Synopses & Reviews
Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology. and horoscope. When he died in 935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague."
Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.
Review
"Throughout, the focus is constantly sharpened by the author's narrative restraint, which commands attention, and by his depth of vision, which rewards it. Profound and moving: a work of immense, quiet power." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This perpetually unclassifiable and unfinished book...is arguably Pessoa's masterpiece....[Zenith] has done an admirable job in bringing out the force and clarity in Pessoa's serpentine and sometimes opaque meditations....[T]he genius of Pessoa and his personae is that readers are left weighing each and every such sentence for sincerity and truth value." Publishers Weekly
Review
"There are no gossipy details in this heteronymous memoir, only the cerebral workings of a first-rate thinker on the dilemma of life. Full of fresh metaphors and unique perceptions, The Book of Disquiet can be casually scanned and read profitably even at random." Library Journal
Review
"This superb edition of The Book of Disquiet is...a masterpiece." John Lanchester, The Daily Telegraph (London)
Review
"Pessoa's rapid prose, snatched in flight and restlessly suggestive, remains haunting, often startling....There is nobody like him." W. S. Merwin, The New York Review of Books
Review
"Extraordinary...a haunting mosaic of dreams, autobiographical vignettes, shards of literary theory and criticism and maxims." George Steiner, The Observer
Synopsis
The prizewinning translation--"the best English-language version we are likely to see for a long time, if ever" (The Guardian)--of a work of unclassifiable genius: the crowning achievement of Portugal's modern master
Winner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Prize for Portuguese Translation
Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. When he died in 1935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague."
Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. The Portuguese author attributed his work to literary alter egos that he called "heteronyms," each of which had a fully developed identity. When Pessoa died, he left behind a trunk filled with disorderly scraps of unpublished poems and unfinished works, among which was
The Book of Disquiet. Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith,
The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.
Edited and Translated with an Introduction by Richard Zenith
About the Author
Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was born in Lisbon and raised in South Africa. After returning to Lisbon to study, he made a living as a translator and wrote obsessively in English, French, and Portuguese. While acknowledged as an intellectual and a poet, his literary genius went largely unrecognized until after his death.
Table of Contents
Introduction vii
Notes on the Text and Translation xxvii
Acknowledgements xxxii
The Book Of Disquiet
Preface by Fernando Pessoa 3
A Factless Autobiography 9
A Disquiet Anthology 393
Appendix I: Texts Citing the Name of Vicente Guedes 465
Appendix II: Two Letters 467
Appendix III: Reflections on The Book of Disquiet from Pessoa's Writings 471
Notes 477
Table of Heteronyms 505