Product Description
Ejemplo singular de la poesia gauchesca, culta pero de acento genuinamente popular, EL MARTiN FIERRO es considerado como el exponente maximo de la literatura argentina. El estudio de Jorge Luis Borges. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best Short Biography of Borges
Those of us who have followed the writing career of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) from outside of Argentina have seen him primarily as the pathetic old blind man grasping on to the arms of his visitors as they wended their way to some café in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. What this excellent short biography by Jason Wilson reminds us is that Borges was at one time a dashing young man who lived through exciting times.

At the same time, he always lived with his mother. It was not until Doña Leonora died at an advanced age that Borges contracted marriage with Maria Kodama, a younger student of his who was willing to "do" for him in his old age. There is even some question as to whether the author ever had a normal sexual life outside of dealings with prostitutes, which went against his grain, especially after his father forcibly precipitated his sexual experience with his own mistress in a Geneva brothel.

Perhaps Borges felt there was a congenital doom in his family. His father, too, had gone blind; but surgery corrected his vision a few years before he committed suicide. These are not conditions that are conducive to a normal, happy and healthy sex drive.

What Borges lacked in that department is more than made up for the power of his imagination. During an almost Buddhist burst of contemplation in the late 1930s and early 1940s--just before his own blindness set in--Borges completed most of the poems and stories for which he is famous. The sad truth is that, after Borges became known outside of Argentina, his career was in decline. He continued to write, but never so much or so well as before.

Nonetheless, he was the recipient of many international awards--except for the biggest one of all. Because he met with, smiled, and shook the hands of two South American tyrants, Generals Videla of Argentina and Pinochet Ugarte of Chile, a member of the Swedish Academy resolved to blackball Borges every time his name came up for nomination. (It galls me that so many inferior talents have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but then, that's politics for you.)

Jason Wilson has written a short but sweet book that I heartily recommend to everyone who loves Borges as much as I do. Ever since 1969, when I first read LABYRINTHS, Borges has in a sense been my mentor in the world of literature; and I feel that Wilson has written an incisive and just book about this great author. ... Read more

Product Description
Jorge Luis Borges es un caso especial en el marco de la literatura latinoamericana. Y no solo por escapar su narrativa a los parametros del realismo magico o al pintoresquismo que a menudo se espera de un autor de esa procedencia. Libros como El Aleph o Ficciones parecen mas bien antecedentes de un relato fantastico que se nutre de la realidad para hacer verosimil el juego que el nos propone. Por otra parte, el polemico Borges personaje a veces eclipso o pospuso al Borges escritor. Su poesia es casi una metafisica dotada de ritmo. Sus eruditos ensayos reflejan una mirada personal e ironica, y echan luz nueva a lo ya transitado. Este es un necesario recorrido por la vida y obra de un autor ya ineludible a nivel universal. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of 11 short stories includes "The Gospel According to Mark", "The Unworthy Friend", "The Duel", "The End of the Duel", "Rosendo's Tale", "The Intruder", "The Meeting", "Juan Mruana", "The Elder Lady", "Guayaquil" and "Doctor Brodie's Report". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Borges at 70 Remains Uniquely Borgesian
The Borges I first encountered was the intellectual lecturer and essayist of Seven Nights. Later I marveled at his mystical, fantastical short stories found in Labyrinths, Ficciones, and The Aleph. The scholarly researcher was most clearly revealed by The Book of Imaginary Beings, and the poet by Dreamtigers. Now with this short collection, Doctor Brodie's Report, I have discovered yet another dimension of the remarkable Borges.

These short stories are more pragmatic, more straight-forwardly constructed, and more journalistic in their structure than his earlier imaginative stories on which his reputation is largely founded. In many cases these later tales involve some violence. Rivalries and duels, historical military accounts, and seamy slums are found in these works by the more realistic Borges. However, two stories - The Gospel According to Mark and the title story, Doctor Brodie's Report - are more imaginative, and thus classically Borgesian in their outlook.

Doctor Brodie's Report (1970) consists of only eleven stories:

The Intruder (1966) - a rivalry between brothers, The Meeting (1969) - a duel manipulated by the weapons themselves, Rosendo's Tale (1969) - a duel avoided, Doctor Brodie's Report (1970) - classic Borgesian imagination, The Duel (1970) - aristocratic, artistic rivalry,The Elder Lady (1970) - a disturbing biographical account, The End of the Duel (1970) - an actual event unbelievable as fiction, The Gospel According to Mark (1970) - a shocking story of forgiveness, Guayaquil (1970) - old rivalries surface in unexpected setting, Juan Murana (1970) - cherished love leads to fatal violence, and The Unworthy Friend (1970) - an account of betrayal, perhaps biographical.

Borges - in collaboration with Norman Thomas di Giovanni - translated these stories into English more or less simultaneously as they were written.I was familiar with The Intruder and Rosendo's Tale from The Aleph and Other Stories, 1933-1969.The others were entirely new to me. All stories are quite exceptional.

It is difficult to give less than five stars to Borges, but fairness requires an occasional four stars, if only to separate the truly superb Borges from simply exceptional Borges.

