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Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Date of Birth:
Scientific field:
Place of work:
Alma mater:	Turin University of the Arts
Scientific adviser:	University of Milan, University of Florence, University of Turin
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Biography

"Art and beauty in medieval aesthetics" (Arte e bellezza nell'estetica medievale, ). A brief outline of the aesthetic teachings of the Middle Ages. The aesthetic theories of prominent medieval theologians are considered: as well as philosophical and theological schools: Chartres, Saint-Victorian.

"The search for a perfect language in European culture" (La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea, )

"Six walks in literary forests" (Six Walks in the Fictional Woods, ). Six lectures given by Umberto Eco in 1994 at Harvard University are devoted to the problem of the relationship between literature and reality, author and text.

"Five Essays on Ethics" (Cinque scritti morali, ).

Other jobs

Umberto Eco is a recognized expert in the field bondology, that is, everything that is connected with. The following works were published: Il Caso Bond ( The Bond Affair), () - a collection of essays edited by Umberto Eco; The Narrative Structure in Fleming , ().

He has written several books for children:

• La bomba e il generale, ( The Bomb and the General).
• I tre cosmonauti, ( The Three Astronauts).
• Gli gnomi di Gnu, .

Notes

Literature (translations into Russian)

Scientific works

• Art and beauty in medieval aesthetics / Transl. from Italian A. Shurbeleva (Series: “Library of the Middle Ages”). - M.: Aletheia, . - 256 s - ISBN 5-89329-640-0.
• Open work / Transl. from Italian A. Shurbeleva. - M.: Academic project, . - 384 pp. - ISBN 5-7331-0019-2.
• Missing structure. Introduction to semiology / Transl. from Italian V. Reznik and A. Pogonyailo. - St. Petersburg: , . - 544 pp. - ISBN 5-89091-252-6.
• The search for a perfect language in European culture / Translated from Italian. A. Mirolyubova (Series “The Formation of Europe”). - M.: Alexandria, . - 430 s - ISBN 978-5-903445-05-9, ISBN 978-5-903445-03-5.
• Joyce's Poetics / Trans. from Italian A. Kovalya. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, . - 496 pp. - ISBN 5-89091-251-8.
• Five essays on ethics / Transl. from Italian . - St. Petersburg: Symposium, . - 160 s - ISBN 5-89091-210-0.
  Perv. ed.: St. Petersburg: Symposium, Bompiani, . - 160 s - ISBN 5-89091-125-2.
• Say almost the same thing. Experiments on translation / Transl. from Italian A. Kovalya. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, . - 576 pp. - ISBN 5-89091-316-6.
• Six walks in literary forests / Transl. from Italian A. Glebovskaya. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, . - 288 pp. - ISBN 5-89091-211-9. (

17th century As a result of a shipwreck, a young man named Robert de la Grieve is thrown ashore. desert island... or rather, not quite an island - on an uninhabited ship standing in the lagoon of some island in the Pacific Ocean. However, the more time Robert spends on the ship, the more he becomes convinced that there is someone else on the ship besides him...

It is clear that even such a master as Umberto Eco could not create a novel, the action of which would take place on an abandoned ship, and the hero of which would be one person. In addition to the events related to Robert’s stay on the ship, the novel has three more subplots that replace each other. First, this is a story about Robert's previous adventures - about his childhood, participation in the war, attempts to become one of his own in Paris, an assignment that brought him to a shipwrecked ship. Afterwards there are scientific (by the standards of that time) debates about the essence of time, about the structure of the Universe, about God and the place of man in the world. And finally, the last subplot is the description of the novel that Robert writes while on the ship, and it is this third plot that turns out to be perhaps the least interesting in the entire book, and since it is placed at the very end, all that remains is to flip through the pages, observing how enough the weighty volume is growing thin before our eyes, and you understand how quickly the hope that the book will end with something interesting is fading. It's a pity. “The Island...” began simply wonderful. An intrigue with an abandoned ship and its mysterious inhabitant, a vividly written story of the main character’s growing up (although is it growing up? - until the last pages of the book, he never really grew up, something that the narrator of the novel and the author, who in “The Island...”) are distant from. from each other, ironically makes fun of almost the entire book). The novel, which seemed like an elegant rebuke to the adventure genre, and primarily to Robinson Crusoe, parodies and quotes from which are found here and there in the text, gets bogged down in a parody of a parody, which in turn is based on a real adventure novel of the 17th century... this too much even for a postmodern work.

In addition to the adventure genre, Eco in “The Island...” also pays tribute to many scientific problems of those years, including the problems of determining longitude and the structure of the world. Of course, baroque thinking connected both problems with the divine will, and many discussions unfolding on the pages of the novel are also devoted to the existence of God. However, as in “The Name of the Rose,” another of Eco’s novels, these debates are not at all boring, but on the contrary, in some ways even funny. Of course, everything mentioned is thoroughly mixed, strongly brewed and served with a garnish of the language of the era being described - that’s the kind of culinary author that is. And as usual, he will not reveal his cards even after the end of the novel, as was the case with “Rose...” and “Pendulum...”. Was Robert's investigation useful? What happened to the ship's second occupant? Was the ship really on the Prime Meridian? And what happened to Robert himself? But the deconstruction that Eco does in his books comes down to placing literary intrigue and literary characters into the real world, and in it, unambiguous answers are known to be rare.

So what's the bottom line? "The Island of the Day" is good for the first two thirds, despite the fact that it is not a novel of action, but a novel of style, masterfully disguised as a baroque text, but after that there is a sad turning point, and the book becomes terribly boring. So, “The Island...” is a long way from “Rose...” and “Pendulum...”, which are beautiful from beginning to end.

Rating: 7

After the absolutely stunning, brilliant novels “The Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum”, Umberto Eco releases something called “The Island of the Day Before” (I’m not familiar with Italian, but the expression “L"isola del giorno prima” is perhaps more accurately translated as “The Island at the Border of Days,” or something that is more understandable from the plot). Not everyone likes this novel, and this is not at all surprising - This creation of the Italian medievalist turned out to be very peculiar. I can’t say that I’m delighted with it, although I appreciate it. It’s not even a matter of overload - after all, I managed to get through the postmodernist constructions of “Foucault’s Pendulum.”

First try. One of the layers, the most obvious, is literary play, stylization. Someone recounts a manuscript found in the wreck of a burnt ship in the southern seas. Its author is a certain young man named Robert de la Grieve, who describes his life's misadventures in this world in the middle XVII century. Of course, the language barrier and lack of education do not allow me to properly appreciate the elegance of the Baroque language, style, or rather, Eco’s mastery of it. But I believe - even at his word - that Umberto tried conscientiously, and through the language of that era, extremely elaborate, to show a real person, to make an anatomical section of his soul, to show the processes in a sick brain sliding into madness... Unfortunately, this style I don’t accept - I don’t like “baroque” literature, you can’t do anything with me.

Second try. Eco's novel is an elegant mockery of the Western European literary tradition, and above all of the adventure novels that I don't really like. Here you can recognize Dumas (of countless works), Stevenson (“The Master of Ballantrae,” as it seemed to me), Poe, Defoe, perhaps Hugo (I remembered his “Toilers of the Sea,” although the similarity is purely external and not necessarily influential), and others similar guys. The moves are recognizable, the images are too, but Eco harshly places them in the real world, where the heroes will not be invincible, and the secrets will remain unrevealed. Already from the first pages, the difference becomes clear - the war is shown not as a series of exploits of the protagonist, brave and courageous as Fanfan-Tulip, but as a series of senseless murders committed in the name of someone unknown and what. What about Robert's further adventures? His “investigation” related to the English alchemical secrets remains unsolved, even the secret of the “Zero Meridian”, expressed later by Frater Caspar, remains unsolved. No victory, no real defeat - Robert simply doesn’t get the opportunity to reveal these secrets, that’s all. Not to mention his behavior on the ship - he didn’t even get off the ship, like Robinson, and the broken-down “Daphne” remained his “Island”. And, of course, Robert did not have the wonderful skills of Comrade Crusoe (a kick in the direction of D. Defoe and his “pianos in the bushes”). Perhaps all these parallels exist only in my imagination, but they could be there - I would like to talk with Senor Eco himself...

