The Book of Fantasy

by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares

Tres destacadas figuras del mundo argentino de las letras nos ofrecen en esta "Antología de la literatura fantástica" lomejor de un género literario que siempre ha ejercido un atrativo irresistible en el público lector. Estan los clasicos como Poe, los misticos como Swedenborg, los magos de la palabra como Joyce, etc. Junto a estos consagrados , nuevas figuras, incluidas las de grandes valores argentinos.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Anthologies, Magical Realism, Classics

527 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

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."

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Argentina, even the public art can be fabulous and haunting

A truly outstanding collection from the libraries of world literature, some ancient, mostly modern; ninety stories of fantasy and the fantastic with many familiar authors such as John Aubrey, J.G. Ballard, Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury, Lewis Carroll, Jean Cocteau, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, Leo Tolstoy, Voltaire, Edith Warton, Oscar Wilde and Evelyn Waugh.

For the purposes of my review I will focus on one tale I found especially fascinating from an Argentinian author I’ve recently come to dearly love. Here is my write-up. Spoiler Alert: my analysis covers the entire story, beginning to end.

THE SQUID IN ITS OWN INK by Adolfo Bioy Casares (written about 1950)
Remarkable Event: “More happened in this town during the last few days than in the whole of the rest of its history.” So begins the tale told by our first-person narrator, a schoolteacher who’s lived in this town all his life, telling us of an event clearly more noteworthy in the town's 100 year history than even an Indian attack, bouts of cholera or civic pageants. Not even close. What is it? He informs us of a number of strange happenings leading up to the shocking discovery but as to what it is exactly, we are kept in suspense for most of the story.

Bibliophile: Our twenty-something schoolteacher is proud to share how he devours books, loves books, reads everything he can get his book loving hands on since his goal and objective is culture. He also does some writing on the side and ultimately wants to be seen not only as an accomplished author but a highly cultured member of the community, somewhat similar to an older gentleman much looked up to in the town, pillar of local society, one Juan Camargo. Love the way Bioy Casares has a youthful lover of books as his narrator, the kind of person most readers of literature around the world can identify with.

Missing: Juan Camargo lives in a real chalet with a lawn and flower gardens in his large front yard. Every spring and summer, water from a sprinkler twirls around in the garden, nonstop, keeping the grass green and the flowers fresh. But something unexpected happens: the sprinkler is missing. That’s right – it’s time to water the gardens and lawn and the sprinkler is nowhere to be seen. The narrator and all his buddies at the local bar figure there must be a very specific reason why no sprinkler.

As the narrator cites, eventually he and his mates uncovered something “about which little was natural and which turned out to be quite a surprise.” Ah, foreshadowing. As readers, when we likewise discover this unnatural thing, we are also a little surprised. Actually, I myself was quite surprised, even somewhat stunned. Anyway, now we are into the story and have plenty of reason to keep turning the pages.

The Plot Thickens: Would Juan carelessly cut off the water? Impossible. Juan is an exceptional man with old fashion ideas on what should always be done to keep things in order. Since he and his wife, doña Remedios rarely tolerate strangers, the only other person who ever goes in and out of their chalet is godson don Tadeito, a quiet boy who also happens to be a student in the narrator’s primary school class.

Then that very next day after the missing sprinkler, the narrator hears a knock at 2:00 in the afternoon, siesta time, at his apartment door. It’s don Tadeito who asks him for first, second and third year textbooks. Why this request? Don Tadeito simply answers that Godfather asks. And the next day, a similar knock and request, only this time don Tadeito asks for fourth and fifth year textbooks. Same question; same response: Godfather wants them.

Master Plan: As expected, the conversation at the bar is abuzz with the missing sprinkler and now the requests for all those textbooks. What is going on here? The whole crew gathers round a table; the brassy voice of Don Pomponio suggests they form a committee and go ask Juan Camargo himself for an explanation. Aldini has a better idea: the narrator should suggest don Tadeito spy on his Godfather and doña Remedios and report back to him what he hears. So, next visit by don Tadeito for more textbooks, the narrator tells the boy what he should do. The boy quietly agrees.

Revelation: On his next visit to his teacher, don Tadeito recites in a soft monotone how Godfather and doña Remedios now have a new guest living in the shed in their backyard, a special gust for special reasons needing water to keep himself alive. And what are these special reasons? Though a series of pointed questions, the narrator comes to understand this special guest is from another planet and not only did he need water for his health, he needed textbooks to learn more about planet earth so he could best communicate with the people who have the power to drop the atomic bomb.

He comes from a planet that knows about many worlds who have dropped atomic bombs and thereby destroyed themselves. And he also knows the earth dropping an atomic bomb could set off a possible chain reaction destroying his own planet. The visitor came as a friend and liberator and was asking for Godfather's help.

Philosophy: Realizing all his buddies at the bar will never believe his report on such a piece of science fiction, he brings don Tadeito to repeat what he overheard himself from Juan Camargo. The boys listen in widemouthed astonishment, prompting much philosophizing and theorizing about the human race working problems out with or without help from an alien.

Their debate ends with a call to action but, by the time they all reach Juan Camargo's chalet, water is twirling from the sprinkler in the front yard. It appears a decision has already been made about keeping the visitor from another planet alive.

Coda: One of the many features I find both captivating and charming about this Adolfo Bioy Casares tale is how, as it turns out, the fate of the entire planet depends on a decision made by an older gentleman and his wife. In a way, they could be any older couple, anywhere on the globe. And, true to form, since they were the hosts of the stranger and the ones the stranger asked directly for help, they didn’t consult anybody else but simply make the decision themselves.


