I've enjoyed Eco's fiction (i.e. The Name of the Rose, Prague Cemetery ), but was also a tad bit familiar with his work as an aesthetics critic . However I think this book gives the most wonderful taste of his intelligence outside of fiction.
Yes, "On Ugliness" is Eco's companion volume to his renowned "History of Beauty", and takes the same approach, here you will find descriptions of the Western world's ideas about ugliness, from the classical era through the modern, discussing things such as the devil, monsters, death, age and decay, damnation, camp and kitsch, etc. Eco examines this subject broadly, and provides great insight.
This book is essentially a collection of visual art related to the different subjects along with passages from literary works from a number of Western cultures. I particularly love the fact that none of the pieces (whether literature or visual art) include any kind of analysis or description.
In this book, Eco simply writes decent snippets for each chapter and then basically lets the works speak for themselves, which is largely unsatisfying. However, I believe,for anyone interested in conceptions of beauty or ugliness, or who would like a fascinating addition to their library, this book is for them. Tolgo il cappello davanti a te, Umberto!
