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Summary
Summary
An extraordinary epic, brilliantly-imagined, new novel from a world-class writer and author of The Name of the Rose. Discover the Middle Ages with Baudolino - a wondrous, dazzling, beguiling tale of history, myth and invention.
It is 1204, and Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the knights of the fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.
Author Notes
Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, Italy on January 5, 1932. He received a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Turin in 1954. His first book, Il Problema Estetico in San Tommaso, was an extension of his doctoral thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas and was published in 1956. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was published in 1980 and won the Premio Strega and the Premio Anghiar awards in 1981. In 1986, it was adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Prague Cemetery, and Numero Zero. He also wrote children's books and more than 20 nonfiction books including Serendipities: Language and Lunacy. He taught philosophy and then semiotics at the University of Bologna. He also wrote weekly columns on popular culture and politics for L'Espresso. He died from cancer on February 19, 2016 at the age of 84.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Readers admire Eco the semiotician, but they love Eco the novelist. Here, he returns to his old stomping ground the Middle Ages to relate the story of a quest for a priceless relic that is prompted by an imaginary map. This book is not currently available in English. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The challenges and joys of this Italian professor's internationally best-selling Name of the Rose (1983) indicated that literary and popular are not necessarily mutually exclusive terms. Eco's latest novel continues to support the concept. In keeping with his customary practice, Eco sets his story in the past--in this case, twelfth-century Europe and the Near East. A man named Baudolino, of northern Italian peasant stock, finds himself in Constantinople as the Crusaders are sacking the Byzantine capital. He tells his life story to a court official whose life he has saved, and what a story it is. As a youngster, he was adopted by the great Holy Roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Baudolino not only received his University of Paris education at the emperor's behest but also learned the geographical, cultural, and political dimensions of a much wider world than he could have ever known on his own as he accompanied Frederick on the emperor's exploits in maintaining the security of his realm. But for years Baudolino's dream was to travel east to visit the mythological domain of Prester John, a legendary priest and king. Eco's novel is dreamlike itself. He weaves with deeply colored threads a fantastical narrative that beautifully mixes the elements of an adventure story with intellectual discussions of theology, government, language, geography, and politics. The most provocative aspect of the tale, however, is the overarching question it poses about truth versus imagination in the act of recording history. This is historical fiction at its best: smart, enrapturing, and authentic. --Brad Hooper
Library Journal Review
Brother William of Baskerville heads to an Italian abbey in The Name of the Rose. Father Caspar sails the seven seas in The Island of the Day Before. Eco's characters are forever on the move, and his new protagonist is no exception. In 1204, as Constantinople is being plucked apart by knights of the Fourth Crusade, a hapless courtier named Niketas is rescued by Baudolino - adopted son of the emperor known as Barbarossa and a man with a fantastic tale to tell. And tell it he does, to the obliging Niketas, in over 500 pages of elaborate, historically precise detail. Baudolino's journey takes him from northern Italy, where as a clever peasant boy he encounters Barbarossa and is immediately taken to court, to studies in Paris, travels throughout Italy to defend Barbarossa's cause, and finally a quest deep into the East, where he hopes to find the magical kingdom of Prester John. If you have time to sink yourself deep into the text, this can be a delicious read, but there is less of the sparkling, diamond-cut investigation of ideas that can make Eco so much fun to read, and Baudolino's backing-and-forthing can get a bit tedious. Still, Eco is ever popular, this book is getting a big push, and Baudolino's adventures should please anyone looking for the ultimate medieval road novel. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/02.] - Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.