Author of the fantastic, Adolfo Bioy Casares of Argentina

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Vimos que lo fantástico no dura más que el tiempo de una vacilación: vacilación común al lector y al personaje, que deben decidir si lo que perciben proviene o no de la “realidad”, tal como existe para la opinión corriente. Al finalizar la historia, el lector, si el personaje no lo ha hecho, toma sin embargo una decisión: opta por una u otra solución, saliendo así de lo fantástico. Si decide que las leyes de la realidad quedan intactas y permiten explicar los fenómenos descritos, decimos que la obra pertenece a otro género: lo extraño. Si, por el contrario, decide que es necesario admitir nuevas leyes de la naturaleza mediante las cuales el fenómeno puede ser explicado, entramos en el género de lo maravilloso." - Tzvetan Todorov, Introducción a la literatura fantástica

De los setenta y siete libros que he leído durante este 2017, casi treinta son relecturas y este es otro de esos libros que quería volver a leer ya que no recordaba bien algunos relatos incluidos en esta maravillosa antología que nos regalaron Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares y Silvina Ocampo, tres de los mejores exponentes que haya dado la literatura argentina.
Si bien, en el prólogo de la primera edición de 1965 Bioy Casares aclara de antemano que algunos de los grandes escritores que alimentaron el género fantástico como E.T.A Hoffmann, Ambrose Bierce, Sheridan Le Fanu y Walter de la Mare no fueron incluidos en la antología, no fue por una arbitraria eliminación de sus relatos sino porque la cantidad de lo recopilado excedía el volumen del libro (son 100 para ser exactos) y pensaban en su momento publicar una segunda recopilación, eso nunca sucedió.
De todos modos, la lista de los que sí aparecen es más que interesante y no por ello menos importante. Creo que el hecho de que Borges haya formado parte del proyecto fue saludable, puesto que su íntima amistad con Bioy Casares hizo que la elección girara en torna a sus obvias predilecciones, pero no opaca a los autores elegidos por los otros dos escritores.
En esta antología, muy completa, encontraremos de todos modos a los mejores exponentes del género fantástico junto a otros no tan conocidos pero cuyos textos son realmente interesantes. Por estas páginas desfilan, entre muchos otros, Guy de Maupassant, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe (no podía faltar el maestro), Lewis Carroll, G.K. Chesterton, James Joyce, así también los japoneses, los chinos (con Borges como editor, eso es inevitable) y también autores desconocidos para mí, y es en estos fragmentos, cuentos o relatos en los que más me sorprendí y regocijé.
Algunos de sus relatos o cuentos son realmente impresionantes.
Los que más me impactaron fueron “Enoch Soames” de Max Beerbohm, “Ser polvo” del argentino Santiago Dabove, “Un hogar sólido” de la mexicana Elena Garro, que me recordó fuertemente a su compatriota Juan Rulfo, “La sangre en el jardín” del español Ramón Gómez de la Serna, “Punto muerto” de un desconocido Barry Perowne, “Donde el fuego nunca se apaga” de la inglesa May Sinclair y otros muy buenos, escritos por autores más conocidos, como “Una noche en una taberna” de Lord Dunsany, “La esperanza” de Villiers de L’isle Adam, “La última visita del caballero enfermo” de Giovanni Pappini, “El caso del difunto Mister Elvesham” de H.G. Wells y “El cuento más hermoso del mundo” de Rudyard Kipling.
Obviamente no podían faltar tres selecciones de los tres escritores que compilan la antología, a saber, “Tlön, Ukbar, Orbis, Tertius” de Borges, “El calamar opta por su tinta” de Bioy Casares y “La expiación” de Silvina Ocampo.
Creo también que uno de los tres mejores cuentos es "La Pata de mono", de W.W. Jacobs.
Los poderes de la pata, la historia y el final me remiten a "El Diablo en la Botella", de Robert Louis Stevenson o a los cuentos contenidos en "Azazel", el libro de Isaac Asimov. Este cuento era uno de los preferidos de Jorge Luis Borges.
Como se lee en la contratapa, el género de los textos que encontraremos está representado por las irrupciones de la fantasía y la intuición artística en lo desconocido, lo inexplicable, lo misterioso, lo sobrenatural.
Todos ellos conforman un volumen agradable para leer y sorprenderse, especialmente si uno quiere distenderse en estas épocas en que el año va terminando.
Muy recomendable.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an addictive book! Borges, Bioy Casares and Ocampo chose some short stories and fragments of other works that really caught my interest. Especially the ones that seemed to influence Borges -my favorite of all three-; stories where the boundaries between dreams and reality disappear completely. Suddenly, you find the head of the dragon you killed last night in your dream.
My biggest problem (that depressed me quite a bit) is that I found a lot of writers that I've never heard of. And I liked their stuff. Do you know what that means, huh? My to-read shelf is getting bigger by the hour.


* Also on my blog.

[María Greene F · Rating 5 out of 5]

GRAN LIBRO con el que me tocó crecer. Quizá incluso uno de los responsables de mi amor a la ciencia ficción y demases, que tienen su parecido. Uno de mis cuentos favoritos - el más corto - decía algo así: "No queda nadie en el mundo y de pronto tocan a la puerta". Jajaja. INCREÍBLE. *llora.

Más adelante - todo esto fue cuando chica - en la universidad nos enseñaron que la literatura fantástica responde a la inquietud de la modernidad de "tenerlo todo resuelto", y es que la época moderna comete tres errores garrafales 1) confundir valor con precio (por eso un bosque, por ejemplo, puede "valer" no sé cuántos millones), 2) la hiperespecialización (ir al doctor por diferentes cosas porque nadie saca la foto completa y al final sus medicamentos se contradicen, por dar otro ejemplo) y 3) creer que todo está ya dicho: que ya conocemos cómo son las cosas.

Esta literatura viene a contradecir especialmente el último punto y eso a mí ME ENCANTA. Porque uno necesita un poco de misterio en la vida, aunque lo fantástico en particular como género tenga ese tono creepy. Vivir en un mundo constantemente iluminado y fiscalizado y numerado le hace a uno olvidar que viene de lo desconocido y volverá lo desconocido y que la existencia misma es una aventura que al menos por ahora no podemos ni entender ni medir.

En fin, GRAN FAN y ALTA RECOMENDACIÓN.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

cross-posted at booklikes and the mo-centric universe.

originally posted in 2010.

at first blush, i was excited to find this anthology because nothing would suit me better than to sit at Jorge Luis Borges' knee, and have him tell what his favourite stories were, or even have him read them to me. of course, this book was not just edited by Borges, but also Silvina Ocampo, and Adolfo Bioy Casares, who is quoted thusly by Ursula K. Le Guin in the intro, saying the book came out of a conversation "about fantastic literature... discussing the stories which seemed best to us. One of us suggested that if we put together the fragments of the same type we had listed in our notebooks, we would have a good book."

and so i began. i read the first story, and liked it. then i read the second. it is quite short, so i include it for your enjoyment here:

A Woman Alone With Her Soul
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

A woman is sitting alone in a house. She knows she is alone in the whole world: every other living thing is dead. The door bell rings.

i stopped. i read it again. i thought, "who is this Thomas Bailey Aldrich? why haven't i heard of him?" i read the short biographical info provided by his name: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, North American poet and novelist, was born in New Hampshire in 1835 and died in Boston in 1907. He was the author of Cloth of Gold (1874), Wyndham Tower (1879), and An Old Town by the Sea (1893). i thought, "okay... maybe this story was never published in his lifetime. i didn't expect people were writing stories like this in the 19th century." and, "wow. doorbells have been around a long time. this story seems like it could have been written by Ben Loory when my back was turned except this anthology has been around since 1940, and the last revision was in 1976. okay. i'd better do a google search on Aldrich, a man writing stories that could have been written yesterday."

and so i researched. i found that Aldrich has been given a lot of credit: the first appearance of a detective in english literature (The Stillwater Tragedy - 1880), and that critics feel the semi-autobiographical novel he wrote in 1870 (The Story of a Bad Boy) anticipated Huck Finn. All this despite the fact he was primarily a poet (rhyming verse), editor, and writer of travel books. i began to suspect that Aldrich was eldritch.

i kept on, looking through materials at Project Gutenberg, hoping to find other stories by Aldrich like "A Woman Alone With Her Soul" but nothing read like it did. i kept looking for the collected volume cited in the sources and acknowledgements of my anthology, and found that all 322 pages of vol. 9 had been scanned by somebody at the University of Toronto library (for some reason i found this creepy) and posted online. there was a 'search text' function so i copied the title of the story in and there were no matches. i was confused. i flipped through pages of the book; again, nothing read like this story read, or was as short as it was... nothing matched up. i stopped, pondered, and did another search, this time for the story's title, and found it in a listing of sci fi stories had the following note: "this is most likely by Jorge Luís Borges" with no further elaboration. i found this statement on a couple of other sites, and then i began to think that Borges was making me believe in books that didn't actually exist again (his own "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" appears in this anthology, with its tricksy encyclopedia). i wrote Ben, asked him if he had written the story, told him that Borges might have, apologized for bothering him, and searched on, and finally came upon a trail of emails by a Dennis Hien, from a mailing list called Project Wombat that gave me something. somebody had been searching for the shortest sci fi story ever written there, at Project Wombat, in 2004 and Hien did some research (though he couldn't find the initial conversation string... the text i read was from 2007. it turned out another one of my favourites, Dashiell Hammett, in an introduction to an anthology he had edited called "Creeps By Night" in 1931, said,

"One of my own favorites is that attributed, I believe, to Thomas Bailey Aldrich

A woman is sitting alone in a house. She knows she is alone in the whole world: every other living thing is dead. The doorbell rings.

That has, particularly, the restraint that is almost invariably
the mark of the effective weird tale.",

There is no reference to the title of the story as it appears in my anthology, and I will need to seek out the Hammett anthology to see if it can provide any further clues. My gut tells me that Borges/Ocampo/Casares must have stumbled upon this story in Hammett's anthology, at some point in the nine years that elapsed between the publication of the two, and decided to use it. and yet, this story was not in the vol. 9 text. but Hien cast further light (i imagine through his own researches because no references were included) by revealing that the kernel of the story idea was Aldrich's, that it was published in his essays "Leaves from a Notebook" collected in a book called the Ponkapag Papers, which was in its turn collected in that self-same volume 9, that i had discovered on line. The text that Aldrich wrote is as follows:

"Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, New York or London. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell!"

and so, this is not the story attributed to Aldrich i had read. it is a seed yes, but the differences are striking, and it is not the idea, but that micro short that resounds in my mind (and in others' minds: i found a lengthy blog entry from 2007 dissecting the tiny gem in the course of my research). it seems to me that this was as close as Borges felt he could get to finding the genesis of the story that Hammett shared, that originated with Aldrich, and so he referenced the works vol 9, and it seems likely that Borges invented the title, and finally, led me on this merry chase seventy years later. i wonder if Hammett actually read the story the way he quoted it or if i respond to it because this version is his version of what he had read in Aldrich. i still have many questions and am doubtful that i will find answers. i realize this is not really a review of the Book of Fantasy. i am after all, only on page 16, and there are many stories to read but this chase has reminded me of my passion for Borges, and how razor-sharp the line between truth and fiction is, that life is mystery, and reverberating in my mind is PKD quoting Dante in The Transmigration of Timothy Archer: God is the book of the universe".

i am tempted to give the book five stars right now though. i mean, how can i not?

********************************************************

i just realized i never came back and finished the review for this. i did end up changing my rating to four stars: i was really blown away by some of these stories:

- "the man who collected the first of september", 1973 by tor age bringsvaerd i've already re-read several times since first finding it in this book, and can't quite get over it.

