What do you think?
Rate this book
A Personal Anthology
After almost a half a century of scrupulous devotion to his art, Jorge Luis Borges personally compiled this anthology of his work—short stories, essays, poems, and brief mordant “sketches,” which, in Borges’s hands, take on the dimensions of a genre unique in modern letters.
In this anthology, the author has put together those pieces on which he would like his reputation to rest; they are not arranged chronologically, but with an eye to their “sympathies and differences.” A Personal Anthology, therefore, is not merely a collection, but a new composition.
In this anthology, the author has put together those pieces on which he would like his reputation to rest; they are not arranged chronologically, but with an eye to their “sympathies and differences.” A Personal Anthology, therefore, is not merely a collection, but a new composition.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
About the author
Jorge Luis Borges
1,811 books12.7k followersJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
September 14, 2016
Borges and I
I:
Borges:
I:
Borges:
I: Do you like silence?
Borges: What silence?
I: The one you are filling up this space with right now?
Borges: This, is my ground. Contemplation, not Silence, my weapon. Thought, my battle.
I: A battle you are at advantage to withdraw from any time?
Borges (with a pre-emptive look): Is that so? Help me then, young lady.
I: Help you? With what?
Borges: With withdrawing from this battle.
I: Well, you are the originator. You should be the one to end it.
Borges (at once, hysterical): Oh I wish I was! How I wish I was! (settles back into sombreness) But you see, my dear, the sham collapsed long ago and I realized I was never the originator and thus, I could never be the terminator. A mere pawn, an invested one at best, is what I am.
I (with a slight smirk): You surprise me; you really do. Nobody tells you but you go hopping across the world to hoard religious dockets. No one compels you but you throw the tangent of your imagination beyond measurable planes, and dimensions. No one asks you but you dig your hand deep into the bottomless ditch of metaphysical soil and god knows, come up with what treasures and perils. Nobody ever beguiles you into this rattling maze of the unknown but you keep sinking…
Borges (with look of a sage): and drowning.
I: Yes. Exactly.
Borges (gives his ameliorating look): I am glad you noticed the few voyages I have undertaken, if only to arrive hungrier than before. But what else can a mesmerized pawn do on this vast board of infinite territories? This board holding the keys to human mind and also locking its ability to think? It was the exhilaration of counting my presence on this board that drove me to write 'Death and the Compass'.
I: A terrific story, especially the connection between the murder and the rhombus.
Borges: Thank you. You understand, then, that acquaintance with the unknown is the commencement of inebriation. And I, as a mere puppet with no volition of mine, was drawn into its vortex, sin preámbulos. By the time I wrote 'The Aleph', I was convinced that the sprawling body of this universe belonged to a single soul and each one of us, if patient and earnest, can earn the privilege of viewing it atleast once in our lifetime.
I: And that is why your protagonist endangers his sanity and life to have one glimpse of 'The Aleph' in a god-forsaken dungeon?
Borges: You could say so, albeit I believe any place, where 'The Aleph' chooses to appear in front of you will render its surroundings dark like a dungeon – it has a dazzling, blinding light of its own.
I: But that sounds similar to 'The Zahir' !
Borges: Ah! You little parallel-seeker! You are slowly getting my point. 'The Zahir' which sends a current of jubilation into a body with its clear, diaphanous appeal, is as powerful as 'The Aleph'. Both have the power to converge and diverge, the many flights the heart takes and the home it finally lands at.
I: Your love for the infinity gushes all over your work. But it was your serpentine, labyrinthine writing that struck me as lethal; voluptuous even! That could be a deterrent to some of us…if you know what I mean.
Borges (chuckles): Hmmm… Well, I have sculpted my words to fit my emotion and not the other way around. And the satisfaction far outweighs the popular vote.
(pauses) I am like one of the verses in my book:
You have used up the years and they have used up you,
And still, and still, you have not written the poem.
I continued looking at him, smiling in awe and gratification.
----
*Borges and I appears also as a short note by Borges in this collection.
I:
Borges:
I:
Borges:
I: Do you like silence?
Borges: What silence?
I: The one you are filling up this space with right now?
Borges: This, is my ground. Contemplation, not Silence, my weapon. Thought, my battle.
I: A battle you are at advantage to withdraw from any time?
Borges (with a pre-emptive look): Is that so? Help me then, young lady.
I: Help you? With what?
Borges: With withdrawing from this battle.
I: Well, you are the originator. You should be the one to end it.
Borges (at once, hysterical): Oh I wish I was! How I wish I was! (settles back into sombreness) But you see, my dear, the sham collapsed long ago and I realized I was never the originator and thus, I could never be the terminator. A mere pawn, an invested one at best, is what I am.
