The Library of Babel and Other Stories

by Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language literature. This book contains English versions of 6 short stories and verses.

“The Rejected Sorcerer” (aka El Brujo Postergado) (short story)
“The Library of Babel” (short story)
“The Babylonian Lottery” (short story)
“The Circular Ruins” (short story)
“The Card-Trick” (verse)
“A Patio” (verse)

First published
“Fantastic Universe”, March 1960, “Encounter Magazine” 1962, 1963

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Poetry, Magical Realism, Philosophy

36 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2017

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

[isa · Rating 2 out of 5]

foi interessante? foi, mas poderia ter sido bem mais
pareceu um texto da faculdade - no sentido ruim

[Brad Lyerla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borges' stories included in this short collection will have you musing about chance and determinism in clever and provocative ways. You will be reminded what a force he was in mid-20th century international literature. And you will be greatly entertained.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Library of Babel in particular seems like an apt lens for considering the current focus on building and hoarding data.

[MJD · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you liked Stories of Your Life and Others you would like this collection of short stories, it seems that the two books were written by the same author (in the sense of tone and style, not content). Also, if you have not read Stories of Your Life and Others and end up enjoying The Library of Babel and Other Stories, you should check out Stories of Your Life and Others.

[Bryon Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary musings

Borges seems more interested in ideas than plots, but that’s part of the fun. These writings almost strike me as exercises in the use of language, and imagination.
His rich vocabulary spills across the page like music. It almost doesn’t matter where the story takes you, because it’s enough to luxuriate in the rich use of language, although his stories might just blow your mind anyway, because there are some great ideas here.

[El · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically whimsical

Well written short stories. Borges manages to put into a few chapters what other authors put into a book. This collection of short stories is a must have in your library.

[Morgan McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

yeah this is my type of story

[Nicoleta-Cătălina Gal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notez cartea cu 4 stele, pentru că mi-a dat de lucru. Și aș vrea să cred că va veni ziua când voi avea și răbdarea, și imaginația deschisă căii pe care o prezintă acest autor.

Acestea nu sunt povești, ci sunt tratate filosofice, științifice și, deci, sunt de studiat, nu de citit.

The Duration of Hell mi-a adus aminte instant de Hell is the Absence of God a lui Ted Chiang. Doar că aici Borges trece prin argumente, face prezumții și construiește silogisme.

Povestea care dă numele culegerii este una în care universul e o bibliotecă, iar tot ce a fost vreodată scris, va fi scris și modificat; tot ce poartă mici greșeli, traduceri și reimaginări, totul e aranjat într-o ordine cosmică în care să pleci în căutare a ceva înseamnă să pleci definitiv de la locul tău.

Mi-a plăcut mult Loteria babiloniană, în care de la un simplu joc, prin manipularea maselor, sentimentul că ești exclus sau blamat, dar și speranța la mai bine, se ajunge la un sistem în care doar Compania conduce destinele oamenilor. Povestea mi-a amintit de Loteria lui Shirley Jackson.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I come to this one from a couple of angles. In one book group, someone recommended Michael Graziano’s The Divine Farce (and now I don’t). Many commenters said Stephen Peck’s A Short Stay in Hell, which is based on Borges’ Library short story. I shelved them both TBR and then I come across William Goldbloom Bloch’s The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library of Babel, looking to be an interesting analysis/hyperextension of the Library. How Mr. Bloch wrote 200+ pages on a 8-10 page short story, I have no idea, but I will see next, along with the Short Stay in parallel.

As to this, I suppose one needs to really be a Borges fan to like Borges. If you play at the pseudo contemplation of koans… you might like this one hand clapping sound this book makes.

[Mat J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories there - entertaining, thoughtful, masterfully written.

The Library of Babel - unarguably the most well-known piece - felt like a reflection on infinity. Definitely not a one-time read. Complex and profound.

I had the same idea with music when I was younger: is it possible to have all music that could ever be played in a collection, even if you just change one note of a song, note by note, for every song that exists, for every possible combination of sounds?

Also felt that “The Rejected Sorcerer” deserves mention for its emphasis on humbleness and gratitude. And I thought the Babylonian lottery was an interesting read about determinism and free will.

[Kaden Luther · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should probably have started with Ficciones.