- b. traven, another favourite of mine has a story "macario" included which i'd never read before that has really reverberated in my mind, and i can't recommend enough.

then there was a sleeper: months later, walking down the street, i found myself preoccupied by the recollection of the story called "the horses of abdera" by leopoldo lugones (i've subsequently realized borges had written a biography about him). i was also thrilled to find included stories i already adored by may sinclair, rudyard kipling, saki, and wilde, and of course, borges himself.

there was also the inclusion of a waugh story called "the man who liked dickens" which i recognized as the ending of his novel a handful of dust, which had seemed out of keeping with the rest of the novel when i first read it (my review of that is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...) finding the publication history made me realize waugh had published that story on its own before marrying it to his novel which really explains a lot. another literary mystery solved!

i did not love the story contributions of borges' fellow editors, bioy casares, and ocampo as much. i found some of the minor authors they added to the collection perhaps could not stand up against the finesse and craft of the greats i've already mentioned, and others by our old pals tolstoy, poe, and de maupassant. i'm pretty sure borges only loved the ones i do, anyway. :) that said, i think this is an impressive collection that is a requisite for anyone who loves the bent, and the strange, the fable and the twilight.


*****************************************************
yet another update:

i just found out something exciting! as i said in the review, and my status updates as i read this collection, how thrilling it was to find that borges liked the same stories as i do, and i was convinced that he selected the ones i liked best. as i noted above, one selected was from a collection i had happened upon six months earlier, the haunting short story by may sinclair, "where their fire is not quenched" i was looking up obscure books today, and decided i needed to try to find may sinclair's novel, the dark night, and while i was searching, this came up on alibris:

Cuentos Memorables Segun Jorge Luis Borges
by Jorge Luis Borges

In a 1935 magazine article, celebrated author Jorge Luis Borges explained why he chose Mary Sinclair's short story "Donde su fuego nunca se apaga" as the most memorable story hed ever read, while he mentioned 11 other of his personal favorites. Inspired by Borges statements in the article, this anthology gathers an array of magnificent short stories by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, and O. Henry, among others.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwo...

how exciting! will we love the same o. henry story? I'LL FIND OUT!!! :)


This work by Maureen de Sousa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

[Emilio Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intente estirar la lectura de este libro todo lo que pude porque fue un verdadero placer ir descubriendo cada uno de los 75 cuentos que componen esta magnífica obra y que fueron escogidos nada más ni nada menos que por J. L. Borges, A. Bioy Casares y S. Ocampo.
En lo ecléctico de la selección creo que radica una de las mayores virtudes de esta antología, hay cuentos de diversas épocas, de diversas culturas y también la extensión de los cuentos es muy dispar, desde micro relatos de media página hasta los que alcanzan las 30 páginas.
Como gran amante del cuento que soy, creo que es un estupendo libro para tener por ejemplo al lado de la cama e ir leyendo todos los días un poquito.

Estos son solo algunos de los mejores cuentos del libro que me eran desconocidos o apenas conocidos y ahora están entre mis cuentos favoritos:
-Enoch Soames- Max Beerbohm
-El gesto de la muerte- Jean Cocteau
-Sueño de la mariposa- Chuang Tzu
-La esperanza- Villiers de L’Isle Adam
-La última visita del caballero enfermo- G. Papini
-Punto muerto- Barry Perowne
-Sueño infinito de Pao Yu- Tsao Hsue-Kin
-El caso del difunto Mister Elvesham- H. G. Wells

Sin duda es un libro que no le puede faltar al amante del cuento fantástico.

"Algunos están capacitados para vivir hacia afuera, otros para vivir hacia adentro; en cuanto a mí, pronto se me agota la atención exterior, y cuando alcanza a su límite, siento en todo el cuerpo y en toda la inteligencia un malestar intolerable."
Guy de Maupassant - ¿Quién sabe?

[Joni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quizás sea esta la antología mas completa y abarcativa que me haya tocado leer. La cobertura del género fantástico se me ocurre es casi absoluta. Son 100 piezas distintas, desde microrrelatos a escenas de teatro. Seleccionada por Borges, Bioy y Ocampo que podría fallar en una empresa del estilo. Y nada,, hasta los relatos no tan sorprendentes son ejemplo de las formas y la variedad que se pueden ejecutar. Es una fuente de inspiración y paso obligado para tener de referencia al momento de querer escribir nuevos cuentos. Prevalecen autores argentinos, ingleses y no faltan chinos, japoneses, árabes, así también como hay de distintas épocas desde siglos anteriores al calendario gregoriano a los días en que fue publicada. Es un disparador para conocer autores y estilos,, amé su lectura.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

81 stories in 384 pages. That averages out to 4.74 pages per story, but in fact half of the pieces here are roughly a page or less - fragments, folk tales, myths, very brief allegories, and so on. I can’t fully articulate why this was so disappointing to me, but it made the book feel rather empty and ephemeral. Of the remaining, fuller stories, many just fell flat for me, and several others I read relatively recently in Alberto Manguel’s Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature (a collection about which I had similar reservations, and which appears to have been inspired by this one). It also bears noting that the 1988 English edition published by Carroll & Graf, with an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin, has a truly astounding number of typos, climaxing with the transposition of a number of pages at the end of the Oscar Wilde story.

The first edition of this book came out in Argentina in 1940 (Antología de la Literatura Fantástica), and I’ve seen it claimed that this is the first anthology to use the word “fantasy” to describe a collection of “genre” works, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I also don’t know if it was Le Guin or the original editors who selected the newer materials added to this edition - it appears that updated versions were published in 1965 and 1976.

Because I love quantifying things, I will also tell you that of these 81 pieces, 15 are by Latin American authors, 57 are by European/North Americans, 9 are by Asians, and 0 are by Africans, Australians, or Native Americans. Note that several of the European-written works are actually derived from Asian folklore, though.

