WRITER UMBERTO ECO DIES AT 84
‘THE NAME OF THE ROSE’ AUTHOR SUCCUMBS TO CANCER
Italian author Umberto Eco, who intrigued, puzzled and delighted readers worldwide with his best-selling historical novel “The Name of the Rose”, has died at the age of 84.
Spokeswoman Lori Glazer of Eco’s American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, confirmed his death on Friday. She could not immediately confirm how and where he died.
Author of a wide range of books, Eco was fascinated with the obscure and the mundane, and his books were both engaging narratives and philosophical and intellectual exercises. The bearded, heavy-set scholar, critic and novelist took on the esoteric theory of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols in language; on popular culture icons like James Bond; and on the technical languages of the Internet.
“The Name of the Rose” transformed him from an academic to international celebrity, especially after the medieval thriller set in a monastery was made into a film starring Sean Connery in 1986. “The Name of the Rose” sold mil- lions of copies, a feat for a narrative filled with partially translated Latin quotes and puzzling musings on the nature of symbols. But Eco talked about his inspiration with characteristic irony: “I began writing ... prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk.”
His second novel, the 1988 “Foucault’s Pendulum,” a byzantine tale of plotting publishers and secret sects also styled as a thriller, was successful too, though it was so complicated that an annotated guide accompanied it to help the reader follow the plot.
In 2000, when awarding Eco Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for communications, the jury praised his works “of universal distribution and profound effect that are already classics in contemporary thought”.