Collected Fictions

by Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley (Translator)

Overview

For the first time in English, all the fiction by the writer who has been called “the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century” collected in a single volume
 
From Jorge Luis Borges’s 1935 debut with The Universal History of Iniquity, through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display his talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language. Together these incomparable works comprise the perfect one-volume compendium for all those who have long loved Borges, and a superb introduction to the master's work for those who have yet to discover this singular genius.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140286809
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/1999
Edition description:	Complete and ed.
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	15,183
Product dimensions:	5.64(w) x 8.32(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires in 1989 and was educated in Europe. One of the most widely acclaimed writers of our time, he published many collections of poems, essays, and short stories before his death in Geneva in June 1986. In 1961 Borges shared the International Publisher’s prize with Samuel Beckett. The Ingram Merrill Foundation granted him its Annual Literary Award in 1966 for his “outstanding contribution to literature.” In 1971 Columbia University awarded him the first of many degrees of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa (eventually the list included both Oxford and Cambridge), that he was to receive from the English-speaking world. In 1971 he also received the fifth biennial Jerusalem Prize and in 1973 was given one of Mexico’s most prestigious cultural awards, the Alfonso Reyes Prize. In 1980 he shared with Gerardo Diego the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish world’s highest literary accolade. Borges was Director of the Argentine National Library from 1955 until 1973. 

Andrew Hurley (editor/translator) is a translator of numerous works of literature, criticism, history, and memoir. He is professor emeritus at the University of Puerto Rico.

Date of Birth:

August 24, 1899

Date of Death:

June 14, 1986

Place of Birth:

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Place of Death:

Geneva, Switzerland

Education:

B.A., Collège Calvin de Genève, 1914

Table of Contents

Collected FictionsA Universal History of Iniquity (1935)
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the 1954 Edition
The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell
The Improbable Impostor Tom Castro
The Widow Ching - Pirate
Monk Eastman, Purveyor of Iniquities
The Disinterested Killer Bill Harrigan
The Uncivil Teacher of Court Etiquette Kôtsuké no Suké
Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv
Man on Pink Corner
Et cetera
Index of Sources

Fictions (1944)

The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)
Foreword
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
The Circular Ruins
The Lottery in Babylon
A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain
The Library of Babel
The Garden of Forking Paths

Artifices (1944)
Foreword
Funes, His Memory
The Shape of the Sword
The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero
Death and the Compass
The Secret Miracle
Three Versions of Judas
The End
The Cult of the Phoenix
The South

The Aleph (1949)
The Immortal
The Dead Man
The Theologians
Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden
A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)
Emma Zunz
The House of Asterion
The Other Death
Deutsches Requiem
Avveroës' Search
The Zahir
The Writing of the God
Ibn-Hakam al-Bokhari, Murdered in His Labyrinth
The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths
The Wait
The Man on the Threshold
The Aleph
Afterword

The Maker (1960)
Foreword: For Leopoldo Lugones
The Maker
Dreamtigers
A Dialog About a Dialog
Toenails
Covered Mirrors
Argumentum Ornithologicum
The Captive
The Mountebank
Delia Elena San Marco
A Dialog Between Dead Men
The Plot
A Problem
The Yellow Rose
The Witness
Martin Fierro
Mutations
Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote
Paradiso, XXXI, 108
Parable of the Palace
Everything and Nothing
Ragnarök
Inferno, I, 32
Borges and I

Museum
On Exactitude in Science
In Memoriam, J.F.K.
Afterword

In Praise of Darkness (1969)
Foreword
The Ethnographer
Pedro Salvadores
Legend
A Prayer
His End and His Beginning

Brodie's Report (1970)
Foreword
The Interloper
Unworthy
The Story from Rosendo Juárez
The Encounter
Juan Muraña
The Elderly Lady
The Duel
The Other Duel
Guayaquil
The Gospel According to Mark
Brodie's Report

The Book of Sand (1975)
The Other
Ulrikke
The Congress
There Are More Things
The Sect of the Thirty
The Night of the Gifts
The Mirror and the Mask
"Undr"
A Weary Man's Utopia
The Bribe
Avelino Arredondo
The Disk
The Book of Sand
Afterword

Shakespeare's Memory (1983)
August 25, 1983
Blue Tigers
The Rose of Paracelsus
Shakespeare's Memory

A Note on the Translation
Acknowledgments
Notes to the Fictions

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A marvelous new collection of stories by one of the most remarkable writers of our century.” —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

“The major work of probably the most influential Latin American writer of the century.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

“An unparalleled treasury of marvels . . . Along with a tiny cohort of peers, and seers (Kafka and Joyce come to mind), Borges is more than a stunning storyteller and a brilliant stylist; he’s a mirror who reflects the spirit of his time.” —Melvin Jules Bukiet, Chicago Tribune

“An event worth of celebration . . . Hurley deserves our enthusiastic praise for this monumental piece of work.” —William Hjortsberg, San Francisco Chronicle

“Borges is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes. . . . To have denied him the Nobel Prize is as bad as the case of Joyce, Proust, and Kafka.” —Mario Vargas Llosa

“When I read a good book, I sometimes like to think I might be capable of writing something similar, but never, in my wildest dreams, could I write anything that approaches the level of cleverness and intellect and madness of Borges. I don’t think anyone could.” —Daniel Radcliffe

 

Editorial Reviews

A New York Times Notable Book
 
“A marvelous new collection of stories by one of the most remarkable writers of our century.” —The New York Times

“The major work of probably the most influential Latin American writer of the century.” —The Washington Post Book World

“An unparalleled treasury of marvels . . . Along with a tiny cohort of peers, and seers (Kafka and Joyce come to mind), Borges is more than a stunning storyteller and a brilliant stylist; he’s a mirror who reflects the spirit of his time.” —Chicago Tribune

“An event worth of celebration . . . Hurley deserves our enthusiastic praise for this monumental piece of work.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Borges is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes. . . . To have denied him the Nobel Prize is as bad as the case of Joyce, Proust, and Kafka.” —Mario Vargas Llosa

“When I read a good book, I sometimes like to think I might be capable of writing something similar, but never, in my wildest dreams, could I write anything that approaches the level of cleverness and intellect and madness of Borges. I don’t think anyone could.” —Daniel Radcliffe

From the Publisher

★ 10/01/2014
This retrospective marks the first time that all the narratives (stretching over 50 years) of this canonical writer have been updated and compiled in one volume in English.

Library Journal

Impossible, impassable. I am only able to read about one in every ten of these 101 stories before I give up in frustration. It's probably that I'm just not smart enough. Though I am reminded of Calvino, I am also reminded of Poe-without the ease or immediacy of either. The well-written entries show an erudite mind and a lush, wonderful, absolutely wild imagination. In order to sink my teeth into it, I need to immerse quite fully. So while Señor B. will be relieved to know that he is a definite desert-island pick, he'll be sad to learn that he's not a hey-we-gotta-get-to-basketball-practice-in-twenty-minutes-so-feed-the-dog-and-remember-to-drop-off-the-rent-on-they-way type pick. Did I tell you to feed the dog? Because she has to go out. Like, now. If I were recommending his fiction, and I am, I'd go with the classic Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings. You can get the damned thing for a penny on the Internet, which is itself a miracle. [Out of print; available used online.—Ed.] Douglas Lord, "Books for Dudes", Booksmack!, 12/2/10

Library Journal - Booksmack!