"An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" (original

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

title: "Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain") is a 1941

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

writer

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 bo ...

. It was included in the anthology ''

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 Direc ...

'', 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 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 ...

'' is supposedly an extract from the third story, "The Rose of Yesterday"

Style

The review of

fictional book A fictional book is a text created specifically for a work in an imaginary narrative that is referred to, depicted, or excerpted in a story, book, film, or other fictional work, and which exists only in one or more fictional works. A fictional ...

s is a favorite device of Borges (see, for instance, his "pseudo-essay" "

The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" (original Spanish title: "El acercamiento a Almotásim") is a fantasy short story written in 1935 by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. In his autobiographical essay, Borges wrote about "The Approach to Al-Mu'tas ...

" in ''

''). The fictional essayist's vanity, affectation, and hypocrisy "gives the story a satirical coloration" and, along with the reactions of the misunderstanding and unappreciative public, serve to, by contrast, emphasize Quain's "uncompromising purity."

Influence

In his 1984 novel ''

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis ''The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'' (in Portuguese: ''O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis'') is a 1984 novel by the Portuguese novelist José Saramago, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. The book chronicles the final year in the li ...

'' (Original Portuguese title ''O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis''),

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which heco ...

's protagonist, Ricardo Reis, spends much time considering the work ''The God of the Labyrinth'' by Herbert Quain. The fictional anthologist who curates Ana Menendez's ''Adios, Happy Homeland!'' (2011) is named Herberto Quain. He describes himself as coming from Roscommon in Ireland, and moving to Havana later in life, at which time he added the "o" to the end of his name.

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

published a novel titled ''The God of the Labyrinth'' (1970) in reference to Borges. In Karim Alwari's ''Book of Sands'' (2015) Tarek's pregnant wife reads ''April March'' by Herbert Quain. Portuguese musician Manuel Bogalheiro chose his stage name (Mr. Herbert Quain) because he liked the way the name sounded. The fictional book ''The Heart of Agent 9'' or ''The Heart of Observer 9'' by Herbert Quain is featured prominently in the

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 ''Star Blazers 2199'', known in Japan as , is a 2012–2013 Japanese military science fiction anime television series that is a remake of the first ''Space Battleship Yamato'' television series created by Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsu ...

episode ''Clockwork Prisoner''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Examination Of The Work Of Herbert Quain Short stories by Jorge Luis Borges 1941 short stories Works originally published in Sur (magazine) Fictional writers Metafictional works