Eco cajoles his readers to go out and learn more, and perhaps, to disagree with him.
Scott Gordon The Daily Yomiuri Erudite, wide-ranging, and slyly humorous... The literary examples Eco employs range from Dante to Dumas, from Sterne to Spillane. His text is thought-provoking, often outright funny, and full of surprising juxtapositions. The Atlantic Fans of Eco's novels will ... Read morenot be left dissatisfied
his fictional players are still present: Templars, Illuminati, Jesuits, Theosophists, and Masons. They all have a part in this intriguing look at how the study of language can be full of surprises. Booklist Rich in historical anecdotes... Throughout, his treatments are informative, intellectually sophisticated, and thoroughly entertaining. Library Journal This collection will certainly appeal to specialists. But Eco's ability to balance technical subject matter with broadly intelligible anecdotes and illustrations should make it valuable and pleasurable for anyone seeking a gallant introduction to the philosophy of language. Publishers Weekly Eco's insistent curiosity, his vital imagination and his almost overwhelming erudition work together like forces of nature to push and pull the book's five essays in unpredictable directions. Review of Contemporary Fiction These essays are equally entertaining and unusual. Scotland on Sunday Informative, instructive, and entertaining. World Literature Today Show Less