Fictions

Product Description

The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories Fictions" is a wildly original & influential collection of fantastic tales translated from the Spanish with an afterword by Andrew Hurley in " Penguin Modern Classics". Jorge Luis Borges' " Fictions" introduced an entirely new voice into world literature. It is here that we find the astonishing accounts of ' Funes the Memorious' the man who can forget nothing; ' Pierre Menard Author of the " Quixote"' who recreates Miguel de Cervantes' epic word-for-word; a society run on the basis of an all-encompassing game of chance in ' The Lottery in Babylon'; the mysterious world of ' Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertius' which seems to be supplanting our own; & the ' Library of Babel' which contains every possible book in the whole universe. Here too are the philosophical detective stories & the haunting tales of Irish revolutionaries gaucho knife fights & dreams within dreams which proved so influential (and yet impossible to imitate). This collection was eventually to bring Borges international fame; over fifty years later it remains endlessly intriguing. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was born in Buenos Aires Argentina. A poet critic & short story writer he received numerous awards for his work including the 1961 International Publisher's Prize (shared with Samuel Beckett). He has a reasonable claim along with Kafka & Joyce to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. If you enjoyed " Fictions" you might like Italo Calvino's " The Complete Cosmicomics" also available in " Penguin Modern Classics". " Hurley's efforts at retranslating Borges are not anything but heroic. His visions are clear elegant crystalline". (Ilan Savans " The Times Literary Supplement"). " One of the most memorable artists of our age". (Mario Vargas Llosa)."