Maybe “slight” is the word I’m looking for to describe many of these. Borges once said that there is “a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition," and while I’m not sure that this is a sentiment with which I agree, I can see how it would lead to a collection of this sort. For example, the following selection from James Frazer’s study of mythology, The Golden Bough , does not, in my view, add anything to the collection, or impart much of anything to the reader, it just proves how wide-ranging and useless the wisps collected here can be:

A fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells of a jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all that heart could desire, and she wished to live always. For the first hundred years all went well, but after that she began to shrink and shrivel up, till at last she could neither walk nor stand nor eat nor drink. But die she could not. At first they fed her as if she were a little child, but when she grew smaller and smaller they put her in a glass bottle and hung her up in the church. And there she still hangs, in the church of St Mary, at Lübeck. She is as small as a mouse, but once a year she stirs.

If you find reading something like that without any kind of context enjoyable, this book is for you - “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like,” and so on. This quote, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln for some reason, actually originates with Max Beerbohm, which brings me to the part of the review where I actually talk about the stories that resonated with me enough to bother writing about.

The stories are presented alphabetically by author, so just to give you a better idea of what we’re dealing with here, here’s what we start with:

We open with “Sennin,” (1952) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, which is a 3-page reworked koan about a wanderer who wishes to become a sennin (a kind of wise, mystical hermit). A doctor and his wife lie and say they will teach him to do so if he acts as their slave for 20 years - after this period is over the wife tells him to leap from the top of a tree, but instead of killing him his belief transforms him into a sennin. Next is Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “A Woman Alone with Her Soul” (1912), about which you should read Maureen’s review. This is followed by Leonid Andreyev’s “Ben-Tobith” (1916, text available here as “On The Day of the Crucifixion”), which is the story of a man in Jerusalem who has a crippling toothache on the day of the Crucifixion. John Aubrey’s “The Phantom Basket” (1696) is another entry that I can just reproduce in its entirety:

Mr Trahern B.D. (Chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgman Lord Keeper) a Learn’d and sober Person, was the Son of a Shoe-maker in Hereford: One night as he lay in Bed, the Moon shining very bright, he saw the Phantome of one of the Apprentices sitting in a Chair in his red Wastcoat, and Headband about his Head, and Strap upon his Knee; which Apprentice was really abed and asleep with another Fellow-apprentice in the same Chamber, and saw him. The Fellow was Living 1671. Another time, as he was in Bed he saw a Basket come Sailing in the Air along by the Valence of his Bed; I think he said there was Fruit in the Basket: It was a Phantome. From himself.

J. G. Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964) examines, in a quintessentially Ballardian clinically-detached manner, the decay of a giant human corpse that washes up on the beach following a storm. Initially an object of great spectacle, it soon becomes just another part of the landscape, vandalized by teenagers, treated as a playground by children, dismantled by profiteers, then taken for granted and eventually forgotten altogether by everyone except for the narrator.

Which brings us back around to Max Beerbohm. His “Enoch Soames” (1916), also collected in Black Water, is a fantastic examination of a desperately untalented author who sells his soul to the devil in order to have a glimpse of his place in posterity by transporting him briefly to the reading room of the British Museum 100 years hence: June 3rd, 1997. It’s also a delightfully Borgesian approach to metafiction: the narrator of the story is Max Beerbohm of 1916 (a real person), looking back on his association with Enoch Soames (fiction) around the turn of the century. The artist William Rothenstein (real) also figures in the story, in which he draws a portrait of the fictional Soames, which the real Rothenstein actually did create in 1916, backdated to the 1890s. In the future, the one reference Soames can find to himself is as the fictional centerpiece of the story “Enoch Soames,” by Max Beerbohm.



From the vantage point of 2013 I can also report that on June 3rd, 1997, the magician Teller (of Penn and fame), waiting with a crowd of fellow Beerbohm fans in the Reading Room at the appointed time, saw a man matching the description of Soames looking desperately through the bookstacks (later reported in the article “Being a faithful account of the events of the designated day, when the man who had disappeared was expected briefly to return” - some have claimed this man was an actor hired by Teller, but Teller is keeping his mouth shut).

If only this collection had had more of this kind of labyrinthine metafiction, but I think it’s just this one, Aldrich’s story, and one other presented with a fictional author, which name is presumably a pseudonym for one of the editors.

I’ll write up some things about the other stories that stuck with me enough to invite comment later.

[Diletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diciamo che se non lo avete in casa non passate l'esame. Qualsiasi esame.

[Amir · Rating 3 out of 5]

قصه‌های خیلی کوتاه جمع آوری شده بعضا چند خطی با تِم فانتزی از فرهنگ‌های مختلف جهان‌‌.
خوندنش خالی از لطف نیست.

[Tirdad · Rating 4 out of 5]

ادبیات را از منظر فردی چون بورخس درک‌کردن حقیقتاً تجربهٔ عجیبی است! از خود می‌پرسیدم بورخس در این داستانک‌ها که برخی از آن‌ها به ۳ خط هم نمی‌رسد چه دیده که آن‌ها را انتخاب کرده؛ برخی از آن‌ها صرفاً یک ‌گزارش کوتاه تاریخی‌اند، برخی دیگر حکایات اخلاقی، داستان‌هایی فانتزی و سورئال، شعرگونه‌هایی که به جملات قصار می‌برد. وجه اشتراک همهٔ این‌ها چیست که بورخس، این فرزند خلف ادبیات، آن‌ها را در گردایه‌اش تحت عنوان «خارق‌العاده» آورده؟ پاسخ چیزی جز ویژگی «آشنایی‌زدایی» و خرق عادت نیست. نقطهٔ عزیمت ادبیات حیرت است و بس.

پی‌نوشت: صد افسوس که گنجیهٔ ادبیات کهنِ شرقِ دور به طور شایسته‌ای در دسترس فارسی‌زبانان نیست. الحق و الانصاف داستان‌ها حیرت‌انگیز‌اند.

