All About Books discussion

“My soul is impatient with itself, as with a bothersome child; its restlessness keeps growing and is forever the same. Everything interests me, but nothing holds me. I attend to everything, dreaming all the while. […]. I'm two, and both keep their distance — Siamese twins that aren't attached.”
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Drumroll! From June 21st until September 20th our seasonal poet will be Fernando Pessoa .

a short bio:

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (June 13, 1888 – November 30, 1935) was a portuguese poet and writer.

During his life, most of Pessoa’s considerable creative output appeared only in journals, and he published just three collections of poetry in English Antinous (1918), Sonnets (1918), and English Poems (1921) and one collection in Portuguese, Mensagem (1933).

In 1914, the year his first poem was published, Pessoa found the three main literary personas, or heteronyms, as he called them, which he would return to throughout his career: Alberto Caeiro, a rural, uneducated poet of great ideas who wrote in free verse; Ricardo Reis, a physician who composed formal odes influenced by Horace; and Álvaro de Campos, an adventurous London-based naval engineer influenced by poet Walt Whitman and the Italian Futurists. Pessoa published under his own name as well, but considered that work the product of an “orthonym,” another literary persona. While other notable writers of his generation used literary personas, such as Pound’s Mauberley and Rilke’s Malte Laurids Brigge, Pessoa alone gave his heteronyms a full life separate from his own, assigning and adopting in turn each persona’s psychology, aesthetics, and politics. Pessoa’s insistence on identity as a flexible, dynamic construction, and his consequent rejection of traditional notions of authorship and individuality, anticipated the concerns of the post-Modernist movement.

Later in life, Pessoa created the “semi-heteronym” Bernardo Soares, whose expansive, unbound fictional journal written over a period of 20 years (and assembled with little guidance after Pessoa’s death) became The Book of Disquietude, as well as philosopher and sociologist António Mora, essayist Baron of Teive, critic and Caeiro scholar Thomas Crosse and his brother/collaborator I.I. Crosse, poet Coelho Pacheco, astrologer Raphael Baldaya, and many others, for a total of at least 72 heteronyms.

Pessoa died in Lisbon in 1935 of cirrhosis of the liver, and only after his death did his work gain widespread publication and acclaim. In The Western Canon, critic Harold Bloom included Pessoa as one of just 26 writers responsible for establishing the parameters of western literature.


You'll find this bio and - if you scroll down to the bottom of the page - a small selection of his poems here but you can also look at the carefully researched and elaborate Wikipedia article for more information on him.

And - should you find it hard to make friends with poetry as a genre but would still like to read something by him: try The Book of Disquiet which is one of his prose masterpieces and the book that I stole the introductory quote from.

Enjoy!

Well, what do you know? This is the poet I would have voted for, as I thought he sounded so interesting :)(Though I am using every last day before the turn to summer to continue with our previous poet.)

And he is on Kindle, too!

A quote from one of my GR friend's review of THE BOOK OF DISQUIET.

"Here is the only Portuguese literary joke I know: Q. Who are the four greatest Portuguese poets of the 20th century? A. Fernando Pessoa. Trust me, it's funny. But it does take a little explaining."

To understand the joke you can check out his review here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Usually I do not promote anyone;s reviews. You all must be knowing that I hardly share my review on any of the threads. But this one is very informative and interesting and as we have chosen him to be the seasonal poet it might be very useful.

HA!!, I got it!! ;) It's because of all his heteronyms!!! ;) Great review, thanks for linking it.

Looks really interesting.

What an interesting man this Pessoa seems. And I learned a new word - heteronym!

Dhanaraj wrote: "A quote from one of my GR friend's review of THE BOOK OF DISQUIET.

"Here is the only Portuguese literary joke I know: Q. Who are the four greatest Portuguese poets of the 20th century? A. Fernando..."

Dhanaraj, it's a pity you don't share your reviews; they're very good.

Does anyone have any poems that they'd recommend by him?

