About the book
Jorge Luis Borges's fictions appear together here in one volume, newly translated into English by Andrew Hurley for the centenary of the author's birth. It was the first time all of them had been collected in English. The stories run from his debut, The Universal History of Iniquity, through the influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph. Borges's pieces are enigmatic, elaborate inventions that play with form, genre and language and turn the conventions of fiction upside down. The publisher pitches the volume both to longtime readers of Borges and to newcomers looking for a first introduction to his work.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb called Borges a rare literary writer who thinks in abstract terms, and described the stories as pure philosophical thought experiments delivered with a playful touch.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Flaneur)
This is something very hard to find, almost by definition: a literary writer who thinks in abstract terms (the only other such author I've read is Stanislaw Lem). These are philosophical thought experiments in their purest form, yet somehow magically delivered in a playful literary athmosphere. Borges is a mathematical philosopher, first and last. Ignore the "Latin American" categorization and the nonsense about his background and personal life: one should resist embedding him in a socio-cultural framework; he is as universal as they come. It is good to read a short story once in a while to see how literature and philosophy can be saved by the parable.
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