[Marlen Leiva]

Este libro lo saqué de biblioteca, solamente porque quería conocer autores nuevos que escribieran literatura fantástica (ñoña).
Me encontré con autores que ya había leído como por ejemplo Borges y Cortázar, y otros que tenía muchas ganas de conocer como por ejemplo Bioy Casares y Silvina Ocampo.
El libro parte con un estudio preliminar basado en Introducción a la literatura fantástica escrito por Todorov que permite al lector novato introducirse en la teoría y los conceptos claves para entender qué es la literatura fantástica.
Luego comienza con una breve biografía del autor, la obra, sobre el cuento y sus fuentes. El primero es Adolfo Bioy Casares con su cuento ''El perjurio de la nieve''. No haré spoiler, creo que es un cuento bastante intrigante que te mantiene en suspenso, me recordó un poco a Borges sobre todo por los juegos con el tiempo y la eternidad.
Luego Angel Bonomini con el cuento ''Los novicios de Lerna'', este es casi mi preferido de la colección, solo diré que toma la idea de la temática del doble. Lamentablemente no pude terminarlo porque no estaba completo, pero es muy bueno.
Prosigue Borges, con el cuento el sur, también faltan esas páginas. Ya lo había leído antes así que no lo eché tanto de menos,
Luego Cortázar con un cuento más que leído por todos ''Casa Tomada'', maravilloso cuento de presencias que toman posesión de un viejo caserón antiguo en Argentina.
Prosigue Marco Denevi, con el cuento ''Variación del perro'' no me gustó nada.
Luego sigue Manuel Mújica con el cuento ''Los espías'' encontré que era un cuento original, pero me dió un poco de asco, no pensé que iba a dar ese giro.
Luego Héctor A. Murena con la sierra, no me pareció gran cosa la verdad...no sé por qué fue incluido en esta antología
Prosigue Silvina Ocampo con el cuento ''Las invitadas'' sino fuera por las anotaciones de páginas creo no hubiera entendido de qué se trataba el cuento, trata sobre los pecados capitales, pareciera que fuera un cuento bastante sencillo pero tiene una interpretación oculta.
Por último Bernando Schiavetta con su cuento ''Gregorio Ruedas'', me encantó, es uno de mis cuentos favoritos de la antología, está contado como si fuera una bitácora y trata el tema de la iniciación, la magia y la cábala, tiene un cierre final un poco débil, pero aún así esta muy bien escrito y es sorprendente.

Es una antología interesante que sirve para conocer autores nuevos, pero tampoco es la graaaaan antología., tiene algunos cuentos memorables pero solo eso. Leeré cuando tenga tiempo la que hizo Borges.

[Lucas Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta antología es soberbia. No sólo está llena (¡llena!) de cuentos magníficos, sino que la sutil organización de los antólogos ofrece un excelente catálogo de todo lo que los seres humanos hemos construido en los territorios de la imaginación. Desde el sueño hasta la ciencia ficción, del horror al desparpajo de lo desconocido. La Antología de la literatura fantástica ofrece todo.

Leerla es recuperar, en cada cuento, la esperanza. Si relatos así fueron concebidos en mente humana, alguna salida encontraremos a cada atolladero que por torpeza o crueldad hayamos permitido.

Firmo esta breve reseña el 12 de julio de 2016, volveré luego a ampliarla como lo merece.

Lucas.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como su nombre lo indica, este es un libro fantástico. Sería imperdonable no leerlo. Para cualquiera.

Uno empieza con Morel, sigue con Paulina y luego no puede soltar nunca este libro. Es tan adictivo que uno lo lleva hasta en los viajes. Es peligroso poseerlo, porque el placer de leerlo lo posee a uno, lo obsesiona y al final uno se duele de que esos genios ya no estén entre nosotros.

Esta es la portada del libro:
 

Y esta la primera parte del prólogo, pero en realidad no quiero poner mucho porque vale la pena tener este libro maravilloso entre las manos aunque sea por un breve instante.



Si te gustó este comentario (o si no), Te invito a que visites mi blog: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com

[Maria Lago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues no me ha gustado nada y los que sí me gustaron ya los tenía. Mal.

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 5 out of 5]

"....it was a wet, ungenial summer...."

One night, in a villa by Lake Geneva in 1818 three friends sat talking together, telling ghost stories. They were Mary Shelley, her husband Percy, and Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont was probably with them, and the strange young Dr. Polidori (uncle of Dante Gabriel Rossetti)- and they told awful tales, and Mary Shelley was frightened. 'We will each,' cried Byron, 'write a ghost story!' So Mary went away and thought about it, fruitlessly, until a few nights later she dreamed a nightmare in which a 'pale student' used strange arts and machineries to arouse from unlife the 'hideous phantasm of a man.'

For the literati, this wet, ungenial summer has become the stuff of legends. It was the night that Frankenstein's Monster had been created.

But then one night in Buenos Aires in 1937 three friends sat talking together about dark fantastic literature. These were Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares and his wife, Silvina Ocampo. The product of this night is their own version of Phantasmagoriana, the book Byron and his companions drew inspiration from in writing their own stories.

This, The Book of Fantasy is a strong compilation of short horror stories, some familiar, some wildly exotic, there are interconnections between fantasists and one can sometimes pinpoint who made the selection, which is rather endearing. Thomas Carlyle's An Actual Authentic Ghost couldn't have been selected by anyone but Borges, there is a clear whiff of it in his own Burning Man story.

G.K. Chesterton's Tree of Pride makes the cut as well, have never read it before and was quite taken with it, rather a Scary story, reminiscent of Charles Godfrey Leland's poem The Peacock, Chesterton must have been aware of it.

Santiago Dabove's Being Dust is a beautifully written story about a man who falls off his horse near a cemetery only to be gradually incorporated into the surrounding landscape.

