布拉格墓园 (2010)

《布拉格墓园》（意大利语：Il cimitero di Praga，英语：The Prague Cemetery；另译作布拉格公墓）是由意大利作家翁贝托·埃科所写的第六本小说。2010年10月出版，以19世纪时的《锡安长老议定书》作为题材，小说中登场的人物，除了主角外，都是真实存在的历史人物。小说曾经入围2012年独立报外国小说奖，继《玫瑰之名》后埃科最佳的小说。

内容概述

主角为西蒙内·西莫尼尼（Simone Simonini），一位伪造文书专家。

中译版本

蔡孟贞译，《布拉格墓园》，皇冠出版，台湾台北市，2013年出版，ISBN 9789573330301。

文铮、娄翼俊译，《布拉格公墓》，上海译文出版社，上海，2020年出版，ISBN 9787532783762。

The Prague Cemetery (Italian: Il cimitero di Praga) is a novel by the Italian author Umberto Eco. It was first published in October 2010; the English translation by Richard Dixon was released the following year. Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2012, it has been described as Eco's best novel since The Name of the Rose.

Plot summary

The main character is Simone Simonini, a man whom Eco claims he has tried to make into the most cynical and disagreeable character in all the history of literature (and who is the only fictional character in the novel). He was born in Turin in 1830. His mother died while he was still a child, and his father was killed in 1848 fighting for a united Italy. He is brought up by his grandfather, an old reactionary who houses Jesuit refugees and hates the Jews. He claims that the French Revolution was planned by the Knights Templar, the Bavarian Illuminati, and the Jacobins, but behind them all were the Jews. Since he does not attend public school, Simonini is educated by Jesuits brought into his home at the behest of his grandfather. One such priest, Father Bergamaschi (a fictionalized portrait of the Italian Jesuit novelist Antonio Bresciani), teaches him the evils of secret societies that, according to him, are no more than a cover for communism.

Simonini imbibes not only his grandfather's antisemitism but also his father's radicalism. His dislike of the Jews arouses his anti-clerical inclinations. In the works of French writers, such as Eugène Sue and Alexandre Dumas, he enjoys reading of intrigues and conspiracies, and he aspires to emulate these fictions in his own life.

Simonini studies law. After his grandfather's death, he is employed by a dishonest lawyer who teaches him the art of forgery. His skills bring him to the attention of the Piedmont Government secret service, who decide his skills might be useful to them. His first big coup is acting as an agent provocateur, betraying to the police a group of radical students who were his drinking buddies. In exchange, the secret service helps him betray his employer, who gets thrown into prison where he soon dies, and take over his business.

Giuseppe Garibaldi with his "Thousand" red shirts invades Sicily in 1860. Simonini is sent to Palermo as a spy to report on Garibaldi's movements after he has taken possession of the Island. While on this mission, Simonini discovers that, contrary to circulating rumours, Garibaldi's "Thousand" are students, independent artisans, and professionals, not peasants. The support given by Sicilian peasants is not a matter of patriotism, but of hatred of exploitative landlords and oppressive Neapolitan officials. Garibaldi himself has no interest in social revolution and instead sides with the Sicilian landlords against the rioting peasants. The Kingdom of Piedmont cautiously supports the unification of Italy but is worried that Garibaldi's fame might eclipse that of their king, Vittorio Emanuele, or worse still, that he might proclaim a republic.

He meets the French novelist Alexandre Dumas and Italian patriots Nino Bixio and Ippolito Nievo. Simonini is ordered to destroy some heavily guarded documents in Nievo's possession. He befriends Nievo to gain his confidence, but the papers are too closely guarded. The only way Simonini can think of is to blow up the ship on which Nievo is sailing—sending the papers, Nievo himself, and dozens of others to the deep. Simonini develops an elaborate scheme to smuggle aboard a deranged malcontent with a box of explosives and bribes a sailor to take part in the scheme, knowing that they would both be killed along with everybody else onboard. Simonini then stabs to death an accomplice on land who had provided the explosive to silence him.