foucault's Pendulum
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OverviewAI-generated
Foucault's Pendulum is a subject associated with the year 1988, which serves as both its publication date and inception. The work is categorized under the subject of Science. An edition of the text was first published in 2025, with a total of three editions recorded. The author of this edition is Michael Hagner.
A separate text titled "FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM EXPERIMENT" is available as a text medium from 1895. The subject has been referenced by 86 other encyclopedia articles.
Synthesized by Vinony from 11 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Internet Archive, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Author
- Umberto Eco
- Original title
- Il pendolo di Foucault
- Translator
- William Weaver
- Language
- Italian
- Genre
- Postmodern literature encyclopedic novel
- Publisher
- Bompiani Secker & Warburg (U.K.)
- Publication date
- October 1988
- Publication place
- Italy
- Published in english
- 16 October 1989
- Media type
- Print (Hardcover)
- Pages
- 687 pp. (Italian) 641 pp. (English)
- Isbn
- 88-452-1591-1 (Italian paperback) , 0-436-14096-9 (U.K.)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- literary work
- Named after
- Foucault pendulum
- Author
- Umberto Eco
- Genre
- historical fiction
- Country of origin
- Italy
- Publisher
- Valentino Bompiani
- Followed by
- The Island of the Day Before
- Follows
- The Name of the Rose
- Depicts
- Panthéon
- Narrative location
- Paris
- Image
- Pendule de Foucault au musee des arts et metiers.jpg
Show 6 more facts
- publication date
- 1988-00-00
- title
- Il pendolo di Foucault
- inception
- 1988-00-00
- language of work or name
- Italian
- different from
- Foucault pendulum
- form of creative work
- novel
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Foucault's Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault [il ˈpɛndolo di fuˈko]) is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988, with an English translation by William Weaver being published a year later.
The book is divided into segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. It is satirical, being full of esoteric references to Kabbalah, alchemy, and conspiracy theories, to the point that critic and novelist Anthony Burgess suggested that it needed an index. The pendulum of the title refers to an actual pendulum designed by French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate Earth's rotation, which has symbolic significance within the novel. Some believe that it refers to Michel Foucault, given the author's friendship with him, but Eco "specifically rejects any intentional reference to Michel Foucault"—this being regarded as another subtle literary joke.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Foucault's Pendulum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.