The Island of the Day Before [Hardcover]

Umberto Eco (Author), William Weaver (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1995

In 1643 a castaway comes upon an abandoned ship anchored off a desert island. As he explores the vessel’s mysterious cargo, he revisits the events of his tempestuous youth-and limns his era’s obsession with science and navigation. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this tale of an Italian nobleman shipwrecked in the South Pacific in 1643, Eco's storytelling abilities and his love for esoteric historical detail, so beautifully balanced in The Name of the Rose, are sadly out of kilter, with the arcana overwhelming the plot. As part of a cabal instigated by French Cardinal Mazarin and his protege Colbert, Robert della Griva has been traveling in disguise on an English ship whose mission is to discover the Punto Fijo, the means by which navigators can plumb "the mystery of longitude." Cast adrift during a storm, Roberto fetches up against another ship, the Daphne, whose crew has mysteriously vanished. Although the vessel is moored only a mile from an enchanting island (the two may be on opposite sides of the date line, giving the book its title), Roberto, a nonswimmer, is as marooned as though in mid-ocean. The text consists of a third-person narrator's retelling of Roberto's manuscript recounting his adventures on the ship and such previous experiences as his participation in the siege of Casale and life among the erudite of Paris. There are some magical descriptions of Roberto's moonlit solitude aboard the Daphne, but the introduction of a third story line involving his imaginary evil twin hopelessly tangles a narrative already overloaded with lengthy exegeses on such obscure 17th-century devices as the Powder of Sympathy and the Specula Melitensis. Eco's postmodernist games?he directly addresses the reader, explaining how little the narrator knows?wear thin, and some delightfully secondary characters who appear too briefly only remind us how unfocused the novel is. Perhaps Eco himself was aware of the novel's faults when writing it?for his narrator criticizes Roberto's tale as "narrating so many stories at once that at a certain point it becomes difficult to pick up the thread." Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eco, an Italian philosopher and best-selling novelist, is a great polymathic fabulist in the tradition of Swift, Voltaire, Joyce, and Borges. The Name of the Rose, which sold 50 million copies worldwide, is an experimental medieval whodunit set in a monastic library. In 1327, Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate heresy among the monks in an Italian abbey; a series of bizarre murders overshadows the mission. Within the mystery is a tale of books, librarians, patrons, censorship, and the search for truth in a period of tension between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. The book became a hit despite some obscure passages and allusions. This deftly abridged version, ably performed by Theodore Bikel, retains the genius of the original but is far more accessible. Foucault's Pendulum, Eco's second novel, is a bit irritating. The plot consists of three Milan editors who concoct a series on the occult for an unscrupulous publishing house that Eco ridicules mercilessly. The work details medieval phenomena including the Knights Templar, an ancient order with a scheme to dominate the world. Unfortunately, few listeners will make sense of this failed thriller. The Island of the Day Before is an ingenious tale that begins with a shipwreck in 1643. Roberta della Griva survives and boards another ship only to find himself trapped. Flashbacks give us Renaissance battles, the French court, spies, intriguing love affairs, and the attempt to solve the problem of longitude. It's a world of metaphors and paradoxes created by an entertaining scholar. Tim Curry, who also narrates Foucault's Pendulum, provides a spirited narration. Ultimately, libraries should avoid Foucault's Pendulum, but educated patrons will form an eager audience for both The Name of the Rose and The Island of the Day Before.?James Dudley, Copiague, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 513 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace; 1st edition (November 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151001510
• ISBN-13: 978-0151001514
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last of the Baroques, November 13, 1997

By 

arle lommel ([e-mail]) (Anchorage, Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Island of the Day Before (Paperback)

Many reviewers of The Island of the Day Before seem to fault the volume for many features which, were they familiar with the literature from which it is derived, they would find to be its greatest assets. Just one example is Eco's wonderful description of the Deluge which cannot be appreciated without having read Ovid. As with all of Eco's works a healthy interest in philosophy and semiotics is really required to follow the entire work. (DeGriva's mandering about the ship for instance can be viewed as a metaphor for the abductive line of reasoning, something Eco deals with extensively in his scholarly works.) This volume is demanding, as others have noted, and we seem to live in a world where we don't expect books to make demands of us, so for many readers this book may be too complex. However, if one is truly interested in learning the topics which interest the polymath Eco this volume is a treasure trove for what you learn along the way. If one wants only familiar words and a simple plot, do not read Eco--you will probably miss the point.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Put it off til tomorrow; and STILL do it today!!!, August 21, 2003

By 

B. Morse (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Island of the Day Before (Paperback)

The meaning behind the name of this book struck me about a quarter of the way through. Sometimes I forget titles while I read and just enjoy the contents. But this had so much significance to what the book was actually about, it stayed with me. Imagine; even if only 'imagined', the ability to swim to an island within your sight, and arrive in the prior day. Not too shabby, compared with most titles I see, and the meanings behind them.

But a clever title is not all to be found with this Umberto Eco novel. Theology; existentialism; lost language; and even one of my favorite words (discovered first while performing in 'The Pirates of Penzance); escutcheon.

