<P>"Eco's essays read like letters from a friend, trying to share something he loves with someone he likes.... Read this brilliant, enjoyable, and possibly revolutionary book." -- George J. Leonard, San Francisco Review of Books</P><P>"... a wealth of insight and instruction." -- J. O. Tate, National Review</P><P>"If anyone can make [semiotics] clear, it's Professor Eco.... Professor Eco's theme deserves respect; language should be used to communicate more easily without literary border guards." -- The New York Times</P><P>"The limits of interpretation mark the limits of our world. Umberto Eco's new collection of essays touches deftly on such matters." -- Times Literary Supplement</P><P>"It is a careful and challenging collection of essays that broach topics rarely considered with any seriousness by literary theorists." -- Diacritics</P><P>Umberto Eco focuses here on what he once called "the cancer of uncontrolled interpretation" -- that is, the belief that many interpreters have gone too far in their domination of texts, thereby destroying meaning and the basis for communication.</P>