A review by chloehamburn
On Literature by Umberto Eco

3.0

Hmm, my first foray into the mind of Umberto Eco and I didn't love this like I thought I would. He's unbelievably intelligent and cultured (I swear my brain grew new synapses with every page) but also hard to follow. I found a glaring lack of references to women in history and women in literature. Every single author or figure of importance to Eco is a man, which is disappointing and narrow-minded, despite the man's genius. I interpreted his lack of reference as a dismissive attitude toward the contributions of women which I find infuriating, but because this is a book of randomly compiled essays, it's unclear whether the lack of women is endemic to his work or just a coincidence.

I completely plan on reading more of him, especially The Name of the Rose, and I also want to return to one essay I left unread about Gérard de Nerval, because I want to read the novella Sylvie first. For now, though, this anthology is marked as read.