His friends remember a bon vivant who loved whiskey and witticisms, and for whom writing was “a breeze it did not take seriously.” The writer Umberto Eco, who had cancer, died Friday at the age of 84 at his home in Milan. He has 48 years when fate, in 1980, “The Name of the Rose”, which quickly became an international bestseller, translated into 43 languages and sold more than ten milion exemplaires.Après this success, he has offered its readers “Foucault’s Pendulum” (1988), “the island of the day before” (1994) and “the mysterious flame of Queen Loana (2004).” He who has received many academic and literary awards, liked to say in the receiving “from now on, the Nobel or nothing.” It will never be granted. Yet he left behind a large number of novels, the latest “zero number,” published last year, spoke of Italy and of the press. But it is the investigation by a Franciscan monk, former inquisitor, in a Benedictine abbey in the fourteenth century in northern Italy which to make the ever famous in the world. The fame of the “Name of the Rose” also owes much to the film that was inspired, directed by the French Jean-Jacques Annaud, with Sean Connery in the lead role. “We visited many monasteries all, it was a crazy dynamic, always leaving me completely free, including the choice of Sean Connery that had devastated except that when he saw the film, he said it was the most successful thing, “recalled the director.
Player clarinet
Men left, Eco was not the writer locked in his ivory tower and clarinet player wrote regularly for the weekly L’Espresso and La Repubblica.
the flags were lowered to half in Alessandria, Piemonte town near the border French, where Umberto Eco was born in 1932. a polyglot, married to a German, Eco has taught at several universities, especially in Bologna (north) where he held the chair of semiotics until October 2007, when he retired.
in June 2006, Umberto Eco was at Toulouse at the 2nd edition of the Marathon des Mots as guest of honor . It was simple and curious shown to the public who still remembers his proximity and his erudition. Italy, not just her, “loses a writer of first importance” as Bernard Pivot says. “It was an extraordinary example of European intellectual,” said Matteo Renzi, head of the Italian government. “He was able to combine both a singular understanding of the past and a tireless ability to anticipate the future,” he said.
In Marathon words
in June 2006 Umberto Eco was the guest of honor of the Marathon des Mots in Toulouse. That same year, the actress Carole Bouquet was the godmother of the event. “The audience was delighted with the beautiful duet” recalls Serge Roue, the current director of Marathon. The actor Philippe Morier-Genoud had read “In the Name of the Rose, the church Saint-Pierre des Cuisines, and Carole Bouquet” How to travel with a salmon, “TNT. Umberto Eco had stayed two days in the Pink City. He was impressed by his erudition, its proximity and simplicity.
“It was a major writer”
You Umberto Eco had repeatedly “Apostrophes”
at least seven or eight times. The first time was in 1982 on the occasion of the release of the “Name of the Rose.” Before receiving, I had read the novel and I was stunned for several reasons. First, it was not a young novelist, he was nearly 50, he came from Italy and told an extraordinary story. He, who was a scholar semiotician took the risk of writing a thriller, a thriller in which he introduced metaphysics, the medieval gastronomy, bibliophile … things not typically found in novels. It was both an exciting novel in history and very learned. it was a shock, so obviously I invited. There they found an Italian who spoke French beautifully, must say it was very good at languages. All France and including me had discovered in his intelligence, his humor.
They say he had an incredible memory. You confirm?
This is the least we can say. Semiotics that was his specialty application to have the memory of words, objects, languages, customs … It was more an infinite curiosity for Italian politics, European literature, gastronomy today, wines … In short, it was an omniscient being. He had a complete mind who took the risk of writing novels and has succeeded beautifully.
Was he gay as they say?
It was a great sense of humor man. I was reading some articles he had written in the newspapers, they were amazing. They called themselves “how not to talk about football?”, “How to avoid widows?”, “How to recognize a pornographic film?” He was playing a lot, it was a lot of irony. It was one of his great qualities which made him an exceptional person. Usually when one is very learned as he was – that is to say, a semiotician, a university professor, who know a thousand things of science, history, philosophy … – you do not have more humor. Him, though.
It was also a great lover of the …
Yes. He was a lover of the beautiful and many things. The fine for him was a work semiotics.
The literature she loses a pillar?
Yes. I do not know what posterity will remember him, probably “On behalf of the Rose”. Italy had long known that she possessed a writer Umberto Eco of prime importance which unfortunately did not get the Nobel Prize for Literature. He could have had. A great writer has left us, obviously.
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