Umberto Eco
Born 5 January 1932 · Died 19 February 2016
From Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy · Nationality: Italy, Kingdom of Italy · Writes fiction and nonfiction
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, semiotician, and university professor. He is widely known for his 1980 novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory. He later wrote other novels, including Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum) and L'isola del giorno prima (The Island of the Day Before). His novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery), released in 2010, topped the bestseller charts in Italy.
Eco also wrote academic texts, children's books, and essays, and edited and translated into Italian books from French, such as Raymond Queneau’s “Exercises in Style” (1983). He was the founder of the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Republic of San Marino,[3] president of the Graduate School for the Study of the Humanities at the University of Bologna, member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and an honorary fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford.
Quotes
“I started to write [The Name of the Rose] in March of 1978, moved by a seminal idea. I wanted to poison a monk.”
p. 18 “Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn’t ask ourselves what it says but what it means...”
The Name of the Rose “The Devil is not the Prince of Matter; the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. The Devil is grim because he knows where he is going, and, in moving, he always returns whence he came.”
The Name of the Rose “I am mimetic. If I write a book set in the seventeenth century, I write in a Baroque style. If I’m writing a book set in a newspaper office, I write in Journalese.”
quoted in Marco Belpoliti, "Umberto Eco: How I Wrote my Books" 2015 “After all, the cultivated person’s first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopaedia.”
Serendipities: Language and Lunacy 1998
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Umberto Eco in order
Books by Umberto Eco in the order they were published, from The Open Work (1962) to Numero Zero (2013).
- 1The Open Work
The Open Work1962 - 2A Theory of Semiotics
A Theory of Semiotics1976 - 3How to Write a Thesis
How to Write a Thesis1977 - 4The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose1980 - 5Postscript to The Name of the Rose
Postscript to The Name of the Rose1983 - 6Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language1983 - 7Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages
Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages1986 - 8Travels in Hyper Reality
Travels in Hyper Reality1986 - 9Foucault's Pendulum
Foucault's Pendulum1988 - 10The Limits of Interpretation
The Limits of Interpretation1990 - 11How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays
How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays1992 - 12The Search for the Perfect Language
The Search for the Perfect Language1993 - 13Six Walks in the Fictional Woods
Six Walks in the Fictional Woods1994 - 14The Island of the Day Before
The Island of the Day Before1994 - 15Five Moral Pieces
Five Moral Pieces1997 - 16Kant and the Platypus
Kant and the Platypus1997 - 17Baudolino
Baudolino2000 - 18History Of Beauty
History Of Beauty2004 - 19Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana
Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana2004What's in it (3)
- 20On Literature
On Literature2004 - 21On Ugliness
On Ugliness2007 - 22The Infinity of Lists
The Infinity of Lists2009 - 23Prague Cemetery
Prague Cemetery2010 - 24Numero Zero
Numero Zero2013