The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana - first US edition

by Umberto Eco - signed

A sixty-ish Milanese antiquarian bookseller nicknamed Yambo suffers a stroke and loses his memory of everything but the words he has read: poems, scenes from novels, miscellaneous quotations. His wife Paola fills in the bare essentials of his family history, but in order to trigger original memories, Yambo retreats alone to his ancestral home at Solara, a large country house with an improbably intact collection of family papers, books, gramophone records, and photographs. Using the cache of memorabilia amassed in his youth during Mussolini's reign and WWII begins to try to recover his past. Illustrated with the cartoons, sheet music covers, and book jackets that Yambo uncovers in his search.

Book has rust-brown boards with the title in gold on the spine. Signed by the author on the title page.

Jacket is price-intact at $27.00; protected in mylar.