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Nueva historia universal de la infamia
En la fecunda tradición de Herbert Quain y Pierre Menard (autor de El Quijote), el galés Rhys Hughes se propuso escribir la Historia universal de la infamia de Jorge Luis Borges. El resultado es una obra plenamente original, aunque de neta inspiración borgesiana: la Nueva historia universal de la infamia.
Del barón Von Ungern-Sternberg, Buda atroz, a François l’Olonnais, devorador de corazones, pasando por el loquísimo rey Henri Christophe, el impostor honrado Denis Zachaire, el incivil héroe Dick Turpin y el gusano supremo Francisco Solano López, sin olvidar al proveedor de calamidades Basil Zaharoff.
Del barón Von Ungern-Sternberg, Buda atroz, a François l’Olonnais, devorador de corazones, pasando por el loquísimo rey Henri Christophe, el impostor honrado Denis Zachaire, el incivil héroe Dick Turpin y el gusano supremo Francisco Solano López, sin olvidar al proveedor de calamidades Basil Zaharoff.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2004
9 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Rhys Hughes
326 books320 followersA writer of Speculative Fiction who uses fantasy and comedy to explore unusual concepts. Known for his original ideas, intricate plots, love of paradox, and entertaining wordplay.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 4, 2016
A New Universal History of Infamy is an obvious and emphatic tribute to Jorge Luis Borges. But instead of the maestro’s all-encompassing intellectual panache there is an exquisite accent on absurdity and a special stress on madness.
“He issued further commands from a chair planted in the swamp. Time was running short. He executed a few more officers and signed his mother’s death warrant, blaming her for giving birth to him and thus generating his predicament.”
Biographies of scoundrels, absurdist tales, literary mystifications, parodies… But although some stories are based on the real historical persons they more resemble the modernized fairytales by Brothers Grimm.
“Take six parts of the king of regrets, one pinch of shadow, clarified and sublimed; and one part of the mood of the moment. Put ingredients into a starlight-encrusted glass vessel, add vinegar, close up with the lute of wisdom. Simmer a month over seductive winks; pour the whole into a unicorn’s horn; seal with sand and immerse in a pool of cyclops’ tears while whistling the ninth song of the sirens. Distil, at a furious heat, the contents of the horn, and there results a glutinous fluid, which is none other than the yolk of the cosmic egg.”
I think this ultimate alchemical formula may also serve as a perfect recipe of an ideal novel…
“He issued further commands from a chair planted in the swamp. Time was running short. He executed a few more officers and signed his mother’s death warrant, blaming her for giving birth to him and thus generating his predicament.”
Biographies of scoundrels, absurdist tales, literary mystifications, parodies… But although some stories are based on the real historical persons they more resemble the modernized fairytales by Brothers Grimm.
“Take six parts of the king of regrets, one pinch of shadow, clarified and sublimed; and one part of the mood of the moment. Put ingredients into a starlight-encrusted glass vessel, add vinegar, close up with the lute of wisdom. Simmer a month over seductive winks; pour the whole into a unicorn’s horn; seal with sand and immerse in a pool of cyclops’ tears while whistling the ninth song of the sirens. Distil, at a furious heat, the contents of the horn, and there results a glutinous fluid, which is none other than the yolk of the cosmic egg.”
I think this ultimate alchemical formula may also serve as a perfect recipe of an ideal novel…
September 26, 2007
Not really a Borges rewrite but another collection of Rhys Hughes signature brand wacked on the head insanity..people need to read him..he is the best.
Read
July 28, 2020Don't know how to rate this as it is off the charts weird and not all that easy to decipher.
If WEIRD sounds interesting to you, check him out here: http://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/
Kindle Unlimited
If WEIRD sounds interesting to you, check him out here: http://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/
Kindle Unlimited
October 3, 2010
One-sentence summary:
Crooks and rogues are the fore of these stories that shadow the future Borges.
Second half (the stories which seem less iniquitous and less history-based) is much better, and much more distinctly foreshadows the Borges to come.
Crooks and rogues are the fore of these stories that shadow the future Borges.
Second half (the stories which seem less iniquitous and less history-based) is much better, and much more distinctly foreshadows the Borges to come.
November 11, 2014
Ο Χιούζ δεν γράφει απλώς το σίκουελ ενός αριστουργήματος. Γράφει ένα αριστουργηματικό σίκουελ. Όποιος έχει απολαύσει τα βιβλία του Μπόρχες, του Περέκ, του Πάβιτς, του Καλβίνο και άλλων μεταμοντέρνων θα την καταβρεί και με αυτό. Ένα βιβλίο για όσους αγαπούν τα βιβλία και τις παράξενες ιστορίες.
