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On Literature
On Literature
Jul 6, 2025 12:55 PM

Author:Umberto Eco

On Literature

Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection of essays exhibits the diversity of interests and the depth of knowledge that made Umberto Eco one of the world's leading writers. From musings on Ptolemy and reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, to revelations of his own authorial ambitions and fears, Eco's luminous intelligence is on display throughout.

This volume will appeal to anyone interested in how new light is shed on old masters by a great contemporary mind.

Reviews

Appropriately rich and chaotic

—— Sunday Times

His most personal book so far...this book speaks loudly and persuasively of the redemptive properties of good writing. This book is both a large statement about literary aesthetics and the elliptical spiritual autobiography of a major novelist. Eco writes with characteristic intelligence, clarity, enthusiasm and charm. He seems incapable of writing a dull paragraph, or a wrong-headed one

—— Scotland on Sunday

An exciting, ecstatic work of criticism

—— Guardian

A good deal of intellectual athleticism on display... Eco is a scintillating lecturer, and an elegant journalist... At his most mercurial

—— Independent

On Literature is a provocative and entertaining collection of sprightly essays on the key texts that have shaped Eco the novelist and critic

—— The Book People

'You'll be flipping pages so fast, the breeze will keep you cool on the beach'

—— New Woman

'Fast paced and funny...the perfect summer read'

—— 19

This is one that you won't want to miss - a wonderful debut novel

—— Armchair Interviews.com

Intelligent chick-lit ... This laugh-out-loud debut will captivate readers

—— Publishers Weekly

This debut novel is a fresh, thoroughly enjoyable read

—— Sarah Broadhurst

Wonderfully comic and touching

—— Sunday Telegraph

Interweaves a variety of thoroughly imagined life stories and predicaments with quiet, effective skill

—— Mail on Sunday

I have greater admiration for Margaret Forster than for most novelists. A very fine, continuously interesting, and often moving work, all the better because it is so firmly rooted in the ordinary world of everyday experience

—— Scotsman

Cadwalladr also captures the desperation at the heart of most good comedy. She maintains the tragicomic balance to the end and has the confidence to chose the right, realistic ending over the wrong, romantic one

—— The Observer/Review

A hilariously funny and moving chronical of three generations of the Monroe family told through the eyes of Rebecca in the 1970s. It is not just a habit of quoting proverbs and a recipe for sherry trifle that have passed down the maternal line. There's a habit of broken marriages, dubiously fathered children and untimely deaths.

—— Elite

Rebecca Monroe is really stumped when it comes to her family's behaviour. Why, on the day Charles and Camilla got married, did her mum lock herself in the loo and refuse to come out? Was it due to the collapse of her chocolate cake, or because Rebecca's grandmother ended up marrying her first cousin?

Pondering what it is that makes her clan click, Rebecca is determined to discover whether it is genes or fate that affects the different generations.

A fun little romp about the joys of family and the genes we inherit.

—— OK Met Stars

Touching and surprising...A moving account of the personal and social pressures that shape our childhood experiences and resonate throughout out lives

—— The Sunday Times

This exciting first novel by a talented writer is a moving exploration of family life in the twenty-first century...You won't want to put this book down

—— My Weekly

Hilariously funny and moving chronicle of three generations

—— Peterborough Evening News
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