Synopses & Reviews
Eco displays in these essays the same wit, learning, and lively intelligence that delighted readers of The Name of the Rose and Foucaults Pendulum. His range is wide, and his insights are acute, frequently ironic, and often downright funny. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
Synopsis
"A scintillating collection of writings by one of the most influential thinkers of our times." --Los Angeles Times
With the same wit, learning, and lively intelligence that delighted readers of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco entertains and intrigues once again, this time on subjects ranging from pop culture to philosophy, from the People's Temple to Thomas Aquinas, from Casablanca to Roland Barthes. Acute, ironic, and often very funny, these timeless essays open up fresh worlds of possibility and new frameworks of existence. A classic work.
"Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor." --The Atlantic
"Amusing and often brilliant." --John Updike, The New Yorker
About the Author
UMBERTO ECO was born in Alessandria, 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.