I (with a slight smirk): You surprise me; you really do. Nobody tells you but you go hopping across the world to hoard religious dockets. No one compels you but you throw the tangent of your imagination beyond measurable planes, and dimensions. No one asks you but you dig your hand deep into the bottomless ditch of metaphysical soil and god knows, come up with what treasures and perils. Nobody ever beguiles you into this rattling maze of the unknown but you keep sinking…
Borges (with look of a sage): and drowning.
I: Yes. Exactly.
Borges (gives his ameliorating look): I am glad you noticed the few voyages I have undertaken, if only to arrive hungrier than before. But what else can a mesmerized pawn do on this vast board of infinite territories? This board holding the keys to human mind and also locking its ability to think? It was the exhilaration of counting my presence on this board that drove me to write 'Death and the Compass'.
I: A terrific story, especially the connection between the murder and the rhombus.
Borges: Thank you. You understand, then, that acquaintance with the unknown is the commencement of inebriation. And I, as a mere puppet with no volition of mine, was drawn into its vortex, sin preámbulos. By the time I wrote 'The Aleph', I was convinced that the sprawling body of this universe belonged to a single soul and each one of us, if patient and earnest, can earn the privilege of viewing it atleast once in our lifetime.
I: And that is why your protagonist endangers his sanity and life to have one glimpse of 'The Aleph' in a god-forsaken dungeon?
Borges: You could say so, albeit I believe any place, where 'The Aleph' chooses to appear in front of you will render its surroundings dark like a dungeon – it has a dazzling, blinding light of its own.
I: But that sounds similar to 'The Zahir' !
Borges: Ah! You little parallel-seeker! You are slowly getting my point. 'The Zahir' which sends a current of jubilation into a body with its clear, diaphanous appeal, is as powerful as 'The Aleph'. Both have the power to converge and diverge, the many flights the heart takes and the home it finally lands at.
I: Your love for the infinity gushes all over your work. But it was your serpentine, labyrinthine writing that struck me as lethal; voluptuous even! That could be a deterrent to some of us…if you know what I mean.
Borges (chuckles): Hmmm… Well, I have sculpted my words to fit my emotion and not the other way around. And the satisfaction far outweighs the popular vote.
(pauses) I am like one of the verses in my book:
You have used up the years and they have used up you,
And still, and still, you have not written the poem.
I continued looking at him, smiling in awe and gratification.
----
*Borges and I appears also as a short note by Borges in this collection.
September 15, 2015
I used to think that Labyrinths or Ficciones was the best place to start reading the works of Jorge Luis Borges. Now I think the place to start is A Personal Anthology, which is an excellent mix of stories, short literary essays, and poems translated mostly by Alastair Reid and Anthony Kerrigan.
Here you will find "Death and the Compass," "The South," "Funes the Memorious," "The Zahir," "The Aleph" and several other of best best fictions along with such essays as "A New Refutation of Time" and "The Modesty of History." Poems are interspersed between the fictions and the essays.
It would take pages to describe the influence that Borges has had on my reading and even my writing, and this over a period of some forty-five years -- ever since I first heard about him by reading a critical survey in The New Yorker, I think by George Steiner. Since then, I have accumulated everything I could find by him in English, and not a few in the original Spanish. Over the years, I have read many of the books multiple times, only to find them to be new every time I approach them.
Here you will find "Death and the Compass," "The South," "Funes the Memorious," "The Zahir," "The Aleph" and several other of best best fictions along with such essays as "A New Refutation of Time" and "The Modesty of History." Poems are interspersed between the fictions and the essays.
It would take pages to describe the influence that Borges has had on my reading and even my writing, and this over a period of some forty-five years -- ever since I first heard about him by reading a critical survey in The New Yorker, I think by George Steiner. Since then, I have accumulated everything I could find by him in English, and not a few in the original Spanish. Over the years, I have read many of the books multiple times, only to find them to be new every time I approach them.
October 12, 2017
(true, Borges' hand)
I liked Borges’ attempt to define a “classic”. Usually a classic evokes Eliot or Sainte-Beuve,… and others. Yet Borges prefers his own definition; a classic is “as if in its pages all was deliberate, fatal, deep and like cosmos and CAPABLE OF ENDLESS INTERPRETATIONS”. As a major example he cites the “I king”: the 64 hexagrams allow for MANY MEANINGS.
He made some considerations on etymology and MEANING, which can undergo many transformations through time. Like the word “calculus” which originally meant “little stone”; or “hypocrite” associated initially with actor; and the word “classic” came from Latin “classis” which meant fleet.