". . . How sad! To be almost like the earth and still have hopes of moving, of
loving.
. . . But it is not easy to be content, and we would rub out what is written in
the book of destiny if it hadn't already happened to us.
. . . But all this is nothing but a sophism. Each time 'I die more like a man
and that death covers me in thorns and layers of chlorophyll."


Arthur Machen, for whom Borges and I share a common enthusiasm, is also present with The Ceremony, a story about a young woman who takes up witchcraft (willingly or not?) at a mysterious Celtic cross. There has always been an esoteric context to Machen, his concepts relate more to the satanic than the celestial, he is fascinated with the occult, Paganism, a return to the standing stone of his native Welsh countryside. I read it three times, it only got more scary with each read.

Other notable mentions:

- H.A. Murena's The Cat, disturbing.
- Giovanni Papini (who translated Berkeley and Schopenhauer) and his The Man that Belonged to Me.
- Petronius, writer of the Satyricon presents The Wolf, a story about a man who "pissed a ring around his clothes and turned into a wolf."
- Emanuel Swedenborg's A Theologian In Death.
- Voltaire's Memnon
- Jean Cocteau's Look of Death
- the quadrinity of Ws: Waugh, Wharton, Wilde, Wollstonecraft.

Overall: 🖤

[Leila Lotfy · Rating 4 out of 5]

سخت‌ترین شکنجه، سهم نبردن از بصیرت خدایی‌ست.
دردِ روان، جانکاه‌تر از دردِ تن است.

[Alfredo Pagoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

" Una mujer está sentada sola en su casa. Sabe que no hay nadie más en el mundo: todos los otros seres han muerto. Golpean a la puerta".

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been dipping into this volume for the past two decades (I bought it in 1991) but this is the first time I have read it all the way through from the beginning to the end... It's a magnificent anthology of fantastical fiction from many ages and cultures and it introduced me to many writers I previously had known nothing about.

For instance, the opening story in the book, 'Sennin' by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, so impressed me that I went out and bought an Akutagawa collection published by Penguin Classics... Other authors represented in this anthology that particularly enthused me (but whom I had been unaware existed before finding them here) include: Tor Åge Bringsvaerd, Arturo Cancela, Pilar de Lusarreta, Santiago Dabove, Macedonio Fernández, Elena Garro, Leopoldo Lugones, Silvina Ocampo, Giovanni Papini, Carlos Peralta, Manuel Peyrou, and the brilliant Juan Rodolfo Wilcock.

But this anthology also made me regard other authors already familiar to me in a new light. I thought the Edith Wharton piece was surprisingly good. Lord Dunsany, Max Beerbohm, J.G. Ballard, Oscar Wilde, Sanki, even Edgar Allan Poe seemed somehow transformed by being put into the company of writers from so many diverse cultures.

This anthology is a classic.

[Enea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una maravilla esta colección. Creo que el peor de los cuentos es el de Bioy Casares. Podría haber elegido uno mejor.

Tiene de todo y para todos los gustos. Aunque hay ciertos temas que se repiten: los fantasmas, los desdoblamientos, las experiencias con la muerte, los imposibles, los cul de sac lógicos, los sueños. Como le gustan los sueños a los chinos. Y la realidad del otro lado.

Si bien está ordenado alfabéticamente, hay cierto orden temático en la antología. Lo cual es más lindo todavía.

Se notaba que los 3 eran grandes lectores. Borges muestra algunas de sus influencias acá. Ese es otro extra. Listar favoritos sería largo y aburrido.

[Mohammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

چکیده‌ای از انبوه مطالعات بورخس و کاسارس؛ از هزارویک‌شب و پلوتارک تا کافکا و اسکار وایلد. قصه‌های کوتاه این کتاب اغلب جزئی از یک کل هستند. پس نباید در هر یک توقع نقطه‌ی اوج و پایان داشت. اما همین جزء بودن، به رازآمیز شدن قصه‌ها کمک زیادی کرده. نکته‌ی جالب این بود که مؤلف اکثر قصه‌هارا نمی‌شناختم

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un tomo bastante irregular, la mayor parte de los cuentos me parecieron aburridos, y los pocos que destacan en la colección ya los conocía! :(

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compendio lúdico de metafísica que vale por el fondo, pero más por la forma. La antología como selección arbitraria es tan desesperada como la sed absoluta de la enciclopedia o la teología. Estos mundos fantásticos son tan ficcionales como el mundo que creemos real. Es imposible que el método abarque al mundo. Sin embargo, habilita un ingenioso simulacro de totalidad.

[Jana Bianchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ler essa antologia foi uma experiência bem interessante. O livro traz 75 textos, entre minicontos (se não forem microcontos, em alguns casos), contos e trechos de peças e romances. Os gêneros e os estilos de narrativa são dos mais diversos, e é interessante pontuar que, provavelmente, nunca teria lido nada da vários dos autores se não fosse esse livro.

Alguns textos me divertiram muito, deixando vontade de conhecer mais sobre o autor e suas obras, mas alguns outros foram penosos de terminar. Houve um texto, inclusive, que não consegui terminar (me senti um pouco burra, mas simplesmente não foi).

Não listei meus contos preferidos, mas faço um destaque especial para os contos orientais (árabes, chineses e japoneses). Além de serem os mais antigos, alguns fazem parte da cultura popular oriental. Gosto deles porque o nível de nonsense é incrível, mas eles são levados super a sério (quase como fábulas ocidentais).

Recomendo a leitura para todo apreciador da fantasia, sobretudo aqueles que também escrever. Existe um caráter meio acadêmico na antologia, bem interessante.

