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A Personal Anthology Kindle Edition

by Jorge Luis Borges (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 93 ratings
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Handpicked works from the greatest Argentinian writer of the twentieth century. “Without Borges the modern Latin American novel simply would not exist” (Carlos Fuentes, author and diplomat).
 
After almost a half a century of scrupulous devotion to his art, Jorge Luis Borges personally compiled this anthology of his work—short stories, essays, poems, and brief mordant “sketches,” which, in Borges’s hands, take on the dimensions of a genre unique in modern letters.
 
In this anthology, the author has put together those pieces on which he would like his reputation to rest; they are not arranged chronologically, but with an eye to their “sympathies and differences.” A Personal Anthology, therefore, is not merely a collection, but a new composition.
 
“An important work, by far the best yet available to the reader . . . who seeks a representative sampling of the great Argentine writer . . . the standard introduction to Borges in England and the United States.” —Saturday Review
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  1. Print length
    234 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Grove Press
  5. Publication date
    May 12, 2015
  6. File size
    2906 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00XUYQUZC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press (May 12, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 12, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2906 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 234 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 93 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Jorge Luis Borges

    Jorge Luis Borges

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    Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges KBE (/ˈbɔːrhɛs/; Spanish: [ˈxorxe ˈlwis ˈborxes] 24 August 1899 - 14 June 1986), was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature. His work embraces the "character of unreality in all literature". His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion. Literary critics have described Borges as Latin America's monumental writer.

    Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Grete Stern (1904-1999) (http://www.me.gov.ar/efeme/jlborges/1951-1960.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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  2. Luis Borges

    Luis Borges

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
93 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aaron B
5.0 out of 5 stars Borges for beginners
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2023
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One of the stories in this anthology, The Aleph, was mentioned by Cormac McCarthy in his novel, Stella Maris. This prompted my interest in Borges and I found The Aleph contained here. A Personal Anthology includes poetry, short stories and historical articles representative of Mr. Borges' style. Be ready to have your vocabulary expanded!
3 people found this helpful
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Tim Clouse
5.0 out of 5 stars The best short collection of Borges
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2021
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Borges's favourite works at the time, arranged as he wanted them to be. Covers a variety of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and work that is somewhere in between, which is what Borges does best. The best introduction to his work available.
3 people found this helpful
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Hamamogi
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2018
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Clean good condition, and a fabulous read.
One person found this helpful
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Karl Janssen
3.0 out of 5 stars Challengingly erudite assortment of fiction, poetry, and essays
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2021
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Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) is one of Latin America’s most critically acclaimed authors. Borges was a prolific all-around man of letters who published so much fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that no one seems to have compiled an authoritative bibliography of his work. In 1961, Borges published A Personal Anthology, a sort of self-retrospective of his career up to that time, edited by himself. Translated into English in 1967, the contents of the volume are comprised of short stories, poems, and essays—48 pieces in all—all of which are quite brief. Some of the selections are so short they can best be described as observations.

A fraction of the pieces included here are set in Borges’s native Argentina. In such stories, which sometimes take the form of westerns (or in Argentina’s case, southerns?), Borges contrasts the European culture of metropolitan Buenos Aires with the rugged gaucho life of the surrounding rural pampas. In stories like “The South,” “The Dead Man,” and “The End,” characters try to navigate from one world to the other and often find themselves in over their heads.

Beyond his tales set in South America, the writer Borges most calls to mind is Umberto Eco. The scope of Borges’s writings encompasses all of world history, including ancient and medieval times. Like Eco, Borges has a particular fascination for books and writers of the past, of all languages, and he demonstrates his encyclopedic mind through frequently arcane references. Unlike Eco, who seems to take pride in educating his readers on the world’s intellectual history, Borges just assumes you already know what he knows. While one can’t help but admire his impressive erudition, one also has to wonder if many of the critics and fans who praise Borges really understand what he’s saying much of the time.

Many of the briefer entries in this work, fiction and nonfiction, do little more than draw connections between historical figures and books from different corners of the globe and different eras in time, as if Borges were engaging in the mental gymnastics of Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game. This intellectual pinball makes his poetry quite interesting and enigmatic. In his fictional narratives, Borges defies conventional rules of storytelling. Even time itself doesn’t necessarily follow a linear path, and he often injects himself into his stories, blurring the line between author, narrator, and character. Such quirks feel appropriate in works that touch on science fiction and fantasy, like “Funes, the Memorious” or “The Aleph,” but often feel obtrusive elsewhere.

