Fernando Pessoa, The Poet with Many Faces: a biography and anthology

by Hubert D. Jennings, Carlos A. Pittella (Editor), George Monteiro (Contributor)

"Fernando Pessoa is not easy to get to know. Even during his lifetime his friends remarked on a certain quicksilver quality about him that made it appear as though he was always slipping through their hands [...]. We join him in his search for self-identity. Perhaps because we feel it is a search for our own self-identity. Or it may be a game. Or a ritual. Or a religion. It can be any of these according to how the puckish spirit of Fernando Pessoa rules." (Hubert D. Jennings)

The Poet with Many Faces is the first biography of Fernando Pessoa in English. Written in the early 1970s by Hubert D. Jennings, the book was intended for publication in 1974, when the Carnation Revolution in Portugal interrupted the editorial plans. The once lost typescript is finally made available to the public, together with an anthology of 30 poems in English by Pessoa and his heteronyms, translated and compiled by Jennings.

324 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2018

Reviews

[Lars]

I can not say that I recommend this book as a biography of Pessoa. The original text, written in the early 70s, is by now 50 years old and has in itself become a historical document. Many of the statements on South Africa, on Salazar, and especially on Pessoas Jewish heritage have aged exceptionally poorly. If, in a throwaway statement, the author suggests that Pessoa's Jewish ancestry might have imbued him with certain personality traits (without Pessoa being in any way raised in a Jewish community), I can no longer trust that author to be as accurate and insightful as can be on Pessoa's character.

Granted, this edition tries its best to accompany this aged text with critical references. But then, I am no longer reading an insightful biography, where the author of the biography is supposed to disappear behind the person the biography is actually about. Instead, Jennings is ever-present in his strange and outdated views.

This does not mean that there is no value at all here, but this text can no longer serve the purpose of getting an insight into Pessoa's life that is neither in full mastery of the archival data, nor open-minded enough in its interpretation. I aim to read the much more recent biography by Richard Zenith, "Pessoa: An Experimental Life", sometime in the future, in the hopes that it may be more up to the task (eventhough its monumental size makes it hard to commit to).

[Düni]

Madness luv. Madness

[Ozgur Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting personality fernando pessoa has. A deep investigation into his life and work.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

listen...I'm conflicted here and I'm going to tell you why. Keep in mind, I could have these feelings about this book due to the fact that I just finished a masters degree and my brain is tired of lofty academic texts, but this book for me seemed to be a bit too theoretical. The author was caught up in a deep analysis of Pessoa's major works and I didn't expect that from a book I believed to be a biography. Granted, Pessoa is a highly complex and enigmatic literary figure but I think the major events of his life were masked by the author's own analysis.

With that being said, the poetry at the end of the book is fantastic. Pessoa (and all his iterations) is a highly gifted writer. His words are beautiful and I am looking forward to reading a collection of poems from him that I bought with this book.

[Susana Filipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Porque Pessoa é Pessoa e merece ser lido em todas as linguas
fantástico, como era de esperar