J. L. Borges' 33-volume short story anthology--how many of these have you read?

[Extollager]

Here's a list that will probably set many of us smiling at the sight of old favorites, and send some of us scurrying to read ones we haven't read.

Searching the Library of Babel

I'll probably be looking up things on this list for years.

 

[Extollager]

It seems some, at least, of these "volumes" were very short, e.g. a whole "volume" for Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener." But never mind--still an enticing list don't you think?

 

[Bick]

Interesting list, thanks.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

He was one-of-a-kind.

 

[GOLLUM]

Being quite a big fan of Borges I have that collection of his non-fiction writing, which comes highly recommended (penguin edition).

I would have over half of those specific works listed but in several cases have alternate works by the listed author that I consider to be superior (having read the alternate work) but Yes certainly anything recommended by Borges is worth investigating.

 

[Extollager]

Since there’s been some Borges discussion here in the past few days, this thread might be of interest.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

From this collection I've read:

3 Gustav Meyrink, Cardinal Napellus
8 Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, El Amigo de la Muerte
16 Jacques Cazotte, The Devil in Love
30 Argentinean Tales

I'm pretty sure that without Borges I'd never have heard of Cazotte, Alarcón and Meyrink, let alone read them. A trio of worthwhile classics.

My selection process was guided by my inability to find these stories in other formats/collections/volumes. If I want Henry James or Poe stories, I'll just go read their collection short fiction; same with most others. The volumes are indeed very short, nearly samples for the inexperienced, and there are better alternatives that give you more bang for your buck. Their value lies mostly in the awesome covers and in the lovely prologs Borges penned, veritable love letters to his favorite writers.

It's curious I found out this thread, I wasn't even looking for it. Today I actually started reading La Biblioteca de Babel (2000), a collection of the prologs and nowadays a hard-to-find book. Borges was first approached in the 1970s by an Italian editor, Franco Maria Ricci, to edit a collection of authors Borges loved. Between 1975 and 1985 33 volumes came out. Several countries - Spain, Argentina, Portugal, that I know of - have tried to reprint the whole series, with varying degrees of failure. Spain had the best run, with 30 volumes. Those are the prologs that compose the book I'm now reading. They were never reprinted again after 2000 and the volume has been long out of print. It's a shame because it shows Borges' love for fantasy (not magical realism) very clearly.

 

[Extollager]

From this collection I've read:

3 Gustav Meyrink, Cardinal Napellus
8 Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, El Amigo de la Muerte
16 Jacques Cazotte, The Devil in Love
30 Argentinean Tales

I'm pretty sure that without Borges I'd never have heard of Cazotte, Alarcón and Meyrink, let alone read them. A trio of worthwhile classics.

My selection process was guided by my inability to find these stories in other formats/collections/volumes. If I want Henry James or Poe stories, I'll just go read their collection short fiction; same with most others. The volumes are indeed very short, nearly samples for the inexperienced, and there are better alternatives that give you more bang for your buck. Their value lies mostly in the awesome covers and in the lovely prologs Borges penned, veritable love letters to his favorite writers.

It's curious I found out this thread, I wasn't even looking for it. Today I actually started reading La Biblioteca de Babel (2000), a collection of the prologs and nowadays a hard-to-find book. Borges was first approached in the 1970s by an Italian editor, Franco Maria Ricci, to edit a collection of authors Borges loved. Between 1975 and 1985 33 volumes came out. Several countries - Spain, Argentina, Portugal, that I know of - have tried to reprint the whole series, with varying degrees of failure. Spain had the best run, with 30 volumes. Those are the prologs that compose the book I'm now reading. They were never reprinted again after 2000 and the volume has been long out of print. It's a shame because it shows Borges' love for fantasy (not magical realism) very clearly.

So no English version of the prologues? I don't have the English-language collected prose volume, by the way (published by Knopf maybe).

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

The Spanish standard "Complete Works" is a 4-volume set that, title notwithstanding, excludes a lot of stuff. Any translations based on this template will ignore the prologues in question. At this point Borges has published almost as many books after death as during his lifetime; his widow, Maria Kodama, won't let anything stay unpublished.

Now it's possible a diligent translator has brought a few of the prologues into English, perhaps sandwiched in some collection of non-fiction, but I'm not acquainted with the state of Borges English translations well enough to say.