Ficciones

Introduction by John Sturrock

Introduction by John Sturrock
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Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form—in his case, the short story. His work has been paid the ultimate honor of being appropriated and imitated by innumerable writers on every continent of the world.

The seventeen brief masterpieces of FICCIONES explode the boundaries of genre, offering up labyrinthine libraries, a fictional encyclopedia entry that spawns an entire world, a review of a nonexistent writer’s attempt to re-create Don Quixote word for word, a man with the disabling inability to forget anything he has ever experienced, and other metaphysical puzzles. But the true measure of Borges’s greatness lies in the fact that his fictions—elaborately paradoxical, postmodern, and intellectually delicious as they are—managed to return the short story to the realm of the fabulous and the uncanny from which, as parable and fairy tale, it originally came.

“[Borges is] a central fact of Western culture.”—WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD“Borges is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes.”—Mario Vargas Llosa“Without Borges, the modern Latin American novel simply would not exist.”—Carlos Fuentes“[Borges] engages the heart as well as the intelligence.”—John Barth“The economy of his prose, the tact of his imagery, the courage of his thought are there to be admired and emulated.”—John Updike“These brief Ficciones . . . throb with uncanny and haunting power. A strange and formidable writer, Sr. Borges is also a magisterial stylist.”—ATLANTIC MONTHLY“The stories in Ficciones are the very best of Borges . . . They mean more than they seem to mean . . . Borges’ fictions are narrative at its purest.”—from the Introduction by John Sturrock
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

Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form—in his case, the short story. His work has been paid the ultimate honor of being appropriated and imitated by innumerable writers on every continent of the world.

The seventeen brief masterpieces of FICCIONES explode the boundaries of genre, offering up labyrinthine libraries, a fictional encyclopedia entry that spawns an entire world, a review of a nonexistent writer’s attempt to re-create Don Quixote word for word, a man with the disabling inability to forget anything he has ever experienced, and other metaphysical puzzles. But the true measure of Borges’s greatness lies in the fact that his fictions—elaborately paradoxical, postmodern, and intellectually delicious as they are—managed to return the short story to the realm of the fabulous and the uncanny from which, as parable and fairy tale, it originally came.

Reviews

“[Borges is] a central fact of Western culture.”—WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD“Borges is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes.”—Mario Vargas Llosa“Without Borges, the modern Latin American novel simply would not exist.”—Carlos Fuentes“[Borges] engages the heart as well as the intelligence.”—John Barth“The economy of his prose, the tact of his imagery, the courage of his thought are there to be admired and emulated.”—John Updike“These brief Ficciones . . . throb with uncanny and haunting power. A strange and formidable writer, Sr. Borges is also a magisterial stylist.”—ATLANTIC MONTHLY“The stories in Ficciones are the very best of Borges . . . They mean more than they seem to mean . . . Borges’ fictions are narrative at its purest.”—from the Introduction by John Sturrock

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