Inventing the Enemy
Essays
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · September 24, 2013
The final collection from the bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and one of the most influential, and entertaining, intellectuals of the last century—essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsession. “Underscores the writer’s profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes . . .
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- Who it’s for
- Follow Eco’s lively curiosity across essays that move between literature, history, censorship, and more.
- Themes
- Inventing national enemies, Mythical realms and the medieval world, Censorship, violence, and WikiLeaks
- Genres
- Essay Collections, Philosophy Writing, Italian Literary Collections
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The final collection from the bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and one of the most influential, and entertaining, intellectuals of the last century—essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsession. “Underscores the writer’s profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes . . .
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Eco’s pleasure in such explorations is obvious and contagious.” —Booklist The essays in Inventing the Enemy cover a wide range of topics on which Eco wrote and lectured, including a disquisition on the theme that runs through his novel The Prague Cemetery—every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn’t have one, must invent it; a discussion of ideas that inspired his earlier novels (and in the process he takes us on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world); an examination of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s notions about the soul of an unborn child; and censorship, violence, and WikiLeaks. “True wit and wisdom coexist with fierce scholarship inside Umberto Eco, a writer who actually knows a thing or two about being truly human.” —Buffalo News "Thought provoking . . . nuanced . . . the collection amply shows off Eco's sophisticated, agile mind." —Publishers Weekly
Ideas in Motion
Follow Eco’s lively curiosity across essays that move between literature, history, censorship, and more.
Come here for
- A learned mind at play across unexpectedly varied subjects
- Literary connections alongside questions of history and belief
Expect
- Essays with range, wit, and intellectual depth
- A collection that rewards curiosity more than a single through-line
Where it sits
| Essay Collections | 43% |
|---|---|
| Philosophy Writing | 36% |
| Italian Literary Collections | 28% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Essay Collections
- Letters & Correspondence
- Speeches Collection
- French Literary Criticism
Show all 8 publisher categories
- German Literary Criticism
- Italian Literary Criticism
- Short Story Criticism
- 19th-Century Literary Criticism
- Authors
- Umberto Eco
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- September 24, 2013
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Inventing national enemies · Mythical realms and the medieval world · Censorship, violence, and WikiLeaks
- Reading lane
- Essay Collections