Product Description

'In the middle of the conversations with myself that make up this book, I often feel a sudden need to talk to someone else, so I address the light hovering, as it does now, above the roofs of houses...' Seated at his desk in the Lisbon's Rua Dos Douradores, Bernardo Soares, an assistant book-keeper, writes his diary - a self-deprecating reflection on the sheer distance between the loftiness of his feelings and the humdrum reality of his everyday life. This is the first translation of a classic of existential literature - a book acknowledged by the critics as 'the most beautiful diary of the century' and voted by a panel of leading writers as one of the top 100 books of all time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15701 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'The elegance of the style, well conveyed in what seems to be a more than adequate translation, is an important component and a very ironic one. The diary disturbs from beginning to end...' Anthony Burgess; 'Pessoa's amazing personailty is as beguillng and mysterious as his unique poetic output. We cannot learn too much about him' William Boyd

About the Author
Fernando Pessoa, one of the founders of modernism, was born in Lisbon in 1888. He grew up in Durban, South Africa, where his stepfather was Portuguese consul. He returned to Lisbon in 1905 and worked as a clerk in an import-export company until his death in 1935. Most of PessoaÂ’s writing was not published during his lifetime: The Book of Disquiet first came out in Portugal in 1982. Since its first publication, it has been hailed as a classic.

Customer Reviews

Travel into his words and travel into your soul!
First of all, this is not a novel. O Livro do Desassossego is a sort of diary of all of Pessoa's thoughts and feelings. Reading this book will not only make you understand a bit more who Pessoa was but make you wonder who we are and why we are all 'here' (and if we are). This diary just comes to show how ambiguous and pessimistic Pessoa was, but also how much he wanted to live. Pessoa is, in my opinion, by far the greatest poet/ writer of all times.

one book you will never get tired of!!!!
never read this book like a novel coz its not!! read 2-3 pages if not 2-3 paragraph and most importantly random pages, it is one of the most exciting factless autobiography i have read, its a literary bible for the book lover what bible is for the Christians.

just don't bother!
I have no idea what anyone sees in this book. The author can be forgiven as he neither completed it, ordered it or edited it, all this being done after his death. It's not a novel, nor a near novel, just a series of random, mainly ethereal observations. It's a long time since i gave up reading a book, but after 200 pages i really felt it wasn't worth going on.