“The Poet had, who had made a show of attaching no importance to this literary game (though it gnawed at his heart that he himself had not written such beautiful letters, provoking replies even more beautiful), and having no one with whom to fall in love, had fallen in love with the letters themselves — which, as Niketas remarked with a smile — was not surprising, since in youth we are prone to fall in love with love.”

Source: Baudolino (2000), Chapter 7, "Baudolino makes the Poet write love letters and poems to Beatrice"

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Umberto Eco120

Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic… 1932–2016

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