August 4, 2023
Purchased and I can't wait to start reading! (July 2023)
I leave the above because I am now sorry that I purchased this book and I could wait an awfully long time before I would read anything else by Rhys Hughes. I probably should never have fooled myself into thinking that I would like this or any book by Hughes, I didn't like Borges original Universal History of Infamy' and he is very fond of Michael Moorcock and Jeff VanDerMeer, authors who I enjoyed on first reading but found tiresome to the extreme very quickly. There is a great deal of self loving and self referential eccentricity about much of the writing, it believes it clever and quirky and goes out of the way to tell you it clever and quirky with clever and quirky in the Introduction, the Preface to the unpublished edition and Preface to the Imaginary Edition. I couldn't help feeling I was drowning in whimsy and I hate English whimsy but in deference to the author being Welsh I would say it reminded me of deep distaste for the whimsy of the Celtic twilight of Yeats, lady Gregory and fairies, leprechauns and little people in general.
I only read some of his pastiches of stories by Felipe Alfau, Thomas Ligotti, Michel Leiris and others which actually make up more then half the book because I found them boring and pointless as well as confusing because I had to waste time tracking through blogs to confirm that they weren't original writings by the authors. I couldn't help feeling that there was a great deal of showing off in the choice of authors he parodied. Have you read Michel Leiris? I haven't and that is only a statement of reality not a boast but even after researching him on Wikipedia I have no way of knowing if what Hughes writes is a good or bad parody or kind of parody. With Felipe Alfau, a writer who is on my 'to read'and 'to buy' lists he parodies his 'Old Tales From Spain' a book that has been out of print since 1929 and copies of which are advertised for sale at £500+ so the chances of judging his parodic talents is again minimal. As for Thomas Ligotti? he is a writer I took an extreme dislike to after reading one collection of his stories and so extreme was my dislike that nothing would convince (except money, I can be very greedy and shallow) to read anything of his so I could compare Hughes' efforts with the original.
But what I found really incredibly disappointing was the section that is the parody/tribute/homage or whatever to Borges' original 'Universal History of Infamy' I can't remember when I last read something so trite. In one of the introductions/prefaces tribute is paid to Hughes, presumably by himself, for his extensive erudition and reading - if memory serves me right he has someone say of him that 'Hughes has read everything and everyone' - but this hardly apparent from his lame pieces on figures like Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Basil Zaharoff and Francisco Solano Lopez. Quite frankly you would receive a far more fascinating insight into the bizarre characters of baron Ungern and Zaharoff through reading their Wikipedia entries. He actually reduces their evil even as he attempts to - ? do what I can't help asking myself. Both these men were monsters, admittedly each totally different from the other, but adds nothing to their lives and stories and left me feeling somewhat dirty as if he wasn't taking the deaths they were responsible for seriously. He might as well have done a parody on King Leopold II and the million+ dead from his Congo depredations.
But his piece on Francisco Solano Lopez was by far the most offensive, for a man who apparently has 'read everything and everyone' his reading clearly doesn't extend beyond the Euro-centric caricatures were South America is concerned. That he reduces the enormously complex factors behind the Paraguayan of War of 1864-70 to the personal whim of a dictator and his Irish mistress is a reductive travesty and shows clearly he has not read or consulted such well known writers as Eduardo Galeano and Eric Hobsbawn. Possibly three quarters of male population, as well as countless women and children died in this conflict which had far more to do with the fears of white elites in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janerio over a nation which refused to suppress and discriminate against its indigenous people nor become indebted to European bankers. It is rather like writing an account of WWII with Hitler as the injured party.
I often wondered why, although he has published many books, none of Hughes works are available in libraries in the UK and why they are so hard to buy. He is clearly a specialised taste and one I do not have. If you like the self-satisfied, the smug, the self-referential, the maker of weak in jokes, etc. then Rhys Hughes should be right up your street. But if you have no time for the second rate and tawdry then join me in ignoring Mt. Hughes output.
I leave the above because I am now sorry that I purchased this book and I could wait an awfully long time before I would read anything else by Rhys Hughes. I probably should never have fooled myself into thinking that I would like this or any book by Hughes, I didn't like Borges original Universal History of Infamy' and he is very fond of Michael Moorcock and Jeff VanDerMeer, authors who I enjoyed on first reading but found tiresome to the extreme very quickly. There is a great deal of self loving and self referential eccentricity about much of the writing, it believes it clever and quirky and goes out of the way to tell you it clever and quirky with clever and quirky in the Introduction, the Preface to the unpublished edition and Preface to the Imaginary Edition. I couldn't help feeling I was drowning in whimsy and I hate English whimsy but in deference to the author being Welsh I would say it reminded me of deep distaste for the whimsy of the Celtic twilight of Yeats, lady Gregory and fairies, leprechauns and little people in general.
I only read some of his pastiches of stories by Felipe Alfau, Thomas Ligotti, Michel Leiris and others which actually make up more then half the book because I found them boring and pointless as well as confusing because I had to waste time tracking through blogs to confirm that they weren't original writings by the authors. I couldn't help feeling that there was a great deal of showing off in the choice of authors he parodied. Have you read Michel Leiris? I haven't and that is only a statement of reality not a boast but even after researching him on Wikipedia I have no way of knowing if what Hughes writes is a good or bad parody or kind of parody. With Felipe Alfau, a writer who is on my 'to read'and 'to buy' lists he parodies his 'Old Tales From Spain' a book that has been out of print since 1929 and copies of which are advertised for sale at £500+ so the chances of judging his parodic talents is again minimal. As for Thomas Ligotti? he is a writer I took an extreme dislike to after reading one collection of his stories and so extreme was my dislike that nothing would convince (except money, I can be very greedy and shallow) to read anything of his so I could compare Hughes' efforts with the original.
But what I found really incredibly disappointing was the section that is the parody/tribute/homage or whatever to Borges' original 'Universal History of Infamy' I can't remember when I last read something so trite. In one of the introductions/prefaces tribute is paid to Hughes, presumably by himself, for his extensive erudition and reading - if memory serves me right he has someone say of him that 'Hughes has read everything and everyone' - but this hardly apparent from his lame pieces on figures like Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Basil Zaharoff and Francisco Solano Lopez. Quite frankly you would receive a far more fascinating insight into the bizarre characters of baron Ungern and Zaharoff through reading their Wikipedia entries. He actually reduces their evil even as he attempts to - ? do what I can't help asking myself. Both these men were monsters, admittedly each totally different from the other, but adds nothing to their lives and stories and left me feeling somewhat dirty as if he wasn't taking the deaths they were responsible for seriously. He might as well have done a parody on King Leopold II and the million+ dead from his Congo depredations.
But his piece on Francisco Solano Lopez was by far the most offensive, for a man who apparently has 'read everything and everyone' his reading clearly doesn't extend beyond the Euro-centric caricatures were South America is concerned. That he reduces the enormously complex factors behind the Paraguayan of War of 1864-70 to the personal whim of a dictator and his Irish mistress is a reductive travesty and shows clearly he has not read or consulted such well known writers as Eduardo Galeano and Eric Hobsbawn. Possibly three quarters of male population, as well as countless women and children died in this conflict which had far more to do with the fears of white elites in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janerio over a nation which refused to suppress and discriminate against its indigenous people nor become indebted to European bankers. It is rather like writing an account of WWII with Hitler as the injured party.
I often wondered why, although he has published many books, none of Hughes works are available in libraries in the UK and why they are so hard to buy. He is clearly a specialised taste and one I do not have. If you like the self-satisfied, the smug, the self-referential, the maker of weak in jokes, etc. then Rhys Hughes should be right up your street. But if you have no time for the second rate and tawdry then join me in ignoring Mt. Hughes output.
February 1, 2019
Short, clever, and fun. Not quite original.
June 27, 2018
Ιστορίες διαφόρων άτιμων, πρώην τίμιων και πάππου προς πάππου άτιμων.
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι ξετρελλάθηκα.
Σε ορισμένα σημεία, βαρέθηκα αφόρητα.
Σχεδόν σε όλο το βιβλίο, ο κυνόδους μου αρνήθηκε να εμφανιστεί υπό τύπον χαμόγελου.
Άλλοτε, ξυπνώντας στα μισά της νύχτας, οι ιστορίες μού χρησίμευσαν στην ταχεία επάνοδο στας αγκάλας του Μορφέως.
Το σωστό θα ήταν να έχω διαβάσει τον προάγγελο του βιβλίου, γραμμένο από τον Μπόρχες αλλά δεν είχα το χρόνο να το κάνω.
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι ξετρελλάθηκα.
Σε ορισμένα σημεία, βαρέθηκα αφόρητα.
Σχεδόν σε όλο το βιβλίο, ο κυνόδους μου αρνήθηκε να εμφανιστεί υπό τύπον χαμόγελου.
Άλλοτε, ξυπνώντας στα μισά της νύχτας, οι ιστορίες μού χρησίμευσαν στην ταχεία επάνοδο στας αγκάλας του Μορφέως.
Το σωστό θα ήταν να έχω διαβάσει τον προάγγελο του βιβλίου, γραμμένο από τον Μπόρχες αλλά δεν είχα το χρόνο να το κάνω.
October 27, 2025
A worthy tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, even if the stories often do not reach the philosophical depth of Borges.
Currently reading
February 5, 2015Neste momento ainda só li os três primeiros contos, mas estou a adorar conhecer a loucura deste autor, que tão bem espelha a minha.
Sei que vou ter que lê-lo devagar, intervalado com outros porque às tantas cansa-nos um pouco, mas há que tirar o chapéu à escrita do autor.
Sei que vou ter que lê-lo devagar, intervalado com outros porque às tantas cansa-nos um pouco, mas há que tirar o chapéu à escrita do autor.
March 26, 2016
Some of the pieces in here are an absolute riot and match in originality the Borges originals that this book serves as a parody of. But unfortunately they don't always work, especially the scraps at the end.
January 25, 2010
A very good book.
July 23, 2010
Of course I picked it up because of the title, and I really enjoyed it. It's wonderfully nutty.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews