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Selected Non-Fictions

Author Jorge Luis Borges
Edited by Eliot Weinberger
Translated by Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine, Eliot Weinberger
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Paperback
$29.00 US
| $39.00 CAN
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Nov 01, 2000 | 576 Pages | 9780140290110
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Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism

The first comprehensive selection in any language of the non-fiction--much of it appearing here in English for the first time--of “one of literature’s most fertile and original minds” (San Francisco Chronicle)

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with flaps and deckle-edged paper

It will come as a surprise to many readers that the greater part of Jorge Luis Borges’s extraordinary writing was not in the genres of fiction or poetry, but in various forms of non-fiction prose. His thousands of pages of essays, reviews, prologues, lectures, and notes on politics and culture—though revered in Latin America and Europe as among his finest work—have scarcely been translated into English.

Selected Non-Fictions presents a Borges almost entirely unknown to American readers. Here is the dazzling metaphysician speculating on the nature of time and reality and the inventions of heaven and hell, and the almost superhumanly erudite reader of the world’s literatures, from Homer to Ray Bradbury, James Joyce to Lady Murasaki. Here, too, the political Borges, taking courageous stands against fascism, antisemitism, and the Perón dictatorship; Borges the movie critic, on King Kong and Citizen Kane and the Borgesian art of dubbing; and Borges the regular columnist for the Argentine equivalent of the Ladies’ Home Journal, writing hilarious book reviews and capsule biographies of modern writers.

Like the Aleph in his famous story—the magical point in a basement in Buenos Aires from which one can view everything in the world—Borges’s non-fictions are a vortex for seemingly the entire universe: Dante and Ellery Queen, Shakespeare and the Kabbalah, the history of angels and the history of tango, the Buddha, Bette Davis, and the Dionne Quints.

Selected Non-Fictions presents more than 160 of these astonishing writings, from his youthful manifestos to his last meditations on his favorite books. More than a hundred of these pieces have never before appeared in English, and all have been rendered in brilliant new translations by Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine, and Eliot Weinberger. This unique selection presents Borges as at once a deceptively self-effacing guide to the universe and the inventor of a universe that is an indispensable guide to Borges.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
  • WINNER
    National Book Critics Circle Awards
“Dizzying in scope and dazzling in execution . . . Should throw even the most dedicated Borges fan for a loop.” —The New Yorker

“Superb . . . Indispensable to both the longtime Borges reader and the newcomer.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Intelligently selected and magically translated . . . Borges’s uniqueness in 20th-century letters is rooted in an almost monstrous combination: encyclopedic knowledge, razorlike critical judgment and a ravishing appreciation for the magical and pagan dimension in every situation.” —The New York Times
 
“A remarkable achievement, offering the general reader and Borges aficionados alike a rapturous glimpse into one of literature’s most fertile and original minds.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“If any recent essay collection can be considered revelatory, it is Borges’s Selected Non-Fictions.” —Phillip Lopate, Lingua Franca

“Sheer delight . . . Witty and elaborate, in turn intimate and magisterial . . . His is the literature of eternity.” —Peter Ackroyd, The Times (London)
 
“A cornucopia of wit, wisdom and critical insights.” —George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement

“Beautifully translated and scrupulously edited . . . This book will in turn illuminate and puzzle, excite admiration and exasperation. Borges would be delighted with such a result.” —The Spectator
 
“A genuine addition to the Borges canon . . . Borges’s bravura performances raise criticism to the power of poetry and are as exciting and imaginative as his celebrated verse and fiction.” —The Daily Telegraph

“Selected Non-Fictions is the most important volume of Borges’s writings to appear since Ficciones. . . . This volume should become as essential to the English-language canon as those by Eliot and Pound.” —Roberto González Echevarría, Yale University

“Borges’s essays are unforgettable, most of all for their originality, their diversity, and for the writing itself. Humor, restraint, insight—and then, suddenly, something bizarre . . . All comparisons are deceptive: Borges, above all, resembles Borges.” —Octavio Paz
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) was an Argentine poet, essayist, and author of short stories. His most notable works as a key literary Spanish-language figure of the twentieth century include Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph). He received a BA from the College of Geneva. He was also appointed the director of the National Public Library and professor of English literature at the University of Buenos Aries in 1955. During his lifetime, Borges received the first Prix International Formentor Prize which he shared alongside Samuel Beckett in 1961. He also received the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society in 1971. View titles by Jorge Luis Borges

