As a semiotician, novelist, medieval scholar, journalist, and parodist, Umberto Eco has produced an amazingly diverse and influential body of work since the 1950s, and he is certainly one of the most prominent public intellectuals in the world. Yet, in English-speaking countries his considerable achievements in critical theory have not received the attention they warrant. The reasons for this neglect are unclear. Perhaps it is because scholars in Britain and North America usually equate Continental theory with France or Germany; perhaps there is an unstated belief that Eco's best-selling novels and popular essays diminish his status as a serious thinker. Regardless of his reputation in Britain and North America, Eco has made formidable contributions to semiotics and many other fields.

Eco was born 5 January 1932 in Alessandria, Italy, to Giulio Eco and Giovanna Bisio Eco. His father was an accountant at a firm that manufactured bathtubs. Eco's doctoral thesis...