Others criticize Eco on his meandering thoughts and ideas; on his half-truths/half-fictions; his playful use of alternate reality; and his obvious disregard for probability. I say 'what the heck are you reading Eco for, then?'

It took me four years of owning this book to read it. Prior to this, I could not do it. But now, with Name of the Rose and Baudolino under my belt, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, devouring it from cover to cover, and opening my mind to all that Eco has to offer...

Roberto, the 'hero' of the story, finds himself stranded on board the Daphne, a boat anchored just offshore an unreachable island. Without wind, without crew, and without a know-how of swimming, Roberto explores his new 'prison', having survived a shipwreck of the vessel Amaryllis.

Finding that he is indeed NOT alone on the boat, Roberto prepares to flush out the intruder and face him down. But what Roberto discovers is not quite what he set out to find.
The novel flows back and forth in time, as well as in and out of 'reality' as Roberto weaves a tale of his childhood and the invention of his dark twin Ferrante, who dogs him throughout his life, to the discovery of his lady-love, Lilia; to his induction as a spy for Cardinal Richelieu; to his arrival on the Daphne, and the education he receives there in mapping the latitudes and longitudes of the planet.

Like the other 2 Eco novels I have read, there is so much to be gleaned from the pages of this book...whether you enjoy the mingling of fact and fiction or not, for an avid reader like myself, willing to open my mind to flights of fancy...the challenge to your thought processes cannot be beat.

A wonderful read....and worth the wait to be able to accomplish it.

61 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, But Not Eco's Best, June 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Island of the Day Before (Paperback)

Roberto della Griva, the protagonist of The Island of the Day Before, was born in 1614, a member of one of the minor noble families of northern Italy, vassals of the Marquis of Monferrato.

While still a young child, Roberto manages to convince himself that he has an evil brother, Ferrante, kept secret by his family, to whom he ascribes all his bad actions. Ferrante serves to explain Roberto's bad luck, for everything bad that happens to Roberto is Ferrante's fault and Roberto must therefore go through life being punished for Ferrante's misdeeds.

At the age of sixteen, Roberto's father is killed at the Siege of Casale, the fortress guarding the frontier between Italy and France. Roberto manages to return to Italy long enough to arrange a yearly income for himself before travelling to France.

Roberto arrives in Paris in the early 1640s, at the moment of the transition of power between Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin. Having an interest in astronomy and philosophy, Roberto frequents the scientific salons and we learn much about the early 17th century. During the course of his visits, Roberto falls in love with one the great ladies of Paris and mistakenly believes that she returns his love. He begins writing her a series of leters that eventually fall into the hands of the narrator and form the basis of the book.

Ferrante intervenes, however, in the guise of Cardinal Mazarin and Roberto's carefree life in Paris comes to an end. France is engaged in a race with England to find the answer to the problem of longitude, and Mazarin blackmails Roberto into booking passage on the Dutch vessel, the Amaryllis, bound for the South Seas. When the ship sinks during a storm, Roberto, for once, forsaken by Ferrante and enjoying good luck instead of bad, is the sole survivor.

Roberto eventually washes up on the Daphne, another deserted Dutch ship that was also sailing in the interests of science. Anchored off an island in the South Pacific, the Daphne is located on what Roberto comes to believe is the Prime Meridian. He thus believes that when he sits on the deck of the ship on the west side, and gazes at the island on the east side, he is truly looking at the day before.

Roberto soon learns that the Daphne is not quite as deserted as it had seemed when he encounters the Jesuit priest, Father Caspar Wanderdrossel.

Father Wanderdrossel has also been seeking the mystery of longitude in hopes that the answer will reveal to him the source of the Great Flood. Besides engaging in a series of lengthy discussions with Wanderdrossel, Roberto also spends his time aboard the Daphne writing memoirs and love letters.

Despite the fact that the island to the east is inhabited by cannibals and neither Roberto nor Wanderdrossel can swim, they decide they must reach the shore. Wanderdrossel devises a strange invention that would seem to permit him to walk to the island over the ocean floor, but when Roberto lowers him over the side, Wanderdrossel is never seen again.

Alone, Roberto occupies himself with his writings which now deal almost exclusively with his alter ego, Ferrante. Roberto eventually comes up with a fitting end for Ferrante and soon after, he, himself drowns, leaving behind only his letters and memoirs.

The Island of the Day Before seems to have no point and, in fact, it does not. But this is only part of the book's beauty. Eco uses the book to give us a grand tour of the 17th century while the characters search for cohesion and meaning that just isn't there.

This isn't always bad. In The Name of the Rose, Eco played out the same theme while giving us a discourse on late medieval ecclesiastical politics, but he also entertained us brilliantly with a Sherlock Holmes parody.

For some people, part of this novel's problem no doubt lies in the time period in which it is set. In the 17th century, no one expected life to make much sense. People lived according to signs and symbols. Their prose and politics were complex and obscure. While a few, such as Descartes, searched for answers, most simply accepted what was imposed.

Eco might argue that his novel only parodies life, which, ultimately, has no point. And, who knows, he could be right. But The Island of the Day Before is not real life. It is a book and Eco is a master writer. As beautiful as it is, the journey from beginning to end should have been larger than life and a lot more fun.