On his preferences he identified (true classics): Milton, Rabelais, Job’s book, The Divine Comedy, Faust, Macbeth, the Northern Sagas, Scott, Burns, Dunbar and Stevenson; he expressed some doubts on Voltaire and Shakespeare; but he believed in Berkeley and Schopenhauer.
Truly, western classics; nevertheless, Borges wrote beauty may be around the corner in the "Hungarian and Malay letters”, he was not so familiar with.
April 19, 2014
I rarely bother to go to see any speakers unless it is for some political cause when headcounts are important. Even then, however, I usually stick to the fringes of the crowd. It is so much easier to read a text than to hear it. It is so much more comfortable to listen to or watch a speech in the comfort of one's home and in accord with one's own schedule.
I made an exception for Borges, however, when he came to Loyola University Chicago in 1982 and spoke--quietly, for he was very old and blind--in its chapel overlooking Lake Michigan. This was during the Malvinas (aka Falklands) War of the Argentine junta and some young upstarts tried to call this career public servant (Borges was a librarian, head of the National Library until '73) to the carpet on it. I don't remember what he said. I have no idea of what his politics were or had been during any previous period of activity. I felt it a misplaced interruption and was embarrassed both for our guest and for possibly similiar infelicities following upon my own political enthusiasms.
"Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy."--Borges
I made an exception for Borges, however, when he came to Loyola University Chicago in 1982 and spoke--quietly, for he was very old and blind--in its chapel overlooking Lake Michigan. This was during the Malvinas (aka Falklands) War of the Argentine junta and some young upstarts tried to call this career public servant (Borges was a librarian, head of the National Library until '73) to the carpet on it. I don't remember what he said. I have no idea of what his politics were or had been during any previous period of activity. I felt it a misplaced interruption and was embarrassed both for our guest and for possibly similiar infelicities following upon my own political enthusiasms.
"Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy."--Borges
June 20, 2020
THE ART OF POETRY
To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water.
To feel that waking is another dream
that dreams of not dreaming and that the death
we fear in our bones is the death
that every night we call a dream.
To see in every day and year a symbol
of all the days of man and his years,
and convert the outrage of the years
into a music, a sound and a symbol.
To see in death a dream, in the sunset
a golden sadness—such is poetry,
humble and immortal, poetry
returning, like dawn and sunset.
Sometimes at evening there's a face
that sees us from the deeps of a mirror.
Art must be that sort of mirror,
disclosing to each of us his face.
They say Ulysses, wearied of wonders,
wept with love on seeing Ithaca,
humble and green. Art is that Ithaca,
a green eternity, not wonders.
Art is endless like a river flowing,
passing, yet remaining, a mirror to the same
inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same
yet another, like the river flowing.
[tr. Anthony Kerrigan]
To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water.
To feel that waking is another dream
that dreams of not dreaming and that the death
we fear in our bones is the death
that every night we call a dream.
To see in every day and year a symbol
of all the days of man and his years,
and convert the outrage of the years
into a music, a sound and a symbol.
To see in death a dream, in the sunset
a golden sadness—such is poetry,
humble and immortal, poetry
returning, like dawn and sunset.
Sometimes at evening there's a face
that sees us from the deeps of a mirror.
Art must be that sort of mirror,
disclosing to each of us his face.
They say Ulysses, wearied of wonders,
wept with love on seeing Ithaca,
humble and green. Art is that Ithaca,
a green eternity, not wonders.
Art is endless like a river flowing,
passing, yet remaining, a mirror to the same
inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same
yet another, like the river flowing.
[tr. Anthony Kerrigan]
June 11, 2020
I have seen references to Borges' work in many of the books on literary criticism I have read, but this was the first time I acquainted myself with his writing. This is an anthology which he compiled of his "best of" short stories. I did not like all of them, but many were very interesting and thought-provoking. There is always a sort of background theme of death and decay, but a magical, mystical escape or rescue always seems imminent even if not taken. Definitely interesting reading.
March 25, 2024
I've reviewed each segment of Borges' collected fictions separately:
A Universal History of Iniquity
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Garden of Forking Paths
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Artifices
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Aleph and Other Stories
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In Praise of Darkness
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Maker
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Brodie's Report
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Book of Sand
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shakespeare's Memory
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Universal History of Iniquity
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Garden of Forking Paths
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Artifices
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Aleph and Other Stories
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In Praise of Darkness
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Maker
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Brodie's Report
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Book of Sand
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shakespeare's Memory
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 31, 2023
Borges The Wise
§ Borges is not a particularly good stylist, his craftsmanship would not compare to other eminent writers.
§ The substance of his work, on the other hand, is quite complex and sophisticated.
§ Borges was at his best in essay-writing, second in story-telling, and third in poetry.
