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Umberto Eco
 

On Ugliness On Ugliness
Автор: Жанр: Quercus/MacLehose Press Издательство: Quercus/MacLehose Press Год: 2011 Страниц: 456 Дата загрузки: 17 сентября 2016
   Beauty and ugliness are two sides of the same coin; by ugliness we usually mean the opposite of beauty and we often define the first in order to understand the nature of the second. But the various depictions of ugliness over the centuries are richer and more unpredictable than is commonly thought. The striking images and anthological quotations in On Ugliness lead us on an extraordinary journey through the passions, terrors and nightmares of almost three thousand years, where acts of rejection go hand in hand with touching instances of empathy, and an aversion to deformity is accompanied by seductive violations of all classical canons. With his characteristic wit and erudition, Umberto Eco draws on examples in art and literature from ancient times to the present day. Abundantly illustrated with demons, madmen, vile enemies and disquieting presences, with freaks and the living dead, On Ugliness is conceived for a vast and diverse readership, and is an invaluable companion volume to On Beauty.
 
On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea
Автор: Жанр: Quercus/MacLehose Press Издательство: Quercus/MacLehose Press Год: 2010 Страниц: 440 Дата загрузки: 15 августа 2012
   On Beauty is neither a history of art, nor a history of aesthetics, but Umberto Eco draws on both these disciplines to define the ideas of beauty that have informed us from the classical world to modern times. In terms of form and style, On Beauty has been conceived for a vast and diverse readership. Packed with examples from painting, sculpture, architecture, film, photography, the decorative arts and literature, it offers a rich and intelligent panorama of this huge subject. In On Beauty Eco is at his most captivating and eclectic: we read not only of Botticelli and Michelangelo but of how much the fashion of the 1960s owes to ancient Egyptian dress, and how ancient Roman and eighteenth-century hairstyles have much in common. It makes the familiar new, and sheds a brilliant light on the unfamiliar. On Beauty is illustrated in full colour throughout and produced to the highest standards.
 
Inventing the Enemy Inventing the Enemy
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2013 Страниц: 240 Дата загрузки: 23 декабря 2015
   A collection of timely essays by the internationally acclaimed and bestselling essayist, philosopher, literary critic and author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery. 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.
 
Foucault's Pendulum Foucault's Pendulum
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2008 Страниц: 652 Дата загрузки: 19 марта 2011
   Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel to have some fun. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truth.
 
The Island Of The Day Before The Island Of The Day Before
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 1996 Страниц: 515 Дата загрузки: 17 сентября 2009
   Set in the 17th century, in Italy, France and on the high seas, this is a tale of medieval legends and dastardly deeds, mixed with portions of exploration literature. Roberto, a young nobleman, waits alone on a Pacific island, separated from the island beyond: the island of the day before.
 
Kant And The Platypus Kant And The Platypus
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2000 Страниц: 480 Дата загрузки: 9 февраля 2009
   How we know that a cat is a cat is a nice philosophical poser, and has been since the time of Plato. Why we should all agree on calling the animal a cat is equally interesting, yet it throws up the problem that lies at the heart of all modern philosophy: how much do our perceptions of things depend on our cognitive ability, and how much on our linguistic resources? Where, and how, do these two questions meet? Having decided against a systematic treatment of his subject, Umberto Eco undertakes a series of idiosyncratic and typically brilliant explorations, starting from the perceived data of common sense, from which flow an abundance of 'stories' or fables, often with animals as protagonists, to expound a clear critique of Kant, Heidegger and Peirce. And, as a beast designed specifically to throw spanners in the works of cognitive theory, the duckbilled platypus naturally takes centre stage.
 
The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2006 Страниц: 464 Дата загрузки: 25 апреля 2010
   Yambo, a sixty-ish rare book dealer who lives in Milan has suffered a loss of memory; not the kind of memory neurologists call 'semantic' (Yambo remembers all about Julius Caesar and can recite every poem he has ever read), but rather his 'autobiographical' memory: he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, doesn't remember anything about his parents or his childhood. His wife, who is at his side as he slowly begins to recover, convinces him to return to his family home in the hills somewhere between Milan and Turin. Yambo promptly retreats to the sprawling attic, cluttered with boxes of newspapers, comics, records, photo albums and adolescent diaries. There, he relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Cyrano de Bergerac. As he recovers his memory, two voids remain shrouded in fog: a terrible event he experienced during the resistance, and the vague image of a girl whom he loved at sixteen, then lost.But a relapse occurs. Now in a coma, his memories run wild, and life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to find at last the face of the girl he loves: she descends the stairs of their high school and morphs into a Dante-esque promise (or threat) of the afterlife, as he struggles harder to capture her simple, innocent, real-life image — the schoolgirl he never forgot. Copiously illustrated throughout with images from comics, book jackets, record sleeves and other printed ephemera, «The Mysterious Flame» is a fascinating and hugely entertaining new novel from the incomparable Umberto Eco.
 
