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Ficciones
' (in English: "Fictions") is a collection of short stories by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, originally written and published in Spanish between 1941 and 1956. Thirteen stories from ''Ficciones'' were first published by New Directions in the English-language anthology ''Labyrinths'' (1962). In the same year, Grove Press published the entirety of the book in English using the same title as in the original language. "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" originally appeared published in '' A History of Eternity'' (') (1936). ''Ficciones'' became Borges's most famous book and made him known worldwide. The book is dedicated to writer Esther Zemborain de Torres Duggan, a friend and collaborator of Borges's. Background Publication In 1941, Borges's second collection of fiction, ' (English:''The Garden of Forking Paths'') was published. It contained eight stories. In 1944, a new section labeled ' ("Artifices"), containing six stories, was added to the eight of ''The Garden of F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th-century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in the Argentinian journal '' Sur'', May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, set seven years in the future. The first English-language translation of the story was published in 1961. Told in a first-person narrative, the story focuses on the author's discovery of the mysterious and possibly fictional country of Uqbar and its legend of Tlön, a mythical world whose inhabitants believe a form of subjective idealism, denying the reality of objects and nouns, as well as Orbis Tertius, the secret organization that created both fictional locations. Relatively long for Borges (approximately 5,600 words), the story is a work of speculative fiction. The story alludes to many leading intellectual figures both in Argentina and in the world at large, and takes up a number of themes more typical of a novel of ideas. Most of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known books, ''Ficciones'' (''Fictions'') and '' El Aleph'' (''The Aleph''), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring themes of dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges' works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and majorly influenced the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.Theo L. D'Haen (1995) "Magical Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers", in: Louis P. Zamora and Wendy B. Faris, ''Magical Realism: Theory, History and Community''. Duhan and London, Duke University Press, pp. 191–208. Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Form Of The Sword
"The Form of the Sword" (original Spanish title: "La forma de la espada", sometimes translated as "The Shape of the Sword") is a short story by Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, first published in July 1942 in ''La Nación'', and included in the 1944 collection ''Ficciones'', part two (''Artifices''). The first English translation appeared in ''New World Writing No. 4'', in 1953. In the story, an Irishman, now living near Tacuarembó in Uruguay, recounts his experiences in the Irish War of Independence and how he received the large scar on his face. Synopsis Borges starts the story narrating as himself as he is forced to stop in a small town run by the unnamed Irishman, who is known as strict but fair. Borges ingratiates himself with the Irishman, and they go out to drink together on the patio. Borges gets drunk and asks about the origin of a crescent-shaped scar on the Irishman's face. His story is as follows: The Irishman describes the war and the introduction of a new comra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Circular Ruins
"The Circular Ruins" (original Spanish title: "Las ruinas circulares") is a short story by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. First published in the literary journal '' Sur'' in December 1940, it was included in the 1941 collection ''The Garden of Forking Paths'' ( es, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan) and the 1944 collection ''Ficciones''. It was first published in English in '' View'' (Series V, No. 6 1946), translated by Paul Bowles. Epigraph The story's epigraph is taken from Chapter 4 of ''Through the Looking-Glass'' by Lewis Carroll: "And if he left off dreaming about you...". It comes from the passage in which Tweedledee points out the sleeping Red King to Alice, and claims she is simply a character in his dream.Carroll, ''Through the Looking-Glass'' 38 Plot A man arrives by canoe at the burned ruins of an ancient temple. The temple is centered on the statue of an ambiguous deity that appears to be a tiger or a horse. The man immediately falls asleep; his goal, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The South (Borges Story)
"The South" (original Spanish title: "El Sur") is a short story by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, first published in ''La Nación'' in 1953 and later in the second edition (1956) of ''Ficciones'', part two (''Artifices''). Plot summary Juan Dahlmann is an obscure secretary in an Argentine library. Although of German descent, he is proud of his ''criollo'' maternal ancestors: his military grandfather had died fighting the aboriginals in the wild Pampas ''"pierced by the Indians of Catriel"'', a romantic end that he enjoys thinking about. He has a number of family heirlooms: an old sword, a lithograph photo, and a small estate in southern Argentina he has never found time to visit. In February 1939, he obtains a copy of Weil's ''Arabian Nights''. He takes the book home, and—eager to examine it— he rushes up the stairs to his flat while reading it, slashing his head accidentally with the sharp edge of a window frame left open. The wound on his scalp keeps Dahlmann bedri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sect Of The Phoenix