Attempt three. The era being described is the time of the birth of our traditional science, based on three pillars - experiment-hypothesis-fact. However, at that time she was just emerging, following her own, sometimes very scary path of trial and error. Initial natural science knowledge was closely and intricately intertwined with biblical and mythological metaphors; polemicists of that time sought confirmation of their theories not only in scientific treatises, but also in the Holy Scriptures. And what Eco managed to do so well was describe that unimaginable jumble in the heads of educated people - Frater Caspar alone is worth something! True, today we are experiencing a revival of this worldview...

So: everything seems to be fine, the cocktail turns out to be interesting. And yet somehow it doesn’t sink into my soul. Perhaps he simply lacks the beauty and grace of Eco’s first two novels, their inner strength and clarity of the main plot. “The Island on the Eve” is a very vague thing, where the focus is not on some idea, but on style and literary play. “A game for the sake of a game” - isn’t this what is written on the banner of postmodernism - here it is in its pure form, albeit with elements of a real historical novel. But in general... A tedious thing in which catharsis is completely absent - how powerful and mind-blowing it is in “IR” and “MF”! Despite all the merits of The Island on the Eve, its shortcomings are unlikely to allow us to pick it up again in the coming years.

Rating: 7

It’s difficult to look at “The Island the Day Before” objectively. This is probably a really bad novel. Unsuccessful in the sense that it fails to captivate any reader, that many readers who enjoyed the beginning become cold by the middle of the book, and few make it to the end. In addition, the parts of the novel are so different that they can generally be perceived as independent books.

All these shortcomings (and these are really shortcomings) are characteristic, for example, of Thomas Mann in “The Chosen One” and in “Joseph and His Brothers,” which in no way cancels out the charm of these books or their high aesthetic and intellectual significance.

In general, for me, “Ostrom on the Eve” is one of my favorite books (I’m biased), because it contains an amazingly convincing immersion into the world of the 17th century, into the universe of mistakes, prejudices and discoveries of that era. I am very interested in that century, which causes me delight and disgust at the same time - and Eco wonderfully conveyed this fascination with the highest achievements of the Baroque era.

A wonderful book in which the Baroque is shown from the inside, from the point of view not of a museum visitor or an inquisitive scholar, but from the position of the creator of the style. What did people think, what did people feel who painted ceilings like this, created instruments like this, and mixed science and magic like this? Yes, not everyone is interested in this; readers who did not like “The Island” have absolutely the right not to like or be disappointed by Eco’s novel. In the end, there are absolutely no allusions to modern world, the reader has nothing to rely on except his knowledge of the world of Baroque culture. What if there is no such knowledge? Then it will be practically impossible to get through the book.

I repeat - a magnificent, soft novel, rich in images and intellectual paradoxes, which is at the same time a kind of compedium of the Baroque era and Eco’s reflection on the Baroque era. One of my favorite books and worth re-reading.

I would like to see this novel published as a series of volumes in octavo, with many illustrations - engravings of the 17th century, with map inserts, with marginalia that lead the reader away from the plot, so that the covers were like the embossed leather of Baroque libraries, and the paper was thick , slightly yellowish, as if yellowed with time.

Rating: 10

I felt so bad about the book that I had to register.

In my opinion, “The Island” is in no way worse than “The Name of the Rose.” Unfortunately, I cannot appreciate the baroque reminiscences (blame the darkness), but the humor and language cannot be ignored. The main character was created (I'm not afraid of banality) with love and honesty. Despite the seriousness, the book is perceived as a game (which is worth not using repeated adjectives). I sincerely envy and admire the translator - working on such a work is the most fun challenge.

Rating: 10

Umberto Eco never ceases to amaze us, unleashing an avalanche of varied information from his pages. But as soon as you start to take him seriously, the mischievous tongue of a joker appears.

As stated in the introduction, “The Island of the Day Before” (“L"isola del Giorno Prima, 1994) is a novel of hidden quotes from books, mostly unknown to us - which does not prevent us from enjoying the full picture and discovering familiar motifs from Daniel Defoe , Dumas the Father, Robert Stevenson or more modern authors...

