Status Updates From L'isola del giorno prima

"What does it matter, finally, whether it is there or not? If nothing more, this will be the story of two men who believe they are there, not of two who are there; and if you would listen to stories—this is dogma among the more liberal—you must suspend disbelief."

Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 260)

"Was it not true that, having emerged from an unhealthy world, he had found true health? The wreck had granted him the supreme gift, exile, and a Lady whom no one could now take from him. . . ."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 226)

"THE AMARYLLIS SAILED from Holland and called briefly at London. There, one night, it furtively took something on board, while the sailors formed a cordon between the deck and the hold, so Roberto was unable to see what the new cargo was. Then the ship sailed due southwest."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 204)

"IT WAS—AT last a firm date—the evening of the 2nd of December, 1642."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 177)

"It was the evocation of the Islands of Solomon that brought Roberto a kind of revelation. Why, of course, the clocks! What were so many clocks doing on a ship headed for seas where morning and evening are defined by the course of the sun, and nothing else need be known?"

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 152)

"ON THE NIGHT of June 29th a great noise wakened the besieged, followed by a rolling of drums: the enemy had managed to explode the first mine beneath the walls, blowing up a lunette and burying twenty-five soldiers."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 126)

"He savored this metaphor and wondered how Padre Emanuele would have read the ship as a source of Enigmatic Devices. Then he thought of the Island and defined it as unattainable proximity."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 100).

"He thought he would become accustomed to the idea, not yet understanding that it is useless to become accustomed to the loss of a father, for it will never happen a second time: might as well leave the wound open."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 75)

"WHY DOES ROBERTO evoke Casale when describing his first days on the ship? His taste for parallels is one reason, of course: besieged then, besieged now."

-Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 45)

"I do not believe he entertained other hypotheses, since he had never known bays so broad that a person in their midst could feel he was confronting twin lands. Thus, in his ignorance of boundless continents, Roberto had chanced upon the correct answer."

Eco, Umberto. The Island of the Day Before (pg. 3)