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From a literary standpoint, absolutely. Rebekah Send a noteboard - 22/02/2016 02:31:54 PM

But not, I think, when you consider cultural impact. Plus Harper Lee has Gregory Peck on her side.


View original postYou definitely must read Foucault's Pendulum. It's what a Dan Brown novel might be if it were written by someone with literary talent, a deep and thorough knowledge of occultism and history generally, a sense of grandeur and a willingness to blend suspense with high art. I guess I mean to say that it's nothing like Dan Brown novels but it's obvious to anyone who's read the book that Dan Brown very clearly decided to ape Umberto Eco without any success.

I will pick it up in a few years' time. I think we have a copy.
View original postI read it in English a while back but I want to read it again, and this time in the original Italian because I think it might work better (Name of the Rose was certainly smoother in Italian - the contrasts between the vernacular and Latin were less stark, for example). I think I owe that to him. I might even try Baudolino in Italian; I didn't really enjoy it in English. Of course, I have ALL his fictional novels for adults, so I hope to read them all in Italian at some point.

Baudolino was weird. I can't decide whether that or The Island of the Day Before was a stranger read.
View original postEco was a master, a Nobel laureate who deserved the prize (unlike a few of them). He was a living giant of true literature, who transcended all boundaries at a time when popular art and high art seem to be distancing themselves irrevocably. He will be missed.

Absolutely.
*MySmiley*

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
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Umberto Eco has died, aged 84. - 20/02/2016 08:27:37 AM 1292 Views
No offense to Harper Lee, but this eclipses her death by several orders of magnitude. - 20/02/2016 04:31:57 PM 829 Views
From a literary standpoint, absolutely. - 22/02/2016 02:31:54 PM 1124 Views
Run, don't walk, to Foucault's Pendulum. - 22/02/2016 08:42:32 PM 877 Views
They really are falling like flies... - 22/02/2016 05:57:33 PM 920 Views
Holy Shit - 01/03/2016 06:16:06 PM 859 Views

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