When opening a novel, forget everything you know about the universe! Umberto Eco will give you a lecture from the point of view of the “only correct” science of those years when the events of the book unfolded. He will talk about the expedition to the Island of Dreams, where the Fire-Winged Dove was waiting for the main character. Will reveal secrets geographic longitude and the secret of the double - so much so that you will take everything at face value. Finally, he will introduce you to the structure of the universe. You will discover a lot of interesting things: you will learn, for example, that the Earth revolves around the Sun!

If you enjoyed this novel but haven't read The Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum, fill that gap immediately! It is for them that we value Eco.

Rating: 6

I take my hat off to those who read the book in an evening, I can’t imagine that this is possible at all. Actually, I love “abstruse” literature, especially those based on historical inserts and interweavings. What throws further into the whirlpool, caught on one name or event, and then a geometric progression. It goes on and on, and it’s hard to jump off. Here, I finished reading (worked), there’s no other way to say it, and I realized that I don’t want to anymore...

“To conceal means to spread the veil of honest darkness; it does not reveal the false, but only gives all possible rest to the true. The rose is beautiful in appearance because it hides its mortal frailty, and although it is customary to say about mortal beauties that they do not seem earthly, they are only corpses disguised due to the advantage of age.”

Beautiful, is not it! But almost the entire book consists of these philosophical moral teachings, turning into postulates. When I have to read such “volumes”, I have the complete feeling that the author writes purely for himself, he has his own world, there are no readers, no spectators, no stage, no one interests him. Its own closed space-time, like a black hole. Maybe that's right.

Whether you liked it or not is not so important. What really upset me was that I realized that I didn’t get anything from such an intellectual (no sarcasm) book to stick with. A mishmash in which it is impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff...

Rating: 6

A novel about the European Baroque era, written in “baroque” language, stylized by the author as baroque texts. I’ll say right away: the reading is incredibly tedious and boring. Most of all it looks like lecture notes on the history of the Baroque, and moreover, with a semiotic and post-structuralist bias. Maybe someone likes such things - well, in front of such a reader I am:pray:. Two words about what is in the novel. And there are journeys, shipwrecks, dreams, hidden symbols, fairy tales... And, of course, quotes, quotes, quotes... Big and small, obvious and hidden. European professors cannot do without quotations. Maybe I’m repeating myself, but it’s amazing to me: how can you put together a most boring book out of such wealth?!:frown:

Rating: 6

A wonderful book, my favorite among all those written by Eco! (“The Fiery Kingdom...” I haven’t read it yet.) I’m surprised by the many reviews about the boringness of the book. Of course, if someone is looking for dynamics and an acute plot, then a novel about a young man alone in a distant South Seas may seem boring, and even the memories, which are extremely educational for lovers of European history, will not brighten up the impression. But the novel has a completely different goal, and anyone who has read it to the end understands it perfectly. I won’t spoil the impression of the novel by laying out its heart with my clumsy tongue for the viewer to judge, I will only say that I re-read the last couple of pages at least 5 times, truly enjoying it. As for the Baroque style, which is hated by many, I will answer in the words of the author: “You yourself know how they wrote in the seventeenth century... These people have no soul.”

Rating: 10

The book, quite interesting in the beginning and middle, became very boring at the end. When Eco describes the hero's life on the estate, the siege of Casale and then Paris, it is interesting. When Robert and Vater Kaspar talk about various aspects of medieval science on the ship, it’s generally wonderful. And here

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

when, after the death of Vater Caspar, Robert begins to go crazy and plunges into fiction about his half-brother

Very boring. The book is written (translated) in a very unique language, sometimes these series of enumerations begin to tire. It seems, after all, that Eco went too far with his imitation of the Baroque.

Umberto Eco

Island the day before

FROM THE TRANSLATOR

The first (“The Name of the Rose”, St. Petersburg, Symposium, 1997) and the second (“Foucault’s Pendulum”, St. Petersburg, Symposium, 1998) novels by Umberto Eco, despite the erudite richness of the text, were published in both magazine and book editions with virtually no comments: abundance footnotes would interfere with the artistic effect, which Eco does not agree to.

This rule remains in force for his third and currently last novel, “The Island of the Day Before” (1994).

