French Literature Reviews - 2026

Umberto Eco, History of Beauty
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Umberto Eco, History of Beauty, Flammarion, October 2004

ISBN : 2-08-068711-5
Publisher's Price: 39.00 euros

Abstract
What is Beauty? What is art, taste, or fashion? Is the Beautiful something that can be rationally defined, or is it a matter of purely subjective appreciation? Thus begins Umberto Eco's exploration into the heart of aesthetics. Through a detailed study of the greatest masterpieces of Western culture—from the Venus de Milo to Andy Warhol's Marilyn, by way of Hieronymus Bosch's monsters, Botticelli's Madonnas, and Manet's odalisques—the author provides a comprehensive overview of the many facets of Beauty, taking readers on a true journey through time from ancient Greece to the present day. To support his arguments, he draws upon all the artists and thinkers who, each in their own way, have attempted to answer this eternal question. An essential read, this book shatters many common misconceptions and maps out, chapter by chapter, a genuine geography of the tender realms of the Beautiful.

Biography
Professor, essayist, novelist, semiotician, columnist, and linguist, Umberto Eco was born in Piedmont in 1932 and consistently pursued a single guiding thread: that of language, establishing himself as an undisputed master of semiotics. Alongside this, his fiction—from The Name of the Rose (Grasset, 1982) to Baudolino (Grasset, 2000), honored with the most prestigious literary awards—has achieved worldwide acclaim.

The western tradition of aesthetics has long grappled with the definition of the Beautiful, shifting between rational principles and subjective taste across different historical epochs. Umberto Eco examines this philosophical trajectory through iconic works of art, tracing changing ideals from classical antiquity through the Renaissance and into the modern era. By engaging with thinkers and artists who addressed these questions, the volume situates aesthetic debates within a broad historical framework of cultural transformation and artistic production.

This survey touches upon enduring questions concerning the nature of art, fashion, and taste as they developed within Western culture. Readers interested in the philosophy of art and the history of cultural concepts may find this historical overview relevant to their studies of European intellectual traditions.