§ His poems I thought were subpar, or they could be lost in translation.
§ The first two short stories I thought were brilliant: The South and The Dead Man.
§ The End, The Secret Miracle, Circular Ruins, and Funes, The Memorious were good.
§ El Aleph and Zahir left me cold. Ironic because I was looking forward to reading these two the most.
§ Borges is worldly wise; his writings replete with references to India, China & above all, the Near East.
§ Watch Buckley’s interview with Borges before reading this book. A fascinating man.
§ Borges is not a particularly good stylist, his craftsmanship would not compare to other eminent writers.
§ The substance of his work, on the other hand, is quite complex and sophisticated.
§ Borges was at his best in essay-writing, second in story-telling, and third in poetry.
§ His poems I thought were subpar, or they could be lost in translation.
§ The first two short stories I thought were brilliant: The South and The Dead Man.
§ The End, The Secret Miracle, Circular Ruins, and Funes, The Memorious were good.
§ El Aleph and Zahir left me cold. Ironic because I was looking forward to reading these two the most.
§ Borges is worldly wise; his writings replete with references to India, China & above all, the Near East.
§ Watch Buckley’s interview with Borges before reading this book. A fascinating man.
September 28, 2011
Got this to reread the stories, alongside a first read of Borges' excellent lecture series Seven Nights. This compilation appears to consist of short fiction from both Labyrinths and Ficciones, along with verse.
If you haven't taken the Grand Detour of Literature that is Borges, this should be a perfect introduction. Nothing too inter-related or chronologically dependent, so can be read in any order.
You should know that you're involved in this already. Know that Borges wonders, and worries about you, modern man, in your "studio-laboratory, in the city's watchtowers, so to say, supplied with telephones, telegraphs, phonographs, radiotelephone apparatus, cinematographic equipment, magic lanterns, glossaries, timetables, compendiums, bulletins ..." {1945}
No matter what happens, though, don't miss "The Aleph", or "The Zahir", stories that are perfect little microcosms of Borgesland, in all its wisdom and incomprehensibility. No stretch to put Borges with Joyce and Beckett on that Ur Modernica shelf in the pantheon.
The task at hand for any effective Literature, according to Borges, is only that it impart sagrada horror, or the sense of holy dread, a tangible impression of infinity touching down in a human sphere. And it need not be tales of gods or otherplanetary gnostics (though Dante and Homer qualify nevertheless), but of everyday reality coming somewhat undone, within the frame of the story.
Any attempt I may make here to summarize is ridiculous. As Borges said of the Islamic master Averroës, who "spoke of the first poets, of those who in the Time of Ignorance, before Islam, already said everything there was to say and said it in the infinite language of the desert ... all poetry was summarized in the ancients ... "
If you haven't taken the Grand Detour of Literature that is Borges, this should be a perfect introduction. Nothing too inter-related or chronologically dependent, so can be read in any order.
You should know that you're involved in this already. Know that Borges wonders, and worries about you, modern man, in your "studio-laboratory, in the city's watchtowers, so to say, supplied with telephones, telegraphs, phonographs, radiotelephone apparatus, cinematographic equipment, magic lanterns, glossaries, timetables, compendiums, bulletins ..." {1945}
No matter what happens, though, don't miss "The Aleph", or "The Zahir", stories that are perfect little microcosms of Borgesland, in all its wisdom and incomprehensibility. No stretch to put Borges with Joyce and Beckett on that Ur Modernica shelf in the pantheon.
The task at hand for any effective Literature, according to Borges, is only that it impart sagrada horror, or the sense of holy dread, a tangible impression of infinity touching down in a human sphere. And it need not be tales of gods or otherplanetary gnostics (though Dante and Homer qualify nevertheless), but of everyday reality coming somewhat undone, within the frame of the story.
Any attempt I may make here to summarize is ridiculous. As Borges said of the Islamic master Averroës, who "spoke of the first poets, of those who in the Time of Ignorance, before Islam, already said everything there was to say and said it in the infinite language of the desert ... all poetry was summarized in the ancients ... "
July 13, 2023
first borges, took a minute to get used to his style, very dense and heady. but once i was in there are so many gems in here. every individual piece is very heavy but this format makes it feel pretty loose and approachable, it's like flipping through the papers on his desk -- some stories, some poems, a couple essays, a couple letters.
