Ficciones
1944 • 192 pages

Ratings76

Average rating4.2

15

The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges's short stories, Fictions is a wildly original and influential collection of fantastic tales.

Jorge Luis Borges's 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's 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 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' which seems to be supplanting our own ; and the 'Library of Babel', which contains every possible book in the whole universe. Here too are the philosophical detective stories and the haunting tales of Irish revolutionaries, gaucho knife fights and 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.

'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

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Popular Reviews

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Stopped 1/3 of the way through, wasn't for me. Audiobook didn't feel like the best format, and trying to read on Kindle put me to sleep.

July 17, 2021

I understood approx. 10% of this book. Will revisit later.

May 28, 2018

Imposible opinar de una obra tan genial como esta. Solo diré 2 cosas:

* Si bien comprendo la necesidad de promover el acceso de lo jóvenes a Borges, lamento haber leido varios de estos cuentos en el colegio, con una mirada que impedía su disfrute.
* Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius es im-pre-sio-nan-te.

October 9, 2021

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