Eco, Umberto

New York. 1984. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. Remainder Mark On Bottom Edge. 015173156x. Translated from the Italian by William Weaver. 84 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration from a manuscript of the Apocalypse; photograph authorized by El Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid. keywords: Literature Translated Italy Literary Criticism. FROM THE PUBLISHER - ‘I felt like poisoning a monk.' That notion, says Umberto Eco, set him to writing the phenomenally successful novel THE NAME OF THE ROSE. In this Postscript, the reader looks over Eco‘s shoulder as he conjures up the abbey's labyrinthine library, plots a series of macabre murders, debates with his sleuth, William of Baskerville, and uncovers tracks that the monks desperately try to cover up again. Eco's masterful re-creation of the world of 1327 was not Merely a stroke of genius but, indeed, the product of two years of planning, meticulous research, and imagination suffused by logic. With erudition and wit, Eco provides an assessment of the historical novel in the postmodern age. He writes memorably of bad books, ideal readers, painting, music, cinema. Eco believes that art should not only delight but also teach. Like THE NAME OF THE ROSE, this book does both. With 11 pages of illustrations. inventory #2562 ISBN: 015173156x.