The Infinity of List: An Illustrated Essay - Umberto Eco - Hardcover

Umberto Eco

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952 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847832961 ISBN 13: 9780847832965

Publisher: Rizzoli/Universal, 2009

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Best-selling author and philosopher Umberto Eco is currently resident at the Louvre, and his chosen theme of study is "the vertigo of lists." Reflecting on this enormous trove of human achievements, in his lyrical intellectual style he has embarked on an investigation of the phenomenon of cataloging and collecting. This book, featuring lavish reproductions of artworks from the Louvre and other world-famous collections, is a philosophical and artistic sequel to Eco’s recent acclaimed books, History of Beauty and On Ugliness, books in which he delved into the psychology, philosophy, history, and art of human forms. Eco is a modern-day Diderot, and here he examines the Western mind’s predilection for list-making and the encyclopedic. His central thesis is that in Western culture a passion for accumulation is recurring: lists of saints, catalogues of plants, collections of art. This impulse has recurred through the ages from music to literature to art. Eco refers to this obsession itself as a "giddiness of lists" but shows how in the right hands it can be a "poetics of catalogues." From medieval reliquaries to Andy Warhol’s compulsive collecting, Umberto Eco reflects in his inimitably inspiring way on how such catalogues mirror the spirit of their times.

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Review:

'glorious, dazzling' Independent. (Independent)

'Using art, Eco looks at lists of saints, angels, bestiaries, and other tropes of western art. All this is accompanied by wonderful illustrations' Catholic Herald. (Catholic Herald)

'a beautifully presented book of artworks' Evening Standard. (Evening Standard)

'Illustrated with wonderful, evocative pictures and an extensive literary anthology' David Sexton, Evening Standard. (Evening Standard)

'The Thinking Person's literary equivalent to the Christmas pud: chockfull of goodies ... studded with obscure, spicy ingredients ... why not just lie back and wallow in Eco's bath of superabundance' Simon Schama, Financial Times. (Financial Times)

'Flaunting his extraordinary erudition but flaunting it modestly ... The Infinity of Lists, sumptuous yet unpresumptuous, is the perfect anti-Kindle' Gilbert Adair, Spectator. (Spectator)

'Not everyone could find beauty and intrigue in lists, but Eco has produced a rich anthology on them, his erudite essays punctuating a cornucopia of catalogues from art and literature' Sunday Telegraph. (Sunday Telegraph)

'A dazzling, dizzying tour through two millennia ... supported by dozens of examples from literature and life' Max Rashbrooke, Time Out. (Time Out)

'A characteristic product of this extraordinary writer and polymath: learned, sparkling, insightful, provocative, packed full of intriguing and arcane information' Mary Beard, Guardian. (Guardian)

About the Author:

Umberto Eco, semiotician at the University of Bologna, is widely known as one of the finest living authors whose best-selling novels include The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, and Baudolino.

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