My copy is a 1978 softcover reprint edition by E. P. Dutton publishers (ISBN 0-525-47541-9). It contains a short Forward and the Preface to the First Edition (1970).

diamonds in a healthy lawn
Hooray!Here is Borges as accessible as I have read him.While I certainly enjoyed Labyrinths and others of his essays, I preferred Doctor Brodie's Report.The writing is tauter and the insights are less buried--each piece here has a fairly straight-forward point, even if the reader arrives there only after several Borgesian twists and transmogrifications.

The first story in the collection is especially poignant, as it satirizes the quest for a Christ-like life.Revealing us to ourselves is one of the themes he expresses best here.Other political themes recur as well, and despite being a little depressing (he hardly wrote during the best of times), it is impossible not to laugh.

In fact, maybe this book is Borges for the masses.So be it!It's fun, it's a great introduction, and it will whet appetites for more of his puzzles.Super-readers can move on to other weirdoes, like Donald Barthelme. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Please Reprint This Amazing Book!
I can really only comment on two poems in this book because my Spanish is not very good.The two poems I speak of are I and II of "Two Enlgish Poems" and they are two of my favorite poems.They read almost likewedding vows only they are those of a dark poet to an unknown (probably nota single person.) If you can check this book out of a library, then do byall means and run on your way.Better yet, wait for a Borges fall nightand stroll under the wet moonlight.Just don't miss it.

Sacred poet's book
Jorge Luis Borges build up himself a Literary Man, he readed all books that worth to be readen, but Borges did not build up a Poet, his destiny was tobecome a poet, and he honour this destiny, Obra Poetica is a Boook of books -in the same way that El Cantar de los Cantares, really means-, and Borges Th Poet of poets.Obra Poetica holds the treasure of magic, of sadness,and often the gold of joy, this book teach what a Poet should be (verbigratia what a Man should be).A reader must deserve the privilege of piering into this book. (Spanish version) Jorge Luis Borges se erigió a si mismo como un hombre de letras, leyó asi mismo todos los libros que merecen ser leidos; pero lo que Borges no hizo fue erigirse poeta; su destino fue, ser un poeta y Borges honró ese destino.Obra Poética es el Libro de libros -a la manera del Cantar de los Cantares- y Borges el Poeta de poetas.Obra Poética encierra el tesoro de la magia, el tesoro de la tristeza y a menudo el oro de la dicha, este libro enseña lo que un poeta debe ser (verbigracia lo que un Hombre debe ser):El lector debe merecer el privilegio de asomarse a este libro. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

una pequena introduccion
este pequeno libro, ofrece una ligera introduccion a la literatura norteamericana,vista desde la perspectiva de borges. es el unico libro que he leido de el en ingles y me parecio algo liviano, como para estudiantes.en el no brilla borges el erudito, sino el critico y este muy poco. elfinal del libro hay cortas biografias de los mas importantes autoresnorteamericanos.

LUIS MENDEZ ... Read more

Product Description
At the age of seventy, after a gap of twenty years, Jorge Luis Borges returned to writing short stories. In Brodie’s Report, he returned also to the style of his earlier years with its brutal realism, nightmares, and bloodshed. Many of these stories, including "Unworthy" and "The Other Duel," are set in the macho Argentinean underworld, and even the rivalries between artists are suffused with suppressed violence. Throughout, opposing themes of fate and free will, loyalty and betrayal, time and memory flicker in the recesses of these compelling stories, among the best Borges ever wrote. ... Read more

Product Description
El libro de los seres imaginarios es una de los obras mas singulares y fascinantes de Borges que refleja todas sus inquietudes y su maestria formal. Ignoramos el sentido del dragon, como ignoramos el sentido del universo, pero algo hay en su imagen que concuerda con la imaginacion de los hombres, asevera Jorge Luis Borges en El Libro de los seres imaginarios, que traza un extraordinario catalogo de ciento dieciseis seres fantasticos que han poblado la mitologia y la religion desde la noche de los tiempos. Algunos, como golem, la esfinge y el centauro, son hijos de la metafisica o la literatura: otros, como los gnomos y las hadas, son fruto de la invencion humana. Al hilo de las evocaciones de los clasicos, las revelaciones de los misticos y los suenos de escritores y poetas, Borges da vida a viejos relatos olvidados y demuestra que, pese a la disparidad de la procedencia y las formas de esos seres extranos , todos proceden del mismo imaginario humano, de deseos y temores parecidos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Best Book In The World
I love this book and have probably read it about 15 times in the course of a long life.In his introduction Borges mentions "the pleasure of useless erudition" so I must be that I am particularly sensitive to this pleasure.But it is really a book for everybody.It's such an odd subject I would have at first thought it might have a small audience but I have turned lots of friends on to it and they like it too.None of can adequately express just what it is that makes this book so enchanting, and how reading it takes us pleasurably miles away from the world of telephones, anger, bank statements, and cellphones.

Seres fantásticos de todos los tiempos.
Jorge Luis Borges, reconocido autor de primerísima pluma, alcanza con este libro a presentarnos con algunos de los personajes imaginarios que conoció y conoce la humanidad.

Nos trae seres de distintas culturas a través de distintos tiempos de una manera breve, más descriptiva que biográfica.

Este libro es para tenerlo en la mesa de noche donde da mejor paso al camino imaginario.

... Read more