Baudolino. [Hardcover]

Umberto Eco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Wir befinden uns im 12. Jahrhundert, zur Zeit der Kreuzzüge. Baudolino, ein gewitzter Bauernsohn aus dem Piemont, wird Adoptivsohn des Kaisers Friedrich I. Barbarossa. Den Kopf voller Flausen, Phantasien und Lügen, lenken seine irrwitzigen Ideen von nun an den Lauf der Weltgeschichte. Von den Liebesbriefen an die Kaiserin, den undurchsichtigen Machenschaften bei der Belagerung Alessandrias und dem rätselhaften Tod Barbarossas gar nicht zu reden ... "Eco verknüpft historische Fakten des 12. Jahrhunderts, Fabelwesen, saftige Liebesromanzen, aktuelle Politik und Glaubensfragen zu einem sprühenden Feuerwerk." Welt am Sonntag

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 597 pages
• Publisher: Carl Hanser Verlag (September 1, 2001)
• Language: German
• ISBN-10: 3446200487
• ISBN-13: 978-3446200487
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,221,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Umberto Eco (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian novelist, medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, and literary critic.

He is the author of several bestselling novels, The Name of The Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of The Day Before, and Baudolino. His collections of essays include Five Moral Pieces, Kant and the Platypus, Serendipities, Travels In Hyperreality, and How To Travel With a Salmon and Other Essays.

He has also written academic texts and children's books.


Photography (c) Università Reggio Calabria

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book from an excellent writer, July 10, 2008

By 

J. C. Rahe (rural Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baudolino (Hardcover)

This one is somewhat different from Eco's other works, but it draws on Eco's broad knowledge of European and world history in a more light-hearted way than many of his other novels.

It is a much easier read than most of his books and might provide an excellent introduction to this great, modern writer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toe in the Eco water..., May 11, 2007

By 

Jonathan Jett-Parmer (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baudolino (Hardcover)

Umberto Eco is one of the most technically challenging authors of our time. His knowledge of history, religion and philosophy is truly stunning. Additionally, his writing from the perspective of an educated Italian professor, provides an insight into the very core of westernm literature. Many of his previous works, The Name of The Rose, Foucalt's Pendulum were massive tomes which would easily smother the reader.

This is not the case for Baudolino. Set in the late 10th/early 12th centuries, this is a very readable book about one extraordinary individual. Baudolino is a connsumate con-man who, after rescuing Frederick (the Holy Roman Emperor) in his native Italy, is elevated to foster son and concocts numerous tales to support his own adventures.

Eco infuses Baudolino with remarkable humanity and thought. The text flows quickly, and unlike other works, is a manageable length. I found the stories compelling and easily applied to many of our own modern myths (or official spin) put forward to the public.

Baudolino is a great introduction to this superb author. I recommend those folks who enjoy high fantasy, strong history or even some of the more esoteric philosophical tracts to pick up this book and settle in for a delightful ride in pursuit of the mystical kingdom of Prester John.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baudolino the Opportunist, September 28, 2005

By 

Aaron Winborn "AaronWinborn.com" (Harrisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baudolino (Hardcover)

I've recently started reading Umberto Eco's Baudolino, a rambunctious tale of a thirteenth century opportunist. "The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things."

Although I'm only 120 pages into this 500 page novel, I'm engrossed by the weaving plots and rich characters. Baudolino is an Italian peasant with a gift for languages and a bald-faced liar who is adopted by an emperor as a boy and falls in love with the emperor's young bride as a teenager. He studies at the University of Paris in its first years, and befriends a wannabe poet and a moorish scholar, and the three of them are off now on worldly quests, befuddled by alcohol and "green honey".

The thirteenth century was an influential time for so many elements of our modern society, seeing the usurpation of the church in Europe by the birth of the university, science, nationalism and capitalism, for all the good and bad that it all heralded. This book thus far does a great job of chronicling this from the perspective of someone entrenched in the middle of it all. It's great fun to compare our modern knowledge with that of a medieval persona.

I'll let you know what I think when I'm done with it, but so far, I'd highly recommend Umberto Eco's Baudolino.