THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE

New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace, 1995. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace, 1995. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 530 pages. The author's third novel. One of Umberto Eco's greatest achievements. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. The publisher's special Limited Slipcased Edition is the only other edition that precedes. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Umberto Eco's "L'Isola del giorno prima" in a felicitous English translation. A gripping historical novel. Its point is that if a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a modicum may have even greater perils. Eco's immediate concerns here - the double, the direction of time, the effect of Modern science upon Classical morality - are all profoundly philosophical. For in the invisible city called world literature, Umberto Eco's position has been unique: A serious, erudite writer whose books attract, provoke, and sell millions of copies throughout the world. His theme here, which underlies his entire body of work, is the great insoluble one of the relations between truth and reality, reality and fantasy, fantasy and prophecy, prophecy and mystery. His ability to conjure the past in all its richness, complexity, and darkness will remain unsurpassed among contemporary writers. Time flies: One looked forward to a new Umberto Eco book with reliable, nearly annual, regularity, and even if, lest one forget, the book in question needed to be translated first - with the author's complete involvement and full blessing - before it could actually be published. Those of us who were fortunate enough to see and hear him in person knew first-hand that apart from being a ground-breaking scholar, philosopher, cultural critic ("semiotician") , and literary artist/novelist, Eco was also a fastidious polylinguist whose command of the English language was better than most native speakers'. Umberto Eco died on February 19, 2016 at the age of 84, the exact same day as Harper Lee, another literary icon of the less prolific kind, who died at the age of 89. They will both be missed. An absolute "must-have" title for Umberto Eco collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Umberto Eco. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER UMBERTO ECO TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0151001510.