Foucault's Pendulum

Three editors invent a conspiracy. The world decides it is real. Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi work in a Milan publishing house surrounded by manuscripts on the occult and the Knights Templar. Amused by the pattern-seeking of amateur historians and secret-society enthusiasts, they decide to construct their own grand theory. What begins as a game becomes 'The Plan', an elaborate network of invented connections linking Templars, Rosicrucians, secret codes, and hidden knowledge. The more intricate the fabrication, the more persuasive it feels. Soon others take it seriously. What was meant as satire begins to attract believers willing to act on the fiction. As coincidence is mistaken for design, Eco exposes how easily the desire for meaning can become a trap.