On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
This book is the follow up to the previous volume On Beauty. Apparently beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other, and by ugliness we usually mean the opposite of beauty, so all we need do is define the first to understand the nature of the second. But the various manifestations of ugliness over the centuries are richer and more unpredictable than is commonly thought. The anthological quotations and the extraordinary illustrations in this book lead us on a surprising journey among the nightmares, terrors, and loves of almost three thousand years, where acts of rejection go hand in hand with touching gestures of compassion, and the rejection of deformity is accompanied by decadent ecstasies over the most seductive violations of all classical canons. Among demons, madmen, horrible enemies, and disquieting presences, among horrid abysses and deformities that verge on the sublime, among freaks and the living dead, we discover a vast and often unsuspected iconographic vein. So much so that, on gradually encountering in these pages the ugliness of nature, spiritual ugliness, asymmetry, disharmony, disfigurement, and the succession of things sordid, weak, vile, banal, random, arbitrary, coarse, repugnant, clumsy, horrendous, vacuous, nauseating, criminal, spectral, witchlike, satanic, repellent, disgusting, unpleasant, grotesque, abominable, odious, crude, foul, dirty, obscene, frightening, abject, monstrous, hair-raising, ugly, terrible, terrifying, revolting, repulsive, loathsome, fetid, ignoble, awkward, ghastly and indecent, the first foreign publisher to see this book exclaimed: 'How beautiful ugliness is!'
Eco is a commentator who makes sense of what so often seems senselessAll the more reason to read him * Time Out *
Eco is one of the most influential thinkers of our time * Los Angeles Times *
Eco is a highly entertaining and perceptive "decoder" of our world * Times Literary Supplement *
For the sheer depth and clarity of his learning and wisdom, Eco has no living rival * Harpers & Queen *
Passionately argued and deeply engaged... Eco's writing has a unique ability to dance on the page and to resonate in the mind. * Daily Telegraph *
Eco is one of the most influential thinkers of our time * Los Angeles Times *
Eco is a highly entertaining and perceptive "decoder" of our world * Times Literary Supplement *
For the sheer depth and clarity of his learning and wisdom, Eco has no living rival * Harpers & Queen *
Passionately argued and deeply engaged... Eco's writing has a unique ability to dance on the page and to resonate in the mind. * Daily Telegraph *
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) wrote fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a major international bestseller. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero along with many brilliant collections of essays.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781846551222 |
| ISBN 10 | 1846551226 |
| Title | On Ugliness |
| Author | Umberto Eco |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2007-10-25 |
| Number of pages | 432 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |