Umberto Eco (Author) Umberto Eco (1932-2016) wrote fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a major international bestseller. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero along with many brilliant collections of essays.
Unlike many academics, he [Eco] had the ability to write in an accessible and engaging style... This book consists of 12 essays... Reading them is exhilarating... Almost every page of this entrancing book invites questions and provokes reflections -- Allan Massie * Scotsman * On the Shoulders of Giants...captures Eco on some of his most generous and scintillating form as a lecturer, breezing along with a lifetime's material at his fingertips -- Tim Smith-Laing * Daily Telegraph * There are people you've never met and yet you miss them when they are gone... Eco's famously ironic voice is penetrating ... The issues Eco addresses are so enormous in their scale they seem insurmountable, yet his measured, erudite commentary assures you that they can be understood and therefore resolved * Financial Times * He brilliantly exposes all that is absurd and paradoxical in contemporary behaviour. Eco's irony is disarming, his cleverness dazzling * Guardian *