The Island of the Day Before

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The Island of the Day Before (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)

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Umberto Eco’s earlier novels were the work of a semiotician who refused to suspend his scholarly proclivities while invading the field of fiction. Il nome della rosa (1980; The Name of the Rose, 1983) was a sort of mystery. Unlike the off-duty performances of scholars such as Dorothy Sayers and J. I. M. Stewart (otherwise Michael Innes), who delighted their fans with the frequently recurring adventures in crime of engaging sleuths such as Lord Peter Wimsey and Sir John Appleby, educated gentlemen who occasionally but only lightly imposed their learning on the reader,...

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