About

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism

The first comprehensive selection in any language of the non-fiction--much of it appearing here in English for the first time--of “one of literature’s most fertile and original minds” (San Francisco Chronicle)

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with flaps and deckle-edged paper

It will come as a surprise to many readers that the greater part of Jorge Luis Borges’s extraordinary writing was not in the genres of fiction or poetry, but in various forms of non-fiction prose. His thousands of pages of essays, reviews, prologues, lectures, and notes on politics and culture—though revered in Latin America and Europe as among his finest work—have scarcely been translated into English.

Selected Non-Fictions presents a Borges almost entirely unknown to American readers. Here is the dazzling metaphysician speculating on the nature of time and reality and the inventions of heaven and hell, and the almost superhumanly erudite reader of the world’s literatures, from Homer to Ray Bradbury, James Joyce to Lady Murasaki. Here, too, the political Borges, taking courageous stands against fascism, antisemitism, and the Perón dictatorship; Borges the movie critic, on King Kong and Citizen Kane and the Borgesian art of dubbing; and Borges the regular columnist for the Argentine equivalent of the Ladies’ Home Journal, writing hilarious book reviews and capsule biographies of modern writers.

Like the Aleph in his famous story—the magical point in a basement in Buenos Aires from which one can view everything in the world—Borges’s non-fictions are a vortex for seemingly the entire universe: Dante and Ellery Queen, Shakespeare and the Kabbalah, the history of angels and the history of tango, the Buddha, Bette Davis, and the Dionne Quints.

Selected Non-Fictions presents more than 160 of these astonishing writings, from his youthful manifestos to his last meditations on his favorite books. More than a hundred of these pieces have never before appeared in English, and all have been rendered in brilliant new translations by Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine, and Eliot Weinberger. This unique selection presents Borges as at once a deceptively self-effacing guide to the universe and the inventor of a universe that is an indispensable guide to Borges.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Awards

  • WINNER
    National Book Critics Circle Awards

Reviews

“Dizzying in scope and dazzling in execution . . . Should throw even the most dedicated Borges fan for a loop.” —The New Yorker

“Superb . . . Indispensable to both the longtime Borges reader and the newcomer.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Intelligently selected and magically translated . . . Borges’s uniqueness in 20th-century letters is rooted in an almost monstrous combination: encyclopedic knowledge, razorlike critical judgment and a ravishing appreciation for the magical and pagan dimension in every situation.” —The New York Times
 
“A remarkable achievement, offering the general reader and Borges aficionados alike a rapturous glimpse into one of literature’s most fertile and original minds.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“If any recent essay collection can be considered revelatory, it is Borges’s Selected Non-Fictions.” —Phillip Lopate, Lingua Franca

“Sheer delight . . . Witty and elaborate, in turn intimate and magisterial . . . His is the literature of eternity.” —Peter Ackroyd, The Times (London)
 
“A cornucopia of wit, wisdom and critical insights.” —George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement

“Beautifully translated and scrupulously edited . . . This book will in turn illuminate and puzzle, excite admiration and exasperation. Borges would be delighted with such a result.” —The Spectator
 
“A genuine addition to the Borges canon . . . Borges’s bravura performances raise criticism to the power of poetry and are as exciting and imaginative as his celebrated verse and fiction.” —The Daily Telegraph

“Selected Non-Fictions is the most important volume of Borges’s writings to appear since Ficciones. . . . This volume should become as essential to the English-language canon as those by Eliot and Pound.” —Roberto González Echevarría, Yale University

“Borges’s essays are unforgettable, most of all for their originality, their diversity, and for the writing itself. Humor, restraint, insight—and then, suddenly, something bizarre . . . All comparisons are deceptive: Borges, above all, resembles Borges.” —Octavio Paz

Author

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) was an Argentine poet, essayist, and author of short stories. His most notable works as a key literary Spanish-language figure of the twentieth century include Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph). He received a BA from the College of Geneva. He was also appointed the director of the National Public Library and professor of English literature at the University of Buenos Aries in 1955. During his lifetime, Borges received the first Prix International Formentor Prize which he shared alongside Samuel Beckett in 1961. He also received the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society in 1971. View titles by Jorge Luis Borges

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