Of course, we must not forget when reading that “The Island of the Day Before” is a bunch of quotes. It contains pieces of scientific and artistic works of authors mainly from the 17th century (primarily Giovan Battista Marino and John Donne, as stated programmatically in two epigraphs to the novel, although quotes from Donne and Marina are not noted within the text). Galileo, Caldera, Descartes and, very widely, the writings of Cardinal Mazarin are also used; "Celestina" by Rojas; works by La Rochefoucauld and Madame de Scudéry; Spinoza, Bossuet, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, from whom the captain of Cardinal Biscard's guardsmen ran into Eco's text, Robert Louis Stevenson, some of Jack London's remarks (“...then I stopped knowing” - the famous ending of “Martin Eden”) and other literary material.

Subjects from paintings from Vermeer and Velazquez to Georges de la Tour, Poussin and, of course, Gauguin are widely used; many of the descriptions in the novel reproduce famous museum paintings. Anatomical descriptions were created on the basis of engravings from the medical atlas of Vesalius (16th century), and therefore the Land of the Dead is called Vesal Island in the novel.

Proper names in the book also contain second and third plans. The author deliberately does not give the reader any clues. But the Russian-speaking reader should probably be warned that, just like in the name of William of Baskerville, the philosopher-detective from “The Name of the Rose,” references to Occam and Conan Doyle were combined (Jorge from Burgos did not need explanation: this image symbolized Jorge Luis Borges with the Library of Babylon he invented), the names in the novel “The Island of the Day Before” are also full of connotations.

Let's consider a complex and hidden linguistic plot: where did the name of the main character, Robert de la Grieve Pozzo da San Patrizio, come from? He, thrown by a shipwreck into an uninhabited place, should certainly remind the reader of Robinson Crusoe. Robin is a diminutive of Robert, and it is Robert who is the name of the hero of the new novel. But the connection doesn't stop there. Robin in English is a robin, a bird of the thrush family, Turdus migratorius. In Italian this bird is called tordo, and in the Piedmontese dialect griva, that is, Mane. Thus, Robert's surname has the same semantic connotation as his name, and this gives him every right to be called Robinson.

But the intricacy does not end here either. Robert's estate is called Grieve Pozzo di San Patrizio. The expression “Pozzo (well) of St. Patrician” in Italian also means “bottomless barrel, abyss.” The Rabelaisian background of the name reinforces both the heroic epic figure of the hero’s father and the figure of the mother, baroquely composed from culinary recipes. The English equivalent of the same expression is widow's cruse, i.e. the biblical "widow's jug" or "inexhaustible source." This is how the word "Crusoe" comes up, and in such a complex way the name of Robert de la Grieve Pozzo di San Patrizio plays hide and seek with the name of Defoe's character - Robinson Crusoe!

At the same time, another game moment related to the “bird” symbolism is also important to the author. The German name for “robin” is blackbird – Drossel Caspar Vanderdrossel – the name of a Jesuit, the second “living” hero of the book, the hero’s only interlocutor. Kaspar Schott was the name of the real historical prototype of the hero, a Jesuit. He is the real author of the complex mechanisms described by Eco in the novel.

It is also noticeable that in this book “bird” surnames are almost obligatory. The medical researcher of longitudes from the Amaryllis is called Doctor Bird. What else can you expect from a work that, judging by one of Eco’s interviews, was originally supposed to be called “Fire-Colored Dove”?

The historical prototypes of the novel's heroes can be guessed, but you need to know the details of their biographies. Father Immanuel is the Jesuit Emanuele Tesauro, the author of the widely, although hidden, treatise Aristotle's Spyglass (1654). The “Canon of Digne” who lectures on atoms and quotes Epicurus is undoubtedly Pierre Gassendi. The charming and brilliant Cyrano de Bergerac is depicted in the novel almost in portraiture; his name is in this case San-Saven. This is because the baptismal name of the real-life prototype, Cyrano de Bergerac (1619 – 1655), is Savignen. In addition, there is a lot of Fontenelle in this figure. In any case, Eco quotes the works of Bergerac both when creating monologues and when writing letters to the Beautiful Lady, skillfully inserting into the text phrases of the fictional Cyrano from Rostand's play, composing letters to Roxane.

Umberto Eco

Island the day before

From the translator

Eco's novels are always published with virtually no commentary: an abundance of footnotes would ruin the artistic effect, which Eco does not agree to.