The Name Of The Rose The Name Of The Rose
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2004 Страниц: 512 Дата загрузки: 16 марта 2009
   The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night. A spectacular popular and critical success, «The Name of the Rose» is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.
 
On Beauty On Beauty
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2004 Страниц: 438 Дата загрузки: 27 октрября 2009
   Beauty is neither a history of art, nor a history of aesthetics but Umberto Eco draws on the histories of both these disciplines to define the ideas of beauty that have informed sensibilities from the classical world to modern times. In terms of form and style, Beauty has been conceived for a vast and diversified readership: taking in painting, sculpture, architecture, film, photography, the decorative arts, novels and poems, it offers a rich and intelligent panorama of this huge subject. It traces the philosophy of aesthetics through history and examines some of the many treatises that have sought to define it. Beauty is Umberto Eco at his most captivating and eclectic: we read not only of Botticelli and Michelangelo but of how the fashion of the 1960s owes much to ancient Egyptian dress, and how ancient Roman and eighteenth-century hairstyles have much in common. It makes the familiar new, and sheds a brilliant new light on the unfamiliar. Illustrated in full colour throughout and produced to the highest standards, Beauty is an indispensable book.
 
On Literature On Literature
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2006 Страниц: 352 Дата загрузки: 24 сентября 2011
   After the opening essay on the general significance of literature, Eco examines a number of major authors from the Western canon. A stimulating chapter on the poetic qualities of Dante's «Paradiso» is followed by one on the style of the Communist Manifesto. The next three essays centre on nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature: one on the French writer Nerval's masterpiece, «Sylvie» (a major influence on Eco and a novella that he translated into Italian), one on Oscar Wilde's love of paradox, and one on Joyce's views on language. The last three pieces deal with the road that leads from Cervantes via Swift to Borges' «Library of Babel», then an essay on Eco's own anxiety about Borges' influence on him, and the volume ends with an article on the enigmatic Italian critic and anthropologist Piero Camporesi. «On Literature» is a provocative and entertaining collection of sprightly essays on the key texts that have shaped Eco, the novelist and critic. This volume will appeal to anyone interested in how new light is shed on old masters by a great contemporary mind.
 
On Ugliness On Ugliness
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2007 Страниц: 432 Дата загрузки: 20 сентября 2012
   This book is the follow up to the previous volume, «On Beauty». Apparently beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other, and by ugliness we usually mean the opposite of beauty, so all we need do is define the first to understand the nature of the second. But the various manifestations of ugliness over the centuries are richer and more unpredictable than is commonly thought. The anthological quotations and the extraordinary illustrations in this book lead us on a surprising journey among the nightmares, terrors, and loves of almost three thousand years, where acts of rejection go hand in hand with touching gestures of compassion, and the rejection of deformity is accompanied by decadent ecstasies over the most seductive violations of all classical canons.Among demons, madmen, horrible enemies, and disquieting presences, among horrid abysses and deformities that verge on the sublime, among freaks and the living dead, we discover a vast and often unsuspected iconographic vein. So much so that, on gradually encountering in these pages the ugliness of nature, spiritual ugliness, asymmetry, disharmony, disfigurement, and the succession of things sordid, weak, vile, banal, random, arbitrary, coarse, repugnant, clumsy, horrendous, vacuous, nauseating, criminal, spectral, witchlike, satanic, repellent, disgusting, unpleasant, grotesque, abominable, odious, crude, foul, dirty, obscene, frightening, abject, monstrous, hair-raising, ugly, terrible, terrifying, revolting, repulsive, loathsome, fetid, ignoble, awkward, ghastly and indecent, the first foreign publisher to see this book exclaimed: 'How beautiful ugliness is!'
 
Turning Back The Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism Turning Back The Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2008 Страниц: 384 Дата загрузки: 14 февраля 2010
   After the Cold War, the 'Hot War' has made its comeback in Afghanistan and Iraq. Exhuming Kipling's «Great Game», we have gone back to the clash between Islam and Christianity. The ghost of the Yellow Peril has been resurrected, the nineteenth-century anti-Darwin debate has been reopened, right-wing governments predominate. It almost seems like history, tired of the big steps forward it has taken in the past two millennia, has gone into reverse. With his customary sharpness and wit, Eco proposes, not so much that we resume a forward march, but at the very least that we cease marching backwards.
 
Faith in Fakes Faith in Fakes
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 1995 Страниц: 320 Дата загрузки: 16 декабря 2009
   By the author of «The Name of the Rose», these essays, written over the last 20 years and culled from newspapers and magazines, explore the rag-bag of modern consciousness. Eco considers a wide range of topics, from «Superman» and «Casablanca», Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, Jim Jones and mass suicide, and Woody Allen, to holography and waxworks, pop festivals and football, and not least the social and personal implications of tight jeans.
 
Baudolino Baudolino
Автор: Жанр: Random House Inc. Издательство: Random House, Inc. Год: 2003 Страниц: 528 Дата загрузки: 05 июня 2009
   It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own story.
 

 

 

 
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