The Transformation Book

by Fernando Pessoa, Nuno Ribeiro (Editor), Claudia Souza (Editor)

The Transformation Book, which belongs to Pessoa's pre-heteronymic period, contains a series of fragments written in English, Portuguese, and French, none of which were ever published during Pessoa's lifetime. Conceived by Pessoa in 1908, a year of great social and cultural transformation in Portugal, The Transformation Book was designed to reflect and advance social and cultural transformation in Portugal and beyond. Moving between a number of literary forms, including poetry, fiction, and satire as well as essays on politics, philosophy, and psychiatry, The Transformation Book marks one of the fundamental stages in Pessoa's elaboration of a new conception of literary space, one that he came to express as a "drama in people." Alexander Search, Pantaleao, Jean Seul de Meluret, and Charles James Search are the four "pre-heteronyms" to which the texts of The Transformation Book are attributed. These four figures constitute a plural literary microcosm - a world that Pessoa makes, but that is occupied by a multiplicity of authors - and clearly anticipate the emergence of Pessoa's heteronyms. As the singular result of an intersection of Pessoa's personal intellectual trajectory with his hopes for fomenting cultural transformation, The Transformation Book makes for a unique contribution to Pessoa's ever-growing published oeuvre. Although some of the texts conceived as part of the Transformation Book have previously been published in isolation or as fragments, this is the first complete and critical edition of The Transformation Book, and most of the texts in this edition are published here for the first time. Through the critical efforts of Nuno Ribeiro and Claudia Souza, a fundamental project of Fernando Pessoa's is now brought from the confines of the archive to the public in its most complete and accurate fashion. The Transformation Book should contribute to future studies on the work of one of the most distinctive geniuses of modernist literature.

512 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2014

About the author

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was a poet and writer.

It is sometimes said that the four greatest Portuguese poets of modern times are Fernando Pessoa. The statement is possible since Pessoa, whose name means ‘person’ in Portuguese, had three alter egos who wrote in styles completely different from his own. In fact Pessoa wrote under dozens of names, but Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos were – their creator claimed – full-fledged individuals who wrote things that he himself would never or could never write. He dubbed them ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not false names but “other names”, belonging to distinct literary personalities. Not only were their styles different; they thought differently, they had different religious and political views, different aesthetic sensibilities, different social temperaments. And each produced a large body of poetry. Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis also signed dozens of pages of prose.

The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda.

Reviews

[Damian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I missed it while reading the synopsis of this book, but this book is not purely an English translation of Pessoa's 'The Transformation Book.' Rather, it is 'The Transformation Book' as Pessoa wrote and hoped to publish it. By that I mean the only portions in English are the portions Pessoa originally wrote in English. The other sections are in French and occasionally Portuguese. For those who lack access to the Pessoa archive but wish to critically work with his writings, I'm sure this is a valuable and resourceful book to have. However for me, a monolingual fool that just likes to read, much of this book is literally unreadable. Additionally, some of the portions in English are nothing more than Pessoa's unfinished translations of Antero de Quental, which can be found translated in full online...

Regardless of my own inabilities, the book certainly accomplishes what it aims to be - "a complete and critical edition of The Transformation Book." Unfortunately, that's just not a book I can truly enjoy or really recommend for other anglophonic fans of Pessoa.

[guillemets · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a book for the fans - and people who studies Pessoa.
Here we enter a level deeper in some pre-heteronyms, we get to know the notes, the plans Pessoa would made, how he would architect these other people, but it must be said: it's all a bit confusing. There's some really good stuff but there's also not so good stuff, but have in mind this are all manuscripts. Though there's some indication of a desire to publicize some of those pieces, it wasn't even a final version. Also, be aware that here we flow from Portuguese to English to French without translation, so, be prepared.
Shout out to Alexander Search's poems, truly gems I must say.