"The Sect of the Phoenix" (original Spanish title: "La secta del Fénix") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, first published in ''Sur'' in 1952. It was included in the 1956 edition of ''Ficciones'', part two (''Artifices''). The title has also been translated as "The Cult of the Phoenix." Plot summary Borges gives an enigmatic description (or at least, assertion of the existence) of a secret society dating back to ancient times, the members of which "resemble every man in the world" and whose membership consists simply of the performance of a strange ritual. Discussion on meaning Essentially the story is an extended riddle, the mysterious description referring to a commonplace fact (as Borges points out in the prologue to ''Artifices''). The probable and common answer is that the riddle refers to sexual intercourse, and Borges himself confessed as much. However, in relation to the debate on Borges' sexual orientation, it is argued by some that the secre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The End (story)
"The End" (original Spanish title: "El fin") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, first published in ''La Nación'' in 1953. It was included in the 1956 edition of ''Ficciones'', part two (''Artifices''). Plot summary "The End" is a response to the Argentine epic ''Martín Fierro'', which Borges had discussed in a long essay published earlier that year.Jorges Luis Borges. ''El Martín Fierro.'' Columba, Buenos Aires, 1953. In the story, a man who presumably has had a crippling stroke winds up half seeing and half hearing a definitive fight between a "negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ..." guitarist who has been dwelling in the man's store and a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Martin Fierro whom the negro has been waiting for. The stor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Funes The Memorious
"Funes the Memorious" (original Spanish title ''Funes el memorioso'') is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). First published in ''La Nación'' of June 1942, it appeared in the 1944 anthology ''Ficciones'', part two (''Artifices''). The first English translation appeared in 1954 in ''Avon Modern Writing No. 2''. "Funes the Memorious" is the tale of one Ireneo Funes, who, after falling off his horse and receiving a bad head injury, acquired the amazing talent—or curse—of remembering absolutely everything. Plot summary The narrator, a version of Borges himself, meets Ireneo Funes, a teenage boy who lives in Fray Bentos, Uruguay, in 1884. Borges's cousin asks the boy for the time, and Funes replies instantly, without the aid of a watch and accurate to the minute. Borges returns to Buenos Aires, then in 1887 comes back to Fray Bentos, intending to relax and study some Latin. He learns that Ireneo Funes has meanwhile suffered a horseback rid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Garden Of Forking Paths
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan'' (1941), which was republished in its entirety in ''Ficciones'' (''Fictions'') in 1944. It was the first of Borges's works to be translated into English by Anthony Boucher when it appeared in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' in August 1948. The story's theme has been said to foreshadow the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. It may have been inspired by work of the philosopher and science fiction author Olaf Stapledon. Borges's vision of "forking paths" has been cited as inspiration by numerous new media scholars, in particular within the field of hypertext fiction.Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Nick Montfort, eds. ''The New Media Reader''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. Other stories by Borges that express the idea of infinit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Library Of Babel
"The Library of Babel" ( es, La biblioteca de Babel) is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. The story was originally published in Spanish in Borges' 1941 collection of stories '' El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan'' (''The Garden of Forking Paths''). That entire book was, in turn, included within his much-reprinted ''Ficciones'' (1944). Two English-language translations appeared approximately simultaneously in 1962, one by James E. Irby in a diverse collection of Borges's works titled '' Labyrinths'' and the other by Anthony Kerrigan as part of a collaborative translation of the entirety of ''Ficciones''. Plot Borges' narrator describes how his universe consists of an enormous expanse of adjacent hexagonal rooms. In each room, there is an entrance on one wall, the bare necessities for human sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Examination Of The Work Of Herbert Quain
"An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" (original Spanish title: "Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was included in the anthology ''Ficciones'', part one (''The Garden of Forking Paths''). The title has also been translated as ''A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain''. Plot summary "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" is a fictional essay surveying the following works, written by fictional deceased Irish author Herbert Quain: *''The God of the Labyrinth'' (1933), a detective story in which the solution given is wrong, although this fact is not immediately obvious *''April March'' (1936), a novel with nine different beginnings, trifurcating backwards in time *''The Secret Mirror'', a play in which the first act is the work of one of the characters in the second act (à la '' The Waltz Invention'') *''Statements'' (1939), eight stories which are deliberately calculated to disappoint the reader; ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote
"Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" (original Spanish title: "Pierre Menard, autor del ''Quijote''") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It originally appeared in Spanish in the Argentine journal '' Sur'' in May 1939. The Spanish-language original was first published in book form in Borges's 1941 collection ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan'' (''The Garden of Forking Paths''), which was included in his much-reprinted ''Ficciones'' (1944). Plot summary "Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" is written in the form of a review or literary critical piece about Pierre Menard, a fictional eccentric 20th-century French writer and polymath. It begins with a brief introduction and a listing of Menard's work. Borges' "review" describes Menard's efforts to go beyond a mere "translation" of ''Don Quixote'' by immersing himself so thoroughly in the work as to be able to actually "re-create" it, line for line, in the original 17th-century Spanish. Thus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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