And, former Concordia faculty member, Amy Clements, wrote this readers' guide for Houghton Mifflin. She started it after we had discussed it. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Reading Group Guide International #1 Bestseller The Prague Cemetery A Novel By Umberto Eco Introduction Spinning a dazzling, controversial what-if set in one of Europe’s most tumultuous eras, The Prague Cemetery marks a triumph in storytelling from master novelist Umberto Eco. At the center of this tale is the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document hoax that had brutal consequences for Jewish populations in the nineteenth century. Made to look like the minutes from a secret meeting of Jewish leaders bent on world domination, the Protocols were used as evidence (entirely fabricated) to justify violent levels of anti-Semitism that would later culminate in the Holocaust. Taking readers on a journey that sweeps from Paris to Turin to Prague, with events spanning the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, and the unification of Italy, Eco explores the mind of an evil genius who has an astonishing talent for forgery. Infiltrating holy and secular realms, Simone Simonini orchestrates a horrific “solution” in a society hungering for a scapegoat. Bringing to light the underbelly of nineteenth-century Europe in the wake of revolution, The Prague Cemetery will keep your reading group riveted. We hope this guide will enrich your discussion. Questions and Topics for Discussion 1. How was your reading enhanced by the three conflicting narrators? What do you think Umberto Eco is implying about memory and the storytelling process in general, particularly as Dumas, Zola, Taxil, and other writers are also woven into his storyline? 2. In the history recreated in The Prague Cemetery, there is no line between religious power and political power in the quest for dominance; conversions and proof of religious affiliation can signal political leanings and determine a person’s fate. How do Simonini’s religious leaders justify their doctrine of destruction for all who oppose them? Do their private aims have much to do with faith? 3. How were you affected by the inclusion of authentic illustrations that were produced during the nineteenth century? What messages do these images convey, even more graphically than words? 4. Simonini provides detailed descriptions of many fine meals he enjoyed throughout his travels. Does this make him a disgusting glutton, or did you find his food scenes to be alluring? 5. In chapter six, Simonini offers a description of Prague’s historic Jewish cemetery. The destruction begun by the Protocols would eventually include the genocide of Czechoslovakia’s Jews. What symbolic graves are signified by the novel’s title? 6. How does Diana’s character, merged with images of demonic possession and a black mass, (along with the legend of Babette of Interlaken in chapter four), reflect an image of women as both vulnerable and dangerous? 7. In the novel, Marxists, Jesuits, Freemasons, a small contingency of prosperous Jews, and other “suspect” populations are the subject of constant rumor. What do they demonstrate about survival in a culture dominated by propaganda? 8. In the novel, Eco delivers a cultural history his Italian homeland. What can an outsider to this history—particularly an American reader—observe about Eco’s reflections on his own heritage? 9. From his grandfather’s gruesome tales to financial incentives, religious rationalizations, and political offers that could not be refused, what does Simonini’s story tell us about the making of a monster who believes that “hatred alone warms the heart” (final scene)? 10. In your interpretation, what does Dr. Froïde reveal about the psyche of anti-Semites? What aspects of Europe’s pre-Holocaust psyche are captured in the personalities of Simonini and Abbé Dalla Piccola? 11. On the book’s closing pages, Eco reminds us that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and its perpetuators are very real aspects of European history. Before reading the novel, how familiar were you with this document, and with the Dreyfus Affair? How did it affect your reading to know that these circumstances were not Eco’s invention? 12. How has the Information Age affected the spread and the debunking of fabricated “evidence”? How can we apply the novel’s lessons to twenty-first-century Simoninis who, Eco asserts, “are still among us” (“Useless Learned Explanations”)? 13. Award-winning novelist Cynthia Ozick described The Prague Cemetery as “a satanically dangerous novel, as are all ironic tales, especially if they should fall into the hands of a naïve reader,” warning that “this magnificently sly, scarifying, circuitous, history-besotted jape is meant solely for the wise.” What makes satire—particularly one as seething as this—a powerful way to demonstrate historical truth? 14. How does The Prague Cemetery echo social themes found in previous Eco novels you’ve read? In what ways does Simonini represent new territory for Eco? About the Author Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy, in 1932. He is the author of five novels and numerous collections of essays. A semiotician, philosopher, medievalist, and for many years a professor at the University of Bologna, Eco is now president of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici there. He has received Italy’s highest literary award, the Premio Strega, has been named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government, and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Milan. Guide written by Amy Clements