Want to read
September 29, 2023Contains the pieces:
Death and the Compass - 3/5 - Sometimes you can be too smart for your own good
The Plot -
The South - 3/5 - semi-autobiographical story about a man recovering from a head wound
A Page to Commemorate Colonel Suárez, Victor at Junin -
The Dead Man -
Matthew 25:30 -
Funes, the Memorious - 3/5 - A head injury radically changes someone's perception
A New Refutation of Time -
Limits -
Limits -
The Circular Ruins - 3/5 - Master of illusion, can you realize, your dream's alive, you can be the guide
Chess -
The Golem -
Inferno I, 32 -
The Other Tiger -
The Yellow Rose -
Baltasar Gracián -
To an Old Poet -
Parable of the Palace -
The Wall and the Books -
The Enigma of Edward Fitzgerald -
Ariosto and the Arabs -
Averroe's Search -
A Soldier of Urbina -
The Maker -
Everything and Nothing -
From Someone to no One -
Forms of a Legend -
The Zahir -
The Aleph -
The Cyclical Night -
Allusion to a Ghost of the Eighteen-Nineties -
The Tango -
Biografía de Tadeo Isidoro Cruz 1829-1874 -
El fin (The End) - 3/5 - A response to Martín Fierro
Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden -
Texte captive -
Paradiso XXXI, 108 -
Luke 23 -
The Witness -
The Modesty of History -
The Secret Miracle - 3/5 - Very similar to An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge
Conjectural Poem -
The Gifts -
The Moon -
The Art of Poetry -
Borges and I -
Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf -
Death and the Compass - 3/5 - Sometimes you can be too smart for your own good
The Plot -
The South - 3/5 - semi-autobiographical story about a man recovering from a head wound
A Page to Commemorate Colonel Suárez, Victor at Junin -
The Dead Man -
Matthew 25:30 -
Funes, the Memorious - 3/5 - A head injury radically changes someone's perception
A New Refutation of Time -
Limits -
Limits -
The Circular Ruins - 3/5 - Master of illusion, can you realize, your dream's alive, you can be the guide
Chess -
The Golem -
Inferno I, 32 -
The Other Tiger -
The Yellow Rose -
Baltasar Gracián -
To an Old Poet -
Parable of the Palace -
The Wall and the Books -
The Enigma of Edward Fitzgerald -
Ariosto and the Arabs -
Averroe's Search -
A Soldier of Urbina -
The Maker -
Everything and Nothing -
From Someone to no One -
Forms of a Legend -
The Zahir -
The Aleph -
The Cyclical Night -
Allusion to a Ghost of the Eighteen-Nineties -
The Tango -
Biografía de Tadeo Isidoro Cruz 1829-1874 -
El fin (The End) - 3/5 - A response to Martín Fierro
Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden -
Texte captive -
Paradiso XXXI, 108 -
Luke 23 -
The Witness -
The Modesty of History -
The Secret Miracle - 3/5 - Very similar to An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge
Conjectural Poem -
The Gifts -
The Moon -
The Art of Poetry -
Borges and I -
Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf -
October 23, 2016
There are very few writers that can come close to the magical Jorge Luis Borges. As Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, one cannot help but write this review of a book by arguably one of the greatest writers to have not won a Nobel Prize. There is something special about this anthology. For a start, it is a personal selection which Borges himself chooses to be known by (I might actually disagree with him on his own choices but such is the breadth and scope of his work that you might want to put everything into an anthology).
There is a certain thematic beauty that runs through this entire anthology which is what makes it even more wonderful. The other editions of Borges including his 'Collected Fictions' have rather bad translations (What was Penguin thinking?!) as has been pointed out a number of times. I think the pieces in this anthology are probably part of the better translations in English. It is here that Borges shines through at his ultimate best, the time when he allows the human imagination and creativity to flow through infinite spaces and times, creating what can only be described as bliss on earth, while reading him. The cover is also beautifully designed and only adds to the flavour. All in all, if there was only Borges collection somebody wishes to own, it has to be this one.
The story goes that the Nobel committee refused him the Nobel prize on the grounds of his support for Augusto Pinochet and a couple of others. Perhaps the Nobel committee overlooked one important fact while getting caught up in trivialities. That there can be and there will only be one Jorge Luis Borges!
There is a certain thematic beauty that runs through this entire anthology which is what makes it even more wonderful. The other editions of Borges including his 'Collected Fictions' have rather bad translations (What was Penguin thinking?!) as has been pointed out a number of times. I think the pieces in this anthology are probably part of the better translations in English. It is here that Borges shines through at his ultimate best, the time when he allows the human imagination and creativity to flow through infinite spaces and times, creating what can only be described as bliss on earth, while reading him. The cover is also beautifully designed and only adds to the flavour. All in all, if there was only Borges collection somebody wishes to own, it has to be this one.
The story goes that the Nobel committee refused him the Nobel prize on the grounds of his support for Augusto Pinochet and a couple of others. Perhaps the Nobel committee overlooked one important fact while getting caught up in trivialities. That there can be and there will only be one Jorge Luis Borges!
