#1 Italian bestseller   'Witty and wry . . . It's hard not to be charmed.' ' New York Times Book Review 'One of the most influential thinkers of our time.' ' Los Angeles Times  1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured and shot by local partisans. The precise circumstances of Il Duce's death remain controversial.  1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed hack writer, is offered a fee he can't resist to ghostwrite a book. His subject: a...

"On the Shoulders of Giants collects previously unpublished essays from the last fifteen years of Umberto Eco's life. With humor and erudition, one of the great contemporary thinkers takes on the roots of Western culture, the origin of language, the nature of beauty and ugliness, the imperfections of art, and the lure of mysteries"--

Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which Eco has written and lectured over the past ten years: from a disquisition on the theme that runs through his recent novel The Prague Cemetery - every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn't have one, must invent it - to a discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels (and in the process he takes us on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world); from...

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 profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives-a "liquid" society in which it's not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets...

Best-selling author Umberto Eco's latest work unlocks the riddles of history in an exploration of the "linguistics of the lunatic," stories told by scholars, scientists, poets, fanatics, and ordinary people in order to make sense of the world. Exploring the "Force of the False," Eco uncovers layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, such as Columbus's assumption that the world was much smaller than it is, leading him to seek out a quick route...

Eco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs-communication and signification-and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production.

How do we know a cat is a cat . . . and why do we call it a cat? In Kant and the Platypus, the renowned semiotician, philosopher, and bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault'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...

“Los perdedores y los autodidactas siempre saben mucho más que los ganadores. Si quieres ganar, tienes que concentrarte en un solo objetivo, y más te vale no perder el tiempo en saber más: el placer de la erudición está reservado a los perdedores”. Con estas credenciales se nos presenta Colonna, el protagonista de Número Cero, que en abril de 1992, a sus cincuenta años, recibe una extraña propuesta de un tal Simei: va a convertirse en...

Internationally best-selling author Umberto Eco is a master stylist whose books, including Baudolino, have been savored by millions around the world. Now, with The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, he crafts another ambitious and breathtaking novel. When book dealer Yambo suffers amnesia, his only remaining memories are books, poems, songs, and movies. Steeped in nostalgia and filled with vivid imagery, this work is a magnificent addition to Eco's...