''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 bo ...

. 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 Direc ...

'' (1944). Referring to the collection, Borges said: The

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

, 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 metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

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 bifurc ...

'' (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; he ...

(''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 197 ...

(''Ulrica'') * The Congress (''El Congreso'') *'' There Are More Things'' (''There Are More Things'') *

The Sect of the Thirty ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

(''La Secta de los Treinta'') *

The Night of the Gifts ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

(''La noche de los dones'') *

The Mirror and the Mask ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

(''El espejo y la máscara'') *'' Undr'' (''Undr'') *

A Weary Man's Utopia A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

(''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 ...

(''El soborno'') *

Avelino Arredondo Avelino Arredondo was an Uruguayan assassin of Basques, Basque origin. Background Arredondo was a strong supporter of a rival faction of the ruling Colorado Party (Uruguay), Colorado Party government of Uruguayan President of Uruguay, president ...

(''Avelino Arredondo'') *

The Disk "The Disk" is a 1975 short story written by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. It appears in the collection ''The Book of Sand''. Synopsis The story deals with a woodcutter who lives in the midst of a deep wood in old England and who has neve ...

(''El disco'') *

The Book of Sand "The Book of Sand" ( es, El libro de arena, links=no) is a 1975 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges about the discovery of a book with infinite pages. It has parallels to the same author's 1949 story " The Zahir" (revised in 1974 ...

(''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 August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

), 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 a ...

(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