January 12, 2021
A mixed bag for me. The best is tremendous. "Death and the Compass", "The South", and "The Aleph" are among the best short stories I have read in many years. Like Lovecraft, Borges is a master of moods. Whether a sun-baked plain, creaking old house, or somber library, his writing is transporting - a wonderful quality during quarantine.
I didn't particularly enjoy the poetry. I'm not sure if it was lost in translated, but none of the poems struck me or made me feel anything.
As a first time Borges reader, I would have liked a more robust foreword that laid out his core themes and ideas. It took me about 100 pages to really understand what he was doing and I had to do some internet sleuthing to better grasp a few of the stories. These stories require attention and more annotation would have helped me appreciate why his work is so singular and beloved.
I didn't particularly enjoy the poetry. I'm not sure if it was lost in translated, but none of the poems struck me or made me feel anything.
As a first time Borges reader, I would have liked a more robust foreword that laid out his core themes and ideas. It took me about 100 pages to really understand what he was doing and I had to do some internet sleuthing to better grasp a few of the stories. These stories require attention and more annotation would have helped me appreciate why his work is so singular and beloved.
Read
November 28, 2014Hand-selected collection by Borges himself, flows thematically (as opposed to chronologically), which gives the somewhat-versed (like myself) a deeper flavor. I've read "The Circular Ruins" many times, and every time I get something new from it. Has to be one of the top-10 stories ever written. Read "The Aleph" for the first time, which I've been wanting to do forever. So much good stuff here--not the least of which is an exchange of letters from the translators at the end, as they muse in a Borgesian manner, as to whether they've translated or created, and where in this whole thing is reality, and where's the dream?
December 22, 2012
A collection, edited and arranged by the author, of his favorite writings. It's described as being for a "reader who seeks a representative sampling of the great writer" and a "standard introduction to Borges in [English]."
I'd agree - there's a good mix here of short stories, essays and poetry. Some are well-known works which I've read more than once before' some more obscure (at least to me.)
As always, Borges' writing is lyrical, beautiful and thought-provoking.
I'd agree - there's a good mix here of short stories, essays and poetry. Some are well-known works which I've read more than once before' some more obscure (at least to me.)
As always, Borges' writing is lyrical, beautiful and thought-provoking.
February 10, 2017
Muy buena selección de cuentos y poemas. Todos cortos o muy cortos, que dan una mirada general de su obra.
May 14, 2022
With a vast erudition and a complex mind, Borges had an uncanny ability to construct fantastic worlds in his stories, essays, and poetry. His obsession with time, memories, books, theology, obscure mythologies, dreams, labyrinths and crime ooze out of the works selected in this anthology. In one essay he offers a "refutation of time", and in a subsequent story he mocks a fictional writer for offering a refutation of time. His characters are cursed by memories - some can remember literally everything while others are reminded of a long lost, often painful memory, due to a new chance occurrence. The theology and mysticism of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, all find a reverent and curios reader, and a diligent writer, in Borges. Time, reality, and space take highly imaginative twists in his crime dramas.
While he was renowned for prose, it is said that he was personally more interested in poetry. This collection comprises some of his most beautiful poems - Limits, The Other Tiger, The Moon, and The Art of Poetry. The first four lines of The Art of Poetry have enchanted me ever since I first read them on a print-out pasted in the lab-office of dear friend, chemical engineer, and poet.
To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water.
I first read Borges about seven years ago, and have kept returning to his works, rereading some of the stories and poems several times. I have always felt a dizziness as his world of fluid time, dreams, labyrinths, and obscure books and prophecies has encircled me. Every time I have gone back to reading Borges, I have felt afraid that perhaps the magic will disappear. Not yet!
While he was renowned for prose, it is said that he was personally more interested in poetry. This collection comprises some of his most beautiful poems - Limits, The Other Tiger, The Moon, and The Art of Poetry. The first four lines of The Art of Poetry have enchanted me ever since I first read them on a print-out pasted in the lab-office of dear friend, chemical engineer, and poet.
To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water.
I first read Borges about seven years ago, and have kept returning to his works, rereading some of the stories and poems several times. I have always felt a dizziness as his world of fluid time, dreams, labyrinths, and obscure books and prophecies has encircled me. Every time I have gone back to reading Borges, I have felt afraid that perhaps the magic will disappear. Not yet!
May 15, 2021
This just in: you're never not dreaming.
