Umberto Eco is one of the very best writers of our time. "The Name Of The Rose" is excellent on many levels and brilliantly written as is "Foucault's Pendulum". As he is a professor of semiotics at The University Of Bologna, Eco is well versed in his usual subject matter. His is a fine mind much under appreciated in United States.

Modern teachers of writing, like most other teachers, teach mediocrity and the short choppy sentences without grace or rhythm produce some instant popular success commercially which is what is most wanted now a days. If you wish to write well, you must first define what it is which you mean by well. Is it Umberto Eco or Barbara Cartland? One is literature, the other is popular entertainment; there is a vast difference.Dare one mention quality anymore in this time of quantity, net profits, and popular celebrity where excellence is considered to be un democratic?