Book description
Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which
Umberto Eco has written and lectured over the last ten years, from the
discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels - exploring
lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world in the process -
to a disquisition on the theme that runs through his most recent
novel, The Prague Cemetery, that every country needs an enemy,
and if it doesn't have one, must invent it. Eco's lively new
collection examines topics as diverse as St Thomas Aquinas's notions
about the soul of an unborn child, indignant reviews of James Joyce's
Ulysses by fascist journalists of the 1920s and 1930s,
censorship, violence and Wikileaks.
These are essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsessions by one
of the world's most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed,
bestselling novelists.
Umberto Eco has written works of 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
and
The Prague Cemetery,
along with many brilliant collections of essays.