Of course, we must not forget when reading that “The Island of the Day Before” is a bunch of quotes. The book contains pieces of scientific and artistic works of authors mainly from the 17th century (primarily Giovan Battista Marino and John Donne, as stated in two epigraphs to the novel). Galileo, Calderon, Descartes and, very widely, the texts of Cardinal Mazarin are also used; "Celestina" by Rojas; works by La Rochefoucauld and Madame de Scudéry; Spinoza, Bossuet, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, from whom Biscara ran into this novel, the captain of the cardinal's guards, Robert Louis Stevenson, some lines of Jack London (“... then I stopped knowing” - the famous ending of “Martin Eden”) and another are recognizable literary material.

Subjects from paintings from Vermeer and Velazquez to Georges de la Tour, Poussin and, of course, Gauguin are widely used; many of the descriptions in the novel reproduce famous museum paintings. Anatomical descriptions were created on the basis of engravings from the medical atlas of Vesalius (16th century). That is why the Land of the Dead is called Vesal Island in the novel.

Proper names in the book also contain second and third plans. The author deliberately does not give the reader any clues. But the reader himself guesses that, just as in the name of William of Baskerville, the philosopher-detective from The Name of the Rose, references to Occam and Conan Doyle are combined (Jorge from Burgos needs no explanation: this image symbolizes Jorge Luis Borges with a fictional named after the Library of Babylon), the names in the novel “The Island on the Eve” are also full of connotations.

Let's consider a complex and hidden linguistic plot: where did the name of the main character, Robert de la Grieve Pozzo di San Patrizio, come from? He, thrown by a shipwreck into an uninhabited place, should certainly remind the reader of Robinson Crusoe. Robin is a diminutive of Robert. But the connection doesn't stop there. Robin in English is a robin, a bird of the thrush family, Turdus migratorius. In Italian this bird is called tordo, and in the Piedmontese dialect griva, that is, Mane. Thus, Robert's surname has the same semantic connotation as his name, and this gives him every right to be called Robinson.

But the intricacy does not end here either. Robert's estate is called Grieve Pozzo di San Patrizio. The expression “Pozzo (well) of St. Patrician” in Italian also means “bottomless barrel, abyss.” The Rabelaisian background of the name reinforces both the heroic epic figure of the hero’s father and the image of the mother, baroquely composed from culinary recipes. The English equivalent of the same expression is widow’s cruse, i.e. the biblical “widow’s jug” or “inexhaustible source.” This is how the word “Crusoe” comes up, and in such a complicated way the name of Robert de la Grieve Pozzo di San Patrizio plays hide and seek with the name of Defoe’s character - Robinson Crusoe!

At the same time, another game moment related to the “bird” symbolism is also important to the author. The German name for Robin is Drossel. Caspar Van Der Drossel is the name of a Jesuit, the second “living” hero of the book, the hero’s only interlocutor. Kaspar Schott was the name of the real historical prototype of the hero, a Jesuit. Kaspar Schott was the inventor of the complex mechanisms described by Eco in the novel.

It is also noticeable that in this book “bird” names are everywhere. The longitude medic from the Amaryllis is named Dr. Bird. What else can you expect from a work that, judging by one of Eco’s interviews, was originally supposed to even be called “Fire-Colored Dove”?

The historical prototypes of the novel's heroes can be guessed, but you need to know the details of their biographies. Father Immanuel is the Jesuit Emanuele Tesauro, author of the widely, although hidden, treatise Aristotle's Spyglass (1654). The “canon of Digne” who lectures on atoms and quotes Epicurus is undoubtedly Pierre Gassendi. The charming and brilliant Cyrano de Bergerac is depicted in the novel almost in portraiture; in this case his name is San Savin. This is because the baptismal name of the real-life prototype, Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655), is Savignen. In addition, there is a lot of Fontenelle in this figure. In any case, Eco quotes the works of Bergerac both when creating monologues and when writing letters to the Beautiful Lady, skillfully inserting into the text phrases of the fictional Cyrano from Rostand's play, composing letters to Roxane.

Not only the names of the heroes are rich in content, but also the names of inanimate objects. “Daphne” and “Amaryllis” (these are the names of two ships in the novel) are the names of two of the best melodies by the 17th century flautist Jacob van Eyck (remember that both ships are flebots, flte, “flutes”). It is important to remember that the flute is precisely the musical instrument that the author himself, Eco, plays almost professionally. Additionally, Daphnia and Amaryllis are flower names. The Amaryllis flower belongs to the Liliales family, class Liliopsida, subclass Lillidae, and the Beautiful Lady of the novel is named Liley... Once you start weaving such chains, it is difficult to stop: that is why the author himself does not comment on anything, and expects the same from publishers and translators.

Perhaps the only initially insurmountable linguistic obstacle was the fact that in Italian island, isola, as well as ship, nave, are feminine. Robert, like a man, possesses his floating fortress - nave - and longs for a meeting and embrace with his promised land, identifying her with an unattainable lover (let us remember that in French “island” is pronounced “lil”, close to “lilia”). This is conveyed on the plot level, but on a verbal level it is indescribable.

And one last thing. The chapter titles of this novel (which few people notice) are a catalog of a secret library. All 38 titles, except for two original ones (“Flame-colored dove” and “Colophon”), despite the fact that in most cases they sound quite Italian, can, upon reflection, be elevated to the names of real-life literary and, even more so, scientific works created during the Baroque period in different countries peace. Many of these phrases are familiar to Europeans, but not to Russian readers. Therefore, this single aspect (and precisely because of its structure-forming function) the translator allows himself to comment on in the footnotes, also reporting the title of the corresponding work in the original language.

In addition, according to the norm of Russian publishing tradition, sub-page translations of foreign language inclusions are given, with the exception of the simplest and most obvious ones and with the exception of those that are imperceptibly translated within the text. We tried to violate as little as possible the aesthetics of the publication preferred by the author (complete absence of footnotes).

In order to more clearly illuminate the priority principles of translation formulated by Umberto Eco himself (with which his Russian translator does not always agree), we publish at the end of the volume in the Appendix the author’s instructions for translators of “The Islands on the Eve” (based on the text of U. Eco, published in the journal “Europeo” "October 12, 1994).

Elena Kostyukovich

Island on the eve of Umberto Eco

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Title: The Island on the Eve

About the book “The Island of the Day Before” by Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco is an outstanding Italian scientist, philosopher and writer. His sensational book entitled “The Island of the Eve” immediately after its publication won recognition from readers around the world. The action of the work takes place in the first half of the 17th century. Finding himself in a hopeless situation after a tragic shipwreck in the South Seas, the main character - a young man named Robert de la Grieve - indulges in memories of his childhood years spent in Italy, recalls his life in the magnificent French capital and writes novels, being completely absorbed in dreams of forever lost lover.

In his book, Umberto Eco introduces us to the main character - the young nobleman Robert, who, by the will of fate, finds himself on a wrecked ship anchored near Pacific Ocean. The crew of the ship, landing on one of the surrounding islands, died at the hands of representatives of local tribes. Not being a skilled swimmer, our hero has to stay on board the ship, from which he gradually loses his mind.

Boundless loneliness makes him remember his past fears. For example, he recalls the twin brother he himself invented in childhood, who for a long time did not allow the boy to live in peace. Tormented by this fantastic image of an imaginary brother, Robert suddenly meets a strange man on an abandoned ship who supposedly changes his life. This stranger turns out to be an elderly Jesuit named Caspar van der Drossel, who is confident that the subject who controls the 180th meridian is also able to control time and distance at his discretion.

Umberto Eco in the novel “The Island of the Day Before” presents to our attention a striking, but at the same time harmonious mixture of historical background, philosophical reasoning, religious views, as well as facts from the natural and exact sciences.

In the deceptively simple plot, which tells about the dramatic life vicissitudes of one young man, about his wanderings in different corners of the globe, each of us should discover the endless string of quotes traditional for the author, as well as a new view of the scientist on questions that will never cease to occupy the best minds of mankind , – what life, death, love represent.

Thus, thanks to its unsurpassed semantic load and excellent linguistic execution, reading this book will be interesting and informative for everyone.

On our website about books you can download the site for free without registration or read online book“The Island of the Eve” by Umberto Eco in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. Buy full version you can from our partner. Also, here you will find the latest news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers there is a separate section with useful tips and recommendations, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.

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