“Oh God, I could be bounded by a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.”Hamlet II:2 (quoted by Borges, in epigraph The Aleph)Borges, my blind king of infinite space and limitless imagination, published these 17 stories in 1949. The anchor story, “The Aleph,” describes a point in sp...
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, this book is divided in three parts; FICTION, ESSAYS and PARABLES. Basically all this three sections comprises of STORIES OF IDEAS with the blend fact and fiction. Jorge Luis Borges seeks neither truth nor likelihood; he seeks astonishment by using metaphysics a...
( Note: This is an article I wrote in 2009 to mark the 110th birth Anniversary of Borges. Therefore, some of the stories I cite here may not belong to this collection. I thought to post it here as this book is the most cited. If you plan to buy a book of Borges, buy this one or Labyrinth and oth...
You who read me—are you certain you understand my language?Imagine you are watching a highly recommended, multiple awards winning, foreign-language film- it's everything you expected it to be, then, suddenly, the subtitles stop working- how annoying! But you are hooked; you can't stop watching– w...
Like its sister book Gangs of Chicago, Gangs of New York is an anecdotal history of the New York underworld in the 19th century from its nascence in the 1820's and 30's up until the the end of Tammany Hall and the corruption that sustained gang life as a New York institution. It's a history popul...
I can’t help smiling just picturing the two lords of literary misrule, Borges and Casares, writing together. imagining them bursting into laughter every time they found another trick to bold a situation, a character, a figure of speech until it is reduced to mere caricature. Or looking for anothe...
"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing." Oscar WildeExercises in Style These stories are fascinating exercises in style.They effectively document the development of Borges' style at a time when "he was a shy sort of man who could not bring himself to write short...
cross-posted at booklikes and the mo-centric universe. originally posted in 2010. at first blush, i was excited to find this anthology because nothing would suit me better than to sit at Jorge Luis Borges' knee, and have him tell what his favourite stories were, or even have him read them to me. ...
I found the book in a dusty used book shop and was halfway through before I smacked my forehead and realized that it is perfect accompaniment reading for articles on Borges’s widow’s case accusing Pablo Katchadjian of plagiarism for elaborating on The Aleph by adding about 5,600 more words to Bor...