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Biblioteket i Babel

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A swedish anthology with translated text from Borges two books Ficciones and El Aleph.

154 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1998

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About the author

Jorge Luis Borges

1,589 books14.3k followers
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Maria.
153 reviews
February 27, 2018
En stark trea! Borges har en unik röst inom genren magisk realism. Läs titelnovellen "Biblioteket i babel" eller "Trädgården med gångar som förgrenar sig" så får du en god inblick i hans svindlande och mystiska världar.

Ibland blir texten, språket och tankarna dock så förvirrande att det är svårt att hänga med, annars hade jag gett novellsamlingen en klart lysande fyra.
Profile Image for Mina Widding.
Author 2 books78 followers
June 16, 2020
Vansinniga, mystiska, labyrintiska berättelser. Jag tror att det sammanfattar det hela ganska bra. Jag gillar det! Samtidigt lite kort och hattigt och idédrivet snarare än gott gestaltande etc. Mycket återgivningar, sammanfattande, som en stil.
Tänker på Lovecraft, Paul Auster, Philip K Dick också kanske?
Profile Image for Tobias.
238 reviews4 followers
May 16, 2020
Vissa delar av Borges berättelser är helt magiska, själva idéerna och hur långt han driver dem. Hans filosofiska tankevärld är svindlande, labyrintisk och sinnesutvidgande. Men rent språkligt känns det lite platt och jag blir mätt efter några noveller. Oavsett vem som är berättarjaget i en historia så är tonen snudd på identisk, samma lakoniska blick sveper över skeendena och det förtar mycket av läsglädjen.
Profile Image for Linus Johansson.
60 reviews1 follower
October 11, 2018
Olikt något jag tidigare läst, ofta mer experiment i form eller filosofiska tankeexperiment.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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