''The Book of Sand'' ( es, El libro de arena, link=no) is a 1975 short story collection by Argentine 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 b ...

. In the author's opinion, the collection, written in his last days — and while blind — is his best book. This opinion is not shared by most critics, many of whom prefer his other works such as those in ''

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 Dire ...

'' (1944). Referring to the collection, Borges said: The first edition, published in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

by Emecé, contained 181 pages. In

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

it was edited that year by Ultramar. Borges opts for an

epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the w ...

to this short story collection, different from the cases of his previous collections ''

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 bifurca ...

'' (1941) and ''Artifices'' (1944) (later republished together in ''

''), which had a

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...

. Regarding this, Borges begins ''The Book of Sand's'' epilogue by saying: "To prologue unread stories is an almost impossible work, as it demands the analysis of plots one should not anticipate. I prefer, thus, an epilogue."

Content

The work consists essentially of a collection of thirteen short stories (original titles in italics): *

The Other In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; h ...

(''El Otro'') *

Ulrikke Ulrikke is a feminine given name found primarily in Denmark and Norway. It is a feminine form of the masculine name Ulrik. Notable people named Ulrikke include: * Ulrikke Brandstorp (born 1995), Norwegian singer * Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen (born ...

(''Ulrica'') * The Congress (''El Congreso'') *'' There Are More Things'' (''There Are More Things'') * The Sect of the Thirty (''La Secta de los Treinta'') * The Night of the Gifts (''La noche de los dones'') * The Mirror and the Mask (''El espejo y la máscara'') *'' Undr'' (''Undr'') * A Weary Man's Utopia (''Utopía de un hombre que está cansado'') *

The Bribe ''The Bribe'' is a 1949 American film noir directed by Robert Z. Leonard and written by Marguerite Roberts, based on a story written by Frederick Nebel. The drama features Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, and Vincent Price. Plot F ...

(''El soborno'') * Avelino Arredondo (''Avelino Arredondo'') * The Disk (''El disco'') * The Book of Sand (''El libro de arena'') Amongst these stories the most notable include: The Other, the first story of the collection, in which the protagonist (Borges himself) encounters a younger version of himself (similar to his later short story August 25, 1983), The Congress, on an utopic universal

congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

(seen by critics as a political essay), There Are More Things, written in memory of H. P. Lovecraft, on an encounter with a monstrous extraterrestrial inhabiting an equally monstrous house, ''Undr'', on the maximum poetic synthesis, The Sect of the Thirty, on an ancient manuscript that tells of the characteristics of a sect that equally venerated

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betraye ...

, A Weary Man's Utopia (according to Borges, "the most honest and melancholic piece in the collection"), The Disk, on a one-sided coin, and the titular work The Book of Sand, on a book with infinite pages.Borges 1975, 1999, p.140. Evaluating his work, Borges said:

Notes

References

External links

Study guide of the stories in ''The Book of Sand''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Book of Sand 1975 short story collections Short story collections by Jorge Luis Borges Science fiction short story collections Fantasy short story collections