August 18, 2022
me and not the book. to come back to when i will spend more time deciphering each story
Read
October 7, 2022August 2021:
(Yes, I've read this, but I rated and shelved each work individually even though I want to review it as a whole)
"[...] Though contrived, this little story might well exemplify the mischief that involves us all who take on the job of turning real life into words." (The Moon)
Jorge, Jorge Luis, Jorge Luis Borges, irreplaceable Borges, Borges lost forever, you are the unknowable past, and I, the unknowable present.
Borges who somehow perceived himself with peerless exactness and understood his own greatness and his own limits.
Borges who makes me want to think like a librarian who knows everything, and has fallen in love with it. With it all. (Perhaps you were that librarian, Borges.)
Borges the blind. Borges who read every poem, epic, account, and essay. Borges who imagined heaven to be a sort of library. Borges who read more works than I have faintest even heard of. Borges who went blind.
Borges and his obsession with labyrinths. With everything inside of one singularity. With the entanglement of time. With the wisdoms of East and of West. With firsts and lasts. With words, and with their limits.
Humorously humorous Borges. Cautious Borges. Whimsical Borges. Wise Borges.
Borges who was politically involved. Involved to dangerous depths. Who never let his politics get caught inside his literature. Who wrote with universal appeal. Who never never never, never. hid or accidentally left among the flowers a weed of propaganda or anything that would ruin a profound self-discovery.
Who wrote like your most intellectual friend, leading you warmly by the hand and saying look! And you really see, though you had glanced before.
Borges who never wrote a novel. Who had no need. Who wrote essays about nonexistent books I wish I could read, and poems that actually spoke something to me, instead of showing off like most others I have read before.
Borges whom I cannot read in the language of which he wrote. Borges who smiled at his grave. Borges who said "Borges and I."
Borges, whom, wearily, 100 years my senior, I can’t say I know hardly anything about.
(Yes, I've read this, but I rated and shelved each work individually even though I want to review it as a whole)
"[...] Though contrived, this little story might well exemplify the mischief that involves us all who take on the job of turning real life into words." (The Moon)
Jorge, Jorge Luis, Jorge Luis Borges, irreplaceable Borges, Borges lost forever, you are the unknowable past, and I, the unknowable present.
Borges who somehow perceived himself with peerless exactness and understood his own greatness and his own limits.
Borges who makes me want to think like a librarian who knows everything, and has fallen in love with it. With it all. (Perhaps you were that librarian, Borges.)
Borges the blind. Borges who read every poem, epic, account, and essay. Borges who imagined heaven to be a sort of library. Borges who read more works than I have faintest even heard of. Borges who went blind.
Borges and his obsession with labyrinths. With everything inside of one singularity. With the entanglement of time. With the wisdoms of East and of West. With firsts and lasts. With words, and with their limits.
Humorously humorous Borges. Cautious Borges. Whimsical Borges. Wise Borges.
Borges who was politically involved. Involved to dangerous depths. Who never let his politics get caught inside his literature. Who wrote with universal appeal. Who never never never, never. hid or accidentally left among the flowers a weed of propaganda or anything that would ruin a profound self-discovery.
Who wrote like your most intellectual friend, leading you warmly by the hand and saying look! And you really see, though you had glanced before.
Borges who never wrote a novel. Who had no need. Who wrote essays about nonexistent books I wish I could read, and poems that actually spoke something to me, instead of showing off like most others I have read before.
Borges whom I cannot read in the language of which he wrote. Borges who smiled at his grave. Borges who said "Borges and I."
Borges, whom, wearily, 100 years my senior, I can’t say I know hardly anything about.
June 1, 2014
This is one of my favorite anthologies. I continue to re-read several of the stories, poems and essays. Borges was a master of the author-identity concept. Many authors attempt to spin an identity separate from the "real" them which is the identity they present to their public, to their readers.
Borges writes that he wants the works in this anthology to be representative of his work; he wants these works to speak for him.
I don't read Spanish, yet, so I can't say how close to the original these translations are, but they are wonderful to read and I imagine are very good.
If you're interested in identity in literature, Latin American literature, influence, or in literature in general, read this. I highly recommend anything by Borges, but like any literature, you have to read for yourself to truly to discover if you will enjoy it. And, with Borges, you should try to read a wide swath of his work, because it varies. That's what makes this a great choice for introduction to his work, it gives a taste of his fiction, poetry and essays (which, you may know are not always non-fiction).
Enjoy!
Borges writes that he wants the works in this anthology to be representative of his work; he wants these works to speak for him.
I don't read Spanish, yet, so I can't say how close to the original these translations are, but they are wonderful to read and I imagine are very good.
If you're interested in identity in literature, Latin American literature, influence, or in literature in general, read this. I highly recommend anything by Borges, but like any literature, you have to read for yourself to truly to discover if you will enjoy it. And, with Borges, you should try to read a wide swath of his work, because it varies. That's what makes this a great choice for introduction to his work, it gives a taste of his fiction, poetry and essays (which, you may know are not always non-fiction).
