Product Description

This is a collection of Borges's fiction, translated and gathered into a single volume. From his 1935 debut with "The Universal History of Iniquity", through the influential collections "Ficciones" and "The Aleph", to his final work from the 1980s, "Shakespeare Memory".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1141149 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-07
• Original language: Spanish
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Although Jorge Luis Borges published his first book in 1923--doling out his own money for a limited edition of Fervor de Buenos Aires--he remained in Argentinian obscurity for almost three decades. In 1951, however, Ficciones appeared in French, followed soon after by an English translation. This collection, which included the cream of the author's short fictions, made it clear that Borges was a world-class (if highly unclassifiable) artist--a brilliant, lyrical miniaturist, who could pose the great questions of existence on the head of pin. And by 1961, when he shared the French Prix Formentor with Samuel Beckett, he seemed suddenly to tower over a half dozen literary cultures, the very exemplar of modernism with a human face.

By the time of his death in 1986, Borges had been granted old master status by almost everybody (except, alas, the gentlemen of the Swedish Academy). Yet his work remained dispersed among a half dozen different collections, some of them increasingly hard to find. Andrew Hurley has done readers a great service, then, by collecting all the stories in a single, meticulously translated volume. It's a pleasure to be reminded that Borges' style--poetic, dreamlike, and compounded of innumerable small surprises--was already in place by 1935, when he published A Universal History of Iniquity: "The earth we inhabit is an error, an incompetent parody. Mirrors and paternity are abominable because they multiply and affirm it." (Incidentally, the thrifty author later recycled the second of these aphorisms in his classic bit of bookish metaphysics, "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Teris.") The glories of his middle period, of course, have hardly aged a day. "The Garden of the Forking Paths" remains the best deconstruction of the detective story ever written, even in the post-Auster era, and "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" puts the so-called death of the author in pointed, hilarious perspective.

But Hurley's omnibus also brings home exactly how consistent Borges remained in his concerns. Aslate as 1975, in "Avelino Arredondo," he was still asking (and occasionally even answering) the same riddles about time and its human repository, memory: "For the man in prison, or the blind man, time flows downstream as though down a slight decline. As he reached the midpoint of his reclusion, Arredondo more than once achieved that virtually timeless time. In the first patio there was a wellhead, and at the bottom, a cistern where a toad lived; it never occurred to Arredondo that it was the toad's time, bordering on eternity, that he sought." Throughout, Hurley's translation is crisp and assured (although this reader will always have a soft spot for "Funes, the Memorious" rather than "Funes, His Memory.") And thanks to his efforts, Borgesians will find no better--and no more pleasurable--rebuttal of the author's description of himself as "a shy sort of man who could not bring himself to write short stories." --James Marcus, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Great original, poor version
Perhaps the greatest Spanish language writer of the century, says the fly-leaf. And it is not an exaggeration. But why did anyone let Andrew Hurley loose on this collection? A complete fictions in English was long overdue, but Hurley's translation lets Borges down. His prose style is leaden, and his translations often eccentric or just plain wrong. Borges was influenced by writers such as Burton, Chesterton and Henry James, and transposed their style into Spanish. Hurley, however, has translated Borges into twentieth century American English, which is clearly contrary to both the style and intent of the orignial. This book is well worth buying for the sake of having all the stories in one place and in English, but Norman Thomas di Giovanni's translations of Dr Brodie's Report and the Book of Sands are far superior. If only di G had tackled the Aleph or Ficciones, there would be little need for this amateur-ish effort at all...

Not happy with Hurley
As Andrew Hurley's translations of Borges are becoming ubiquitious some criticism of their style is called for. I see I have been (ably) beaten to it, so this can serve as a footnote to the earlier reader review. I can't compare the translations with the original Spanish, so can only observe that for the English reader of English they are spoiled by jarring Americanisms. Perhaps one might argue that American English is appropriate for translating a New World writer, but it is the product of a society very different to Borges's own, and its democratic, colloquial tone often works against his urbanity, fastidiousness, ironic pedantry and self-mocking snobbishness. Like the previous reviewer I have only docked one crown, because Borges is indispensable, whatever the shortcomings of his translators.

i cant believe it has taken me 46 years to discover borges.
i recently read a book called 'the tango singer' about an american who moves to buenos aires to do research about borges for his phd. i really enjoyed that book..but the best thing about it was that it made me want to read borges..someone i had heard of, but never really knew anything about. and ay caramba, im just entranced by borges. he is not your average writer..he expects a lot of his readers, doesnt pander, but is not smug in a post-modern way either as he was to early for that. at first i cant deny, i was bewildered by the idea of writing reviews of books that didnt exist, but now im just surprised that no one has ever thought of writing those 500 page novels he couldnt be bothered to write.
the circular ruins, and death and the compass are just two of the most memorable short stories ive ever read..and boy have i read a lot of them. i think it is the ultimate literary form. i know this, or any of these reviews, are not very helpful if you are thinking of buying this book..but its really hard to say what borges is about..mirrors, labyrinths, dreamlike stories, laced with wit, so many literary references you will be reeling, and the ending you just didnt expect. so much of the reference is fantasy, but then again so much is real..you have to work out which is which. totally amazing writing is what it comes down to..i cant recommend this enough. dont be scared...you know you want it or you wouldnt be here...