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Title: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley ISBN: 0-14-028680-2 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.51 (47 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Of mirrors, religion, and other labyrinths
Comment: I was grateful when a friend gave me this book, which contains the collected short stories of Borges. No longer did I have to sort through my various paperbacks to find a story I wished to reread. The convenience of having this material in one volume is a compelling reason to own this text.
Borges familiar themes of life, death, labyrinths, religion and mythology, mirrors, knife fights, South American revolutionary events and characters, libraries and art, epiphanies versus ignorance wind their way throughout these stories. Often you will begin in media res, which is well enough, but Borges will just as often end a story without resolving matters. His tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, "There Are Many Things," leaves you wondering, for example.
Borges uses detail precisely, not excessively, and if, to borrow from Ezra Pound's comment on what makes for good poetry, the pace of these works is sometimes slow their density is undisputed. (If you want details, lots of details, then try Cormac McCarthy's novels. At times, they are exhausting to read-like running through knee-deep water.)
I find that reading two or three stories at a time (excepting, of course, the extremely brief sketches) suffices, for you need time to linger, to ponder, and, if time allows, to reread passages, if not entire stories.
The excellent footnotes Andrew Hurley provides are, to me, another reason to own this work. This body of contextual, historical, and biographical information was elucidating, even fun, to read. (I used two bookmarks, one for the stories, one for the footnotes.)
Many reviewers quibble with the translation, and I leave that debate to those with much more knowledge about the merits of original Spanish version of these stories than I possess. I do, however, still wonder how the Nobel committees that snubbed Borges were able to rationalize their oversight.
Rating: 1
Summary: Terrible translation
Comment: Thank God! I was beginning to think I had gone mad. Someone else had the courage and the lucidity to point out that this is a terrible translation of Borges. Sadly, many young readers have not had access to the translations of Di Giovanni, Alastair Reid, John Hollander, Anthony Kerrigan, and yes, even the late great Selden Rodman. It was in reading Selden Rodman's translation of the poem 'Limits' as compared to the translation in the compilation by Monegal & Reid that it came home to me how important it is that Borges be translated by someone who comprehends Borges. (If it may be said that anyone truly comprehends Borges) Rodman's translation is brilliant as is Alastair Reid's; but they are almost two separate poems.
Amazon offers used titles and it is important for those who want to read Borges correctly that they seek out the translations of Norman Thomas Di Giovanni as they are infinitely superior to the translations of Andrew Hurley, so much so that Hurley actually does harm to Borges, while Di Giovanni, allows the magic that Borges created to be accessible to the reader. Di Giovanni worked hand in hand with Borges. They were friends and Di Giovanni understood what Borges was about.
What I believe has occurred is that Borges second wife Maria Kodama did not like Di Giovanni and has attempted to stifle the translations of Di Giovanni. Kodama is an intelligent woman, but intelligence is no guarantee that one can comprehend the hidden meanings of Borges writing. Doubtless she means well, but if she has chosen Hurley over Di Giovanni for personal reasons, she has done a tremendous injustice to the legacy of Jorge Luis Borges.
Get a used copy with a translation by Di Giovanni. You will learn a great deal more about what Borges was saying. This translation by Hurley is an insult to Jorge Luis Borges.
Rating: 1
Summary: Who authorized this translation?
Comment: What a tragedy! Who could have possibly authorized this grievous translation? It is crucial for all readers to know that the very important works of Jorge Luis Borges are not in this case being properly translated. If you cannot purchase the translations of Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Alastair Reid, or Norman Thomas di Giovanni it would be better not to buy or read the works of Borges. Undoubtedly there are other translators who did good translations, but Andrew Hurley is certainly not one of them. Doubtless Mr. Hurley is a brilliant man, but he does not understand Borges subtle use of language. Hence in the stories Hurley translates, Borges words are stripped of their hidden meanings. What the reader gets from this book is a computer translation of Borges' words; rendered mechanically flat and with all of their essence removed. Buy a used copy of a Norman Thomas di Giovanni translation. Norman Thomas di Giovanni worked side by side with Jorge Luis Borges; together they went the required extra distance in making sure that the subtlety of the writing was not flattened when converted to English. Just as being French does not make one a French chef, being a Ph.D. who reads, writes and speaks flawless espanol does not mean that one understands Borges.
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Title: Selected Non-Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger, Esther Allen ISBN: 0140290117 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Selected Poems by Jorge Luis Borges, Alexander Coleman ISBN: 0140587217 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges, James E. Irby, Donald A. Yates ISBN: 0811200124 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Invisible Cities (A Harvest/Hbj Book) by Italo Calvino, William Weaver ISBN: 0156453800 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: May, 1978 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Seven Nights by Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger ISBN: 0811209059 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1984 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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