Enjoy!
Read
April 26, 2017Here are collected a sampling of Borges' poems, stories, and essays laid out for the reader in such a way as we are meant to get a sense of who Borges was as a writer and a man, and what he was trying to accomplish with his writing. I have read some of these pieces before ("Funes the Memorious" is a favorite of mine, and I return to it often) while others are new to me (how I had not read "The Aleph" until now, I couldn't tell you). I come away again astonished at the magnitude of what he is able to express using so few words. In particular, I was struck by "The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald," "Everything and Nothing," "From Someone to No One" and "The Art of Poetry," as well as "The Aleph" which wasn't at all the story I wanted or expected it to be, but fits into a new framework through which I am beginning to understand Borges. In his work, Borges seemed to be on a constant search for a kind of aesthetic and intellectual universalism.
March 17, 2008
Maybe the reason I pick this book up more than any other is because it puzzles me. I don't always understand his stories, some of them are very esoteric, if that's the right word, and yet consumed with structure, order. But every time I read one of them, I learn something new. Not like a new factoid about Argentina, but a new insight. His stories run the gamut - from the tales of murder and betrayal among the "gauchos" which would fit nicely alongside McCarthy to his fantastical and cryptic stories that give Umberto Eco a run for his money. This collection is missing one of my favorite stories of his, The Gospel According to Mark, which is not nearly as subtle as many collected here. The reason being, this was hand picked by Borges in his later years, and apparently he and I don't see eye to eye on that story. Either way you can't go wrong with this one.
December 28, 2012
I don't know much about poetry, but I was pretty sure that with the poems in this book, a whole lot went over my head. Then a friend said that she studied some of his poetry as a literature major in her native Spanish, and Borges' poems were still really difficult and there's a lot to unpack, so I felt a little better.
The short stories and philosophical pieces didn't make me feel that was at all; the stories are electrical, and if all philosophers wrote like that...hmmm maybe I'm better off the way things are. Don't want to get too carried away.
The short stories and philosophical pieces didn't make me feel that was at all; the stories are electrical, and if all philosophers wrote like that...hmmm maybe I'm better off the way things are. Don't want to get too carried away.
November 15, 2021
Wow! This is a mix of poems, short stories, essays, letters, etc. I‘m not really into the poems, but the essays and stories with lots of references to Arabic, Persian and Chinese literature and history (as well as Argentinian, of course) were entertaining or, rather, intellectually stimulating. Borges is a very erudite author. My favorites were The Circular Ruins, The Zahir, The Modesty of History, The Sweet Miracle, and Borges and I. Also the translators had some fun at the end. This is a difficult read, no question, but rewarding for intellectuals, or those so inclined.
November 24, 2016
You could argue that Borges' preoccupations with infinity, repetition, labyrinths and so forth rendered his work toothless in the face of very real political threats, and you could criticize his classical liberalism that prompted him to denounce Marx with the same ferocity with which he did Nazism, but even if you did both Borges' writing is just so impressive in its breadth of genre and depth of consideration that you'd probably appreciate a large part of this collection.
May 6, 2014
La tengo en español, pero me gustó esta carátula.
En cuanto a los relatos me gustaron casi todos, algunos de los artículos ya los había leído en Otras Inquisiciones como Nueva refutación del tiempo, que aún leído por segunda vez me sigue costando entender (tal vez porque no entiendo nada de filosofía idealista), las poesías no me parecieron tan buenas.
En cuanto a los relatos me gustaron casi todos, algunos de los artículos ya los había leído en Otras Inquisiciones como Nueva refutación del tiempo, que aún leído por segunda vez me sigue costando entender (tal vez porque no entiendo nada de filosofía idealista), las poesías no me parecieron tan buenas.
July 27, 2007
Good lord, this is shit is pithy. Didn't get the full five stars, because I can digest him only in small doses. But super rad indeed... some of these stories and essays will blow your freaking mind clear off.
April 29, 2010
This is a book of levels.
The structure,order and selection of the works in the anthology are all Borges. All but the translations.
If I picked one english anthology of his it would undoubtedly be this.
Borges and I.
The structure,order and selection of the works in the anthology are all Borges. All but the translations.
If I picked one english anthology of his it would undoubtedly be this.
Borges and I.
August 13, 2009
Quite necesary to keep in mind the great books that are the foundation of our culture.
A great testimony of the Library of Babel, an exemple of the shelve we can find in his books, in his line, in his thought.
A great testimony of the Library of Babel, an exemple of the shelve we can find in his books, in his line, in his thought.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews