History of Beauty

History of Beauty

Umberto Eco’s groundbreaking and much-acclaimed first illustrated book has been a critical success since its first publication in 2004. What is beauty? Umberto Eco, among Italy’s finest and most important contemporary thinkers, explores the nature, the meaning, and the very history of the idea of beauty in Western culture. The profound and subtle text is lavishly illustrated with abundant examples of sublime painting and sculpture and lengthy quotations from writers and philosophers. This is the first paperback edition of History of Beauty, making this intellectual and philosophical journey with one of the world’s most acclaimed thinkers available in a more compact and affordable format.

From the Trade Paperback edition

Title : History of Beauty
Edition Language : English
ISBN : 9780847826469
Format Type :

    History of Beauty Reviews

  • Kalliope

    Reading Eco’s study On Beauty feels like visiting a Temple with very many chambers. In each room there are texts. There are also images, many of them too and of good quality and they are all photos ...

  • Ahmad Sharabiani

    Storia della bellezza = History of beauty, 2nd ed, 2005, Umberto EcoStoria della bellezza (2004, co-edited with Girolamo de Michele – English translation: History of Beauty/On Beauty, 2004). Beauty ...

  • Coyle

    Really a 3 1/2 star book, but since that's not an option...This book is misnamed, really "dictionary of Beauty" would be a closer title, while "Umberto Eco's Musings on Beauty in a loosely chronologic...

  • Stela

    Even if I agree with most of the reproaches this book received (that it is more a guide than a study, that it is more a triumph of compression than of clarity, that it is too eclectic and so on) I hav...

  • Lu�s

    A very documented but also very academic study of beauty through art, a relevant and documented reflection on aesthetics, very changing over the centuries ......

  • Roman Clodia

    This is more source-book than analytical history and while there's no doubting Eco's erudition, all that's really on display here is his ability to summarise and compress vast swathes of literature in...

  • Valentia D'Ambroise

    Pfff.... That was one hell of a essay. This little gem kept me alive through some tough stuff... (G, I sound cliché)...

  • Gabriella

    It's not really a book you read cover to cover, and I guess some of the disappointment many people may feel comes from them picking it up and reading it like that. It is a dictionary a reference, it s...

  • Andrew

    And the History of Beauty is a wonderfully written, aesthetically pleasing guide to how the idea of beauty in the Occidental, and particularly Mediterranean, world has evolved. I have to question the ...

  • Bjorn

    It's an interesting topic: what is beauty? It might seem like a trivial question, but think about it: esthetics run through everything we do. Everything we read, watch, listen to, right down to the ho...