<div>A &ldquo;scintillating collection&rdquo; of essays on Disneyland, medieval times, and much more, from the author of Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum (Los Angeles Times). Collected here are some of Umberto Eco&rsquo;s finest popular essays, recording the incisive and surprisingly entertaining observations of his restless intellectual mind. As the author puts it in the preface to the second edition: &ldquo;In these pages, I try to interpret and to help others interpret some &lsquo;signs.&rsquo; These signs are not only words, or images; they can also be forms of social behavior, political acts, artificial landscapes.&rdquo; From Disneyland to holography and wax museums, Eco explores America&rsquo;s obsession with artificial reality, suggesting that the craft of forgery has in certain cases exceeded reality itself. He examines Western culture&rsquo;s enduring fascination with the middle ages, proposing that our most pressing modern concerns began in that time. He delves into an array of topics, from sports to media to what he calls the crisis of reason. Throughout these travels&mdash;both physical and mental&mdash;Eco displays the same wit, learning, and lively intelligence that delighted readers of The Name of the Rose and Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum. Translated by William Weaver</div>

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Travels in Hyperreality

<div>&ldquo;Impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent&rdquo; essays on topics from cell phones to librarians, by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum (The Atlantic Monthly). A cosmopolitan curmudgeon the Los Angeles Times called &ldquo;the Andy Rooney of academia&rdquo;&mdash;known for both nonfiction and novels that have become blockbuster New York Times bestsellers&mdash;Umberto Eco takes readers on &ldquo;a delightful romp through the absurdities of modern life&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly) as he journeys around the world and into his own wildly adventurous mind. From the mundane details of getting around on Amtrak or in the back of a cab, to reflections on computer jargon and soccer fans, to more important issues like the effects of mass media and consumer civilization&mdash;not to mention the challenges of trying to refrigerate an expensive piece of fish at an English hotel&mdash;this renowned writer, semiotician, and philosopher provides &ldquo;an uncanny combination of the profound and the profane&rdquo; (San Francisco Chronicle). &ldquo;Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews Translated from the Italian by William Weaver</div>

Overdrive

How to Travel with a Salmon

<div>How do we know a cat is a cat . . . and why do we call it a cat? An &ldquo;intriguing and often fascinating&rdquo; look at words, perceptions, and the relationship between them (Newark Star-Ledger). In Kant and the Platypus, the renowned semiotician, philosopher, and bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum explores the question of how much of our perception of things is based on cognitive ability, and how much on linguistic resources. In six remarkable essays, Umberto Eco explores in depth questions of reality, perception, and experience. Basing his ideas on common sense, Eco shares a vast wealth of literary and historical knowledge, touching on issues that affect us every day. At once philosophical and amusing, Kant and the Platypus is a tour of the world of our senses, told by a master of knowing what is real and what is not. &ldquo;An erudite, detailed inquirity into the philosophy of mind . . . Here, Eco is continental philosopher, semiotician, and cognitive scientist rolled all into one.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal (starred review)</div>

Kant and the Platypus

<div>A literary prank leads to deadly danger in this &ldquo;endlessly diverting&rdquo; intellectual thriller by the author of The Name of the Rose (Time). Bored with their work, three Milanese book editors cook up an elaborate hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with occult groups across the centuries. Becoming obsessed with their own creation, they produce a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled&mdash;a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum. But in a fateful turn the joke becomes all too real. When occult groups, including Satanists, get wind of the Plan, they go so far as to kill one of the editors in their quest to gain control of the earth. Orchestrating these and other diverse characters into his multilayered semiotic adventure, Umberto Eco has created a superb cerebral entertainment. &quot;An intellectual adventure story&hellip;sensational, thrilling, and packed with arcana.&quot;&mdash;The Washington Post Book World</div>

Foucault's Pendulum

<div>A self-confessed liar spins a fascinating tale of his life in this &ldquo;comic and brilliantly baffling&rdquo; historical novel by the author of The Name of the Rose (The Guardian, UK). Constantinople, 1204. The Byzantine capital is under siege by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors&mdash;and proceeds to regale him with the fantastical story of his life. Born a simple peasant in northern Italy, Baudolino has two major gifts: a talent for learning languages and a skill in telling lies. As a boy he meets a foreign commander who adopts Baudolino and sends him to the university in Paris, where he makes a number of adventurous friends. Spurred on by myths and their own reveries, they decide to go in search of the legendary priest-king Prester John who is said to rule over a vast kingdom in the East. The kingdom they seek is a phantasmagorical land of strange creatures with eyes on their shoulders and mouths on their stomachs; of eunuchs, unicorns, and lovely maidens. With dazzling digressions, outrageous tricks, extraordinary feeling, and vicarious reflections on our postmodern age, Baudolino is Eco the storyteller at his brilliant best.</div>

Baudolino

<div>This essay collection by the revered public intellectual displays his &ldquo;profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes&rdquo; (Booklist). In these fourteen essays, Umberto Eco examines many of the ideas that have inspired his provocative and illuminating fiction. From the title essay&mdash;a disquisition of the notion that every country needs an enemy&mdash;he takes readers on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world. His topics range from indignant reviews of James Joyce&rsquo;s Ulysses by fascist journalists, to an examination of Saint Thomas Aquinas&rsquo;s notions about the soul of an unborn child, to censorship, violence and WikiLeaks. Here are essays full of passion, curiosity, and probing intellect by one of the world&rsquo;s most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed, best-selling novelists. &ldquo;True wit and wisdom coexist with fierce scholarship inside Umberto Eco, a writer who actually knows a thing or two about being truly human.&rdquo; &mdash; Buffalo News</div>

Inventing the Enemy

<div>The acclaimed author examines our contemporary world&mdash;from technology to politics and pop culture&mdash;in this collection of essays written for L&rsquo;Espresso.Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and philosophical insight. He illuminates the contemporary upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives&mdash;creating a &ldquo;liquid&rdquo; society that defies any organizing principle. In these pieces, written for his regular column in the Italian magazine L&rsquo;Espresso, Eco brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, mass media, racism, and good manners. It is &ldquo;a swan song from one of Europe&rsquo;s great intellectuals&hellip;[Eco] entertains with his intellect, humor, and insatiable curiosity&rdquo; (Kirkus Reviews). &ldquo;An intelligent, intriguing, and often hilariously incisive set of observations on contemporary follies and changing mores.&rdquo; &mdash;Publishers Weekly </div>

Chronicles of a Liquid Society

<div>A 17th century Italian nobleman is marooned on an empty ship in this &ldquo;astonishing intellectual journey&quot; by the author of Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum (San Francisco Chronicle). In the year 1643, a violent storm in the South Pacific leaves Roberto della Griva shipwrecked&mdash;on a ship. Swept from the Amaryllis, he has managed to pull himself aboard the Daphne, anchored in the bay of a beautiful island. The ship is fully provisioned, he discovers, but the crew is missing. As Roberto explores the different cabinets in the hold, he looks back on various episodes from his life: Ferrante, his imaginary evil brother; the siege of Casale, that meaningless chess move in the Thirty Years&#39; War in which he lost his father and his illusions; and the lessons given him on Reasons of State, fencing, the writing of love letters, and blasphemy. In this &ldquo;intellectually stimulating and dramatically intriguing&rdquo; novel, Umberto Eco conjures a young dreamer searching for love and meaning; and an old Jesuit who, with his clocks and maps, has plumbed the secrets of longitudes, the four moons of Jupiter, and the Flood (Chicago Tribune).</div>

The Island of the Day Before

<div>A wide-ranging collection of essays on the importance and meaning of literature by &ldquo;one of the most influential thinkers of our time&rdquo; (Los Angeles Times). In this collection of essays and addresses delivered over the course of his long and celebrated career, Umberto Eco seeks &quot;to understand the chemistry of [his] passion&quot; for the word. From musings on Ptolemy and &quot;the force of the false&quot; to reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, Eco&#39;s restless curiosity and encyclopedic knowledge are on dazzling display. On a more personal note, he also reveals his own ambitions and superstitions, his authorial anxieties and fears, letting readers into the private realms of his creative practice. Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection exhibits the diversity of interests and originality of thought that have made Eco one of the world&#39;s literary giants.</div>

On Literature

<div>In this prescient essay collection, the acclaimed author of Foucault&rsquo;s Pendulum examines the cultural trends and perils at the dawn of the 21st century.In the last decade of the 20th century, Umberto Eco saw an urgent need to embrace tolerance and multiculturalism in the face of our world&rsquo;s ever-increasing interconnectivity. At a talk delivered during the first Gulf War, he points out the absurdity of armed conflict in a globalized economy where the flow of information is unstoppable and the enemy is always behind the lines. Elsewhere, he questions the influence of the news media and identifies its contribution to our collective disillusionment with politics. In a deeply personal essay, Eco recalls his boyhood experience of Italy&rsquo;s liberation from fascism. He then analyzes the universal elements of fascism, including the &ldquo;cult of tradition&rdquo; and a &ldquo;suspicion of intellectual life.&rdquo; And finally, in an open letter to an Italian cardinal, Eco reflects on a question underlying all the reflections in the book: What does it mean to be moral or ethical when one doesn&#39;t believe in God? &ldquo;At just 111 pages, Five Moral Pieces packs a philosophical wallop surprising in such a slender book. Or maybe not so surprising. Eco&#39;s prose here is beautiful.&rdquo;&mdash;January Magazine</div>

Five Moral Pieces

<div>A Vatican Secret Archive historian reveals the true story of the Templars: &ldquo;consider this little book the first-choice primer on its legend-laden subject&rdquo; (Booklist). At its height, the Order of the Knights Templar rivaled the kingdoms of Europe in military might, economic power, and political influence. For 700 years, the story of these warrior-monks has been plagued by controversy and accusations of heresy. Tragically, the transcript of their Inquisition trial&mdash;which held the key to the truth&mdash;had vanished. Having uncovered the long-lost transcript, Templar historian Barbara Frale now reveals its explosive contents&mdash;including how Pope Clement V had absolved the order of all charges of heresy. The Templars chronicles the spectacular rise and fall of the organization against a sweeping backdrop of war, religious fervor, and the struggle for dominance, and finally lifts the centuries-old cloak of mystery surrounding one of the world&rsquo;s most intriguing secret societies.</div>

Umberto Eco
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Books By Umberto Eco (10 Books)