Why were the journalists and publishers puzzled at the success of ‘The Name of the Rose’?

In his interview Eco tells Mukund that through writing he reaches a larger audience. Mukund questioned Eco how his novel, The Name of the Rose’ is a very serious novel. This detective novel deals with metaphysics, theology and medieval history. Thus it is a deep and difficult novel. Eco replies that the most generalists and publishers beleve that readers are in the habit of reading ‘trash material’ and they don’t like difficult reading experiences.

Eco tells him that the sale of the book has proved it wrong. Between 10 to 15 million copies of the novel have been sold. In a way it has reached only a small percentage of readers. This shows that readers do not want easy experiences. The novel deals with a period of medieval history. Mukund questions that it could be the reason behind its success. But Eco tells that a lot of books were written about the medieval history before his novel. Eco says that the success of his book is a mystory for him. Even the journalists and publishers were puzzled at its success. Perhaps it was written at the most appropriate time.