Inventing The Enemy: Essays

The final collection from the bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and one of the most influential, and entertaining, intellectuals of the last century—essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsession.

“Underscores the writer’s profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes . . . Eco’s pleasure in such explorations is obvious and contagious.” —Booklist

The essays in Inventing the Enemy cover a wide range of topics on which Eco wrote and lectured, including a disquisition on the theme that runs through his novel The Prague Cemetery—every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn’t have one, must invent it; a discussion of ideas that inspired his earlier novels (and in the process he takes us on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world); an examination of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s notions about the soul of an unborn child; and censorship, violence, and WikiLeaks.

“True wit and wisdom coexist with fierce scholarship inside Umberto Eco, a writer who actually knows a thing or two about being truly human.” —Buffalo News

"Thought provoking . . . nuanced . . . the collection amply shows off Eco's sophisticated, agile mind." —Publishers Weekly