I don’t know if any of the writings in A Personal Anthology can be considered among Borges’s best work, but the volume overall, in presenting an ample and diverse selection of his work, serves as a fine introduction to his writing for the novice. That doesn’t mean that all the works included make for a satisfying reading experience. It seems as if the selections were chosen for their brevity, and they often feel more like incomplete sketches than fully realized ideas. Borges’s narratives are often frustratingly disjointed, and his style is a little too arty and pretentious for all but the highest denizens of the ivory tower to enjoy. If I had to judge his career on A Personal Anthology alone, the verdict would not be entirely favorable, but this collection did pique my interest enough to want to delve further into his extensive bibliography.
4 people found this helpful
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Kurt
5.0 out of 5 stars you love him or you don't
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2016
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It's Borges....you love him or you don't. I happen to love him.
2 people found this helpful
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Yahya Khogeer
4.0 out of 5 stars Borges and I, I and Borges
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2023
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§ Borges is not a particularly good stylist, his craftsmanship would not compare to other eminent writers.
§ The substance of his work, on the other hand, is quite complex and sophisticated.
§ Borges was at his best in essay-writing, second in story-telling, and third in poetry.
§ His poems I thought were subpar, or they could be lost in translation.
§ The first two short stories I thought were brilliant: The South and The Dead Man.
§ The End, The Secret Miracle, Circular Ruins, and Funes, The Memorious were good.
§ El Aleph and Zahir left me cold. Ironic because I was looking forward to reading these two the most.
§ Borges is worldly wise; his writings replete with references to India, China & above all, the Near East.
§ Watch Buckley’s interview with Borges before reading this book.
3 people found this helpful
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Sadak
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2016
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One of my favorite writers.
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A. C. Siemers
5.0 out of 5 stars Borges' favorite selections of the writer, Borges
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2010
Published first in Spanish in 1961 and in English in 1967, Jorge Luis Borges' A Personal Anthology was released after Borges had achieved world-wide fame as the author of the short story compilations The Garden of Forking Paths, A Universal History of Infamy, and The Aleph, as well as numerous books of poetry and essays.

A Personal Anthology can be read as a sort of broad summation of the major themes and metaphors of Borges's literary life, or as a mere introduction into his expansive oeuvre. As an avid reader of Borges, to me his anthology is an exciting glimpse into the intellectual heart of the writer. As a truly "personal anthology", edited by Borges himself, the work is, in essence, Borges' own idea of his contribution to literature, philosophy, and criticism. It is, to a great extent, what Borges would choose to leave to that infinite library that he often invokes.

The literary styles within the text span the extent of Borges' work, from short story, to literary meditation, to essay and philosophical argument. The themes of Borges' works are primarily existential. His questions surround the nature of identity, time, and consciousness, and his narratives usually lead back to the questions of myth and history, creator and creation, philosophical idealism, and the line between the waking mind and the dreaming mind. Summarizing Borges' works proves difficult, as he draws heavily from history, philosophy, religion, and references to real and imaginary books. Meaning is meant to be layered; the sacred and the profane, the everyday and the fantastic weave together to create his strange literary vignettes.

In the the book we find some of Borges' most well-known short stories, including The Aleph, Death and the Compass, Funes the Memorious, The South, and The Zahir. He also includes pseudo histories like The Warrior and the Captive, the essay A New Refutation of Time, and his brief meditation Borges and I. Borges is attracted to paradox, to unanswered questions, and his anthology reflects that propensity. While A Personal Anthology portrays Borges' at the heights of his intellectual powers, which span numerous languages, histories and literary styles, the collection also gives us Borges in his most vulnerable state, a scholar going blind, asking questions he knows are beyond his grasp to answer.

For Borges fans, A Personal Anthology is an ideal compendium to have in the library, and for those new to Borges, the edition provides a perfect introduction into the fascinating world of the writer.
12 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Nicola Mansfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Bought as a Christmas present for a literary recipient who ...
Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2018
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Bought as a Christmas present for a literary recipient who was looking for something by the author. He was over the moon with this gift.
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