Observação: Ao fim do livro, há um texto de Walter Carlos Costa que comenta (de modo meio isento de opinião, mas comenta) sobre o fato da participação de Silvina Ocampo na organização da antologia ser geralmente subestimada, incluindo a remoção de alguns textos indicados por ela (inclusive o de uma autora argentina) na edição da versão estendida, com 75 contos. Ao que me lembro também, não há nenhum texto escrito por uma mulher, o que é esquisito, mesmo que se observe a época da organização da antologia. Em contrapartida, a edição da Cosac Naify traz também uma introdução da antologia escrita por Ursula LeGuin para uma das edições americanas da antologia - um texto genial, em que Ursula não deixa de citar e destacar Mary Shelley. Não altera diretamente a impressão sobre a obra, mas deixa um gostinho bem amargo no final.

[Guillermo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mecachis, que gran antología.
“La esperanza” de Villiers de L’isle Adam no tiene nada de fantástico excepto la increíble crueldad que contiene y fue el que más me conmovió, pero tengo que decir que a muchos los conocía mas o menos bien.

Dos circunstancias favorables: las traducciones o las versiones son de Borges indudablemente (o al menos la revisión y digamos que Adolfo y Silvina habrán colaborado), así que la voz del joven Jorge Luis vuelve una vez más para sus admiradores (inclúyome obviamente). Segunda: en el Borges de Bioy hay montón de referencias a esta obra. Así que tener presentes estos cuentos aumenta el placer de esa lectura.

Aquí la hermosa traducción de la voz de un niño: "Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar." ─Hazme un favor, Sredni Vashtar.

addendum
En Memorias dice Bioy que tradujeron a Kipling, Beerbohm, Saki, Sinclair, Wells, Lord Dunsany, O'Neill, y Jacobs. Para releer.

[Ernesto · Rating 3 out of 5]

🙄

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Fantasy-edited by Jorge Luis Borges,Sylvina Ocampo & A. Bioy Casares
"So that,charmingly,is how the Book of Fantasy came to be(...)
Three friends talking. No plans,no definitions,no business,except the intention on "having a good book."
Ursula K. Le Guin
🍰Ovo je prava poslastica od zbirke koju sam gustirala dva meseca.
📖 Zbirka obuhvata sve periode i sve oblike fantastike,od kratkih pričica dugih samo par redova,preko klasične pripovetke do odlomaka većih književnih dela u kojima se pojavljuju elementi fantastičnog.
🖋Predgovor Ursule K. Le Guin o nastanku ove zbirke i o terminu "fantastika" u životu i literaturi.
✒70 priča raznih autora,od meni potpuno nepoznatih do imena kao što su: Borhes,Rej Bredburi,Luis Kerol, Džejms Džojs,Radjard Kipling, Franc Kafka, Tolstoj,Gi de Mopasan,Edgar Alan Po,Fransoa Rable,Volter, Oskar Vajld,Meri Šeli...
📝Pošto je nemoguće ovo blago predstaviti u jednom postu izabrala sam tri možda manje poznate a izuzetne pripovetke da vam predstavim. 😊
🐭JOSEPHINE THE SINGER,OR THE MOUSE FOLK -FRANZ KAFKA
Žozefina je mišica ubeđena da zna da peva. Iako svojim skičanjem samo privlači sve moguće neprijatelje mišjeg naroda,ipak niko nema srca da joj kaže da prestane. Što dalje to traje to je više ona razmažena primadona,ubeđena da je samo njeno pevanje ono što ih održava...Priča se čita kao basna,veoma satiričan prikaz nekih društvenih struktura.
🦃 MACARIO-B. TRAVEN
Makario je siromašni seoski drvoseča koji ima samo jednu želju-da jednom pojede celu pečenu ćurku,sam. I jednom mu se želja ostvari,ode u šumu,daleko od žene i večito gladne dece,rasprostre pečenu ćurku i...I šuma odjednom postane veoma prometno mesto. Nakon sleda posetilaca,dođe i Smrt. Sednu,pojedu,popričaju i sklope pogodbu.
✍THE MAN WHO LIKED DICKENS-EVELYN WAUGH
Istraživač zabasa duboko u Amazoniju. Srećom,spase ga čova koji ima kuću tu usred džungle. Fini čikica,izleči mu rane,i prizna kako mnogo voli dela Čarlsa Dikensa ali ne ume da čita. U znak zahvalnosti,gost krene da čita,poglavlje po poglavlje,roman po roman. A onda pomisli da je vreme da se vrati nazad u Englesku ✒🔟

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well to begin with this is not Fantasy as in the modern sense but tales of the fantastical but in my opinion even that is using the term loosely. I feel that this book of stories chosen by Jorge Luis Borges and his friends were either very personal to them or appreciate on a scholarly level. As the feeling towards them was not shared; only a few of the stories i enjoyed. The compilation started of okay and went down hill from there. They story don stand the passage of time as they are from the early 20th late 19th century and further back or are appreciated by at different culture level, as i found them dull, predictable, overly god fearing religious or just stupid. Many of the stories are of the same theme and become repetitive with little or no variance or surprise. I am glad i borrowed this book and didn't buy as it has been one of the most disappointing compilations I've read and is doubly disappointing as the book contains a few authors whose other work i have enjoyed. This book comes as academias version of fantastical tales

[Mateo R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mis favoritos: "Sombras suele vestir" de José Bianco, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" de Jorge Luis Borges, "Un creyente" de George Loring Frost (Borges), "Un hogar sólido" de Elena Garro, "El brujo postergado" de Jorge Luis Borges (renarración del Ejemplo XI de El Conde Lucanor de don Juan Manuel), "Punto muerto" de Philip Atkey (bajo el seudónimo de Barry Perowne) y "El caso del difunto Míster Elvesham" de H. G. Wells.

[Juanjo Oteiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recomendado para cualquier amante de los cuentos, hay cuentos magistrales de la mano de autores britanicos, chinos, argentinos y más, desde los más reconocidos a perlas ocultas de la literatura. un paseo por el terror, el suspenso y la sorpresa.