Borges will go over your head for most of the first time that you read him. Every story is full of such wonderful and brain-numbingly intelligent prose that still does not appear drenched in a pretentious voice. Such a gifted writer, even if he was a little irresponsible when it came to making quite so many bold assumptions.

The Duration of Hell: 4.5/5
The Rejected Sorcerer: 2/5
The Lottery in Babylon: 4/5
The Library of Babel: 5/5
The Circular Ruins: 5/5

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, not great...

I was fascinated by the idea of the library of Babel, which is why I decided to read this book. While Borges is a very good writer and his stories were interesting, I don't think any of them lived up to my expectations. I realize they were short stories, but they all left me wanting more and wishing he would have expanded on them more.

[Joseph F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author is too weird for me. The Library of Babel is not even a story, but a description of a fictional place. The Duration of hell is an essay. (Or is it a pseudo-essay? You never know with this guy.)
The other stories are forgettable. I did like The Rejected Sorcerer, a straight forward fun little story;
hence the two stars.

[jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

'You who read me, are you sure you understand my language?'

have been desperate to get my hands on this story for years, didn't let me down, nor did the other short stories. what beautiful concepts.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

"With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he also was an illusion, that someone else was dreaming him."

I enjoyed the overall mood of this collection. Came for Library of Babel, ended up enjoying Rejected Sorcerer and Babylonian Lottery.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

my fave was library of babel, although what the hell(haha) was the duration of hell?

[Ross Carthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems needless difficult to read. Very little happens. Read 2 stories and didn't like either of them.

[Evanthia Hleihil · Rating 3 out of 5]

total: 3.5/5 (rounded down)

The Rejected Sorcerer - ⭐⭐⭐
The Library of Babel - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Babylonian Lottery - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Circular Ruins - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Card-Trick (verse) - ⭐⭐
A Patio (verse) - ⭐⭐⭐

[Gemma Winter]

Beautiful. my favourite is The Circular Ruins

[Júlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If honour and wisdom and happiness are not for me, let them be for others. May heaven exist, though my place be in hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but may Thy enormous Library be justified, for one instant, in one being."

[tjw · Rating 4 out of 5]

these stories are great! one of my favourite books of the year - a short stay in hell - is based within the library of babel so it was important to me to checkout the source of the idea. i love the way the library challenges the reader through its conceptions of immense space and time, thinking about it feels akin to standing at the edge of some abyss, real and material but beyond anything reasonable or concievable. the presence of the space, its scale, grandure and the emotions of finding oneself within it is something that i find myself truly longing for and deeply terrifyed of. it reminds me of the piranesi' imaginary prisions, the world of susan clarks piranesi (which was one of my favourite books of last year), the shape of inifity by jacob geller and acid trips:_)

i really liked the circular ruins too. the concept of cascading creators. the imagry and symbolism of the world still sits with me, ill think about this some more i think. and then some more.

[crckhd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a cerebral excursion to a realm where the multifaceted concepts of the intellect concentricate. 

Dense and experimental, Borges mobilizes symbolic aesthetics to invent a familiar world but operates on a different dimension and numerous disciplines to attribute the complexities of its expanse and logic. The result is these wild allegories, the substance of which may not be easily grasped, but certainly fuels introspection, discourse, and awe. Decoding the abstract form combined with the dated translation can be challenging, although the compact length and curiosity of these stories are encouraging. 

Discovering Jorge Luis Borges from 'A Short Stay in Hell' (a banger!!) sent me down a rabbit hole through his collection. I only planned to read 'The Library of Babel', but here we are 4 other stories and 2 verses later.
I have the next set stacked, but my 1 brain cell needs a break. ijbol

[Kelly Nankervis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was entertained if nothing else, so 3 stars. My problem is that these stories are too difficult for me. If you like difficult books that you have to reread and keep a dictionary on hand for, you'll probably like this. But my head hurts.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Duration of Hell ★★☆☆☆
The Rejected Sorcerer ★★★☆☆
The Library of Babel ★★★★☆
The Babylonian Lottery ★★★☆☆
The Circular Ruins ★★★★☆
The Card-Trick ★★★☆☆
A Patio ★★☆☆☆

[Dusty Aquarium · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories stemming from interesting ideas. Was an entertaining read.