The Prague Cemetery
Kindle edition
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| Author | Umberto Eco |
|---|---|
| Original title | Il cimitero di Praga |
| Translator | Richard Dixon |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Genre | Historical novel, Mystery |
| Publisher |
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Eng. trans. USA) Harvill Secker (Eng. trans GB) |
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Publication date
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2010 |
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Published in English
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November 8, 2011 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 437 pp. (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 694829963 |
The Prague Cemetery (Italian: Il cimitero di Praga) is the sixth novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It was first published in October 2010; the English translation by Richard Dixon appeared a year later. Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2012, it has been described as Eco's best novel since The Name of the Rose.
The main character is Simone Simonini, a man whom Eco claims he has tried to make into the most cynical and disagreeable character in all the history of literature (and is the only fictional character in the novel). He was born in Turin in 1830. His mother died while he was still a child and his father was killed in 1848 fighting for a united Italy. He is brought up by his grandfather, an old reactionary who houses Jesuit refugees and hates the Jews — he claims that the French Revolution was planned by the Knights Templar, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins, but behind them all, he says, were the Jews.
Simonini studies law. After his grandfather's death he is employed by a dishonest lawyer who teaches him the art of forgery. His skills bring him to the attention of the Piedmont Government secret service who decide his skills might be useful to them. Giuseppe Garibaldi with his "Thousand" red shirts invades Sicily in 1860 and Simonini is sent to Palermo as a spy to report on Garibaldi's movements after he has taken possession of the Island. While on this mission, Simonini discovers that, contrary to circulating rumours, Garibaldi's Thousand are students, independent artisans, and professionals; they are not peasants. The support given by Sicilian peasants is not a matter of patriotism, but of hatred of exploiting landlords and oppressive Neapolitan officials. Garibaldi himself has no interest in social revolution, and instead sides with the Sicilian landlords against the rioting peasants. The Kingdom of Piedmont cautiously supports the unification of Italy but is worried that Garibaldi's fame might eclipse that of their king, Vittorio Emanuele, or worse still, that he might proclaim a republic.
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Wikipedia