I agree with Bette! I often come across your reviews on Facebook, Dhanaraj, and then link to here so I can read them properly.

As they are so informative, and it's interesting to hear a personal response to a book, I wish you would consider sharing them as others may not be able to spot them so easily.

Thanks Bette and Jean for the suggestion. I will try linking some of my reviews hereafter.

Dhanaraj - Oh good :) (I didn't want to push...)

Jean wrote: "Dhanaraj - Oh good :) (I didn't want to push...)"

Oh, I am pushy, lol. But only because I really enjoy Dhanaraj's reviews and he reads such interesting books. He's certainly expanding my reading threshold.

Looking forward to it!

Holly wrote: "Does anyone have any poems that they'd recommend by him?"

Not me - until this poll, I had never heard of him. However, my library system has The Book of Disquiet in several different translations! I will start with one of those & perhaps I will read it in a different translation later...

This will be on it's own thread, right?

Bette BookAddict wrote: "This will be on it's own thread, right?"

This thread right here...

Leslie wrote: "Holly wrote: "Does anyone have any poems that they'd recommend by him?"

Not me - until this poll, I had never heard of him. However, my library system has The Book of Disquiet in several differen..."

The Book of Disquiet is extremely poetic but a fictionalized diary and musings Leslie, I guess you know, just wanted to make sure you don't go 'oh no' once you get it from the library. However: it's brilliant!

Jenny wrote: "The Book of Disquiet is extremely poetic but a fictionalized diary and musings Leslie, I guess you know, just wanted to make sure you don't go 'oh no' once you get it from the library. However: it's brilliant!"

Hmmm... thanks for the warning. Maybe I will try something else first then.

There some sonnets free on Kindle, which I have downloaded :)

What is the quality of the free sonnets, Jean? I was thinking of downloading them but I really hate poorly formatted kindle books!

Obviously, as it's free I'll just download it myself but it's always good to get an opinion!

Sorry Heather, I don't know!! I too hate poorly formatted books - one Sherlock Holmes I have has an extra line space at the end of each paragraph! Grrr! And some Shakespeare is really horrible but I've found a good one now,not free but cheap. (I will look out the name if you ever want to know.) I would normally get a sample, and look for you of course, but since its free...

I just got it ready in case I forget the name! I'm still reading Robert Frost until 20th :)

Fair enough, I will order it anyway and I'll let you know.

Thanks. There isn't an awful lot on kindle, and I think that's the only free one. Unlike Shakespeare, which has loads of versions...

Very happy to see we'll be reading this poet. I love his poems and am hoping to read "The Book of Disquiet" soon.

Jean wrote: "There some sonnets free on Kindle, which I have downloaded :)"

Thanks for the heads up Jean! I downloaded them. I also got Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems from the library (translated by Richard Zenith).

I started Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems. I skimmed the introduction by Richard Zenith (the translator) & will go back and read it more thoroughly once I get a feel for the poems.

One thing I hadn't realized, knowing nothing about Pessoa, was that he used several "heteronyms" and had many (hundreds) of different aliases or personalities that he used for his writing. These aren't the typical "nom de plume" as the vast majority of Pessoa's work was not submitted for publication in his lifetime!

“If after I die, people want to write my biography, there is nothing simpler. They only need two dates: the date of my birth and the date of my death. Between one and another, every day is mine.”

Bette BookAddict wrote: "“If after I die, people want to write my biography, there is nothing simpler. They only need two dates: the date of my birth and the date of my death. Between one and another, every day is mine.”"

It is lovely way of putting it. I liked that. Is it from his poetry collection or from his prose writing?

I am starting with 35 Sonnets.

I am enjoying the poetry of the poems but am struggling a bit with Pessoa's philosophy. The idea of not thinking is not a happy one for this cerebral reader!

@Dhanaraj You've got me there; I found it on Google as I was reading up on him.

Bette BookAddict wrote: "@Dhanaraj You've got me there; I found it on Google as I was reading up on him."

You did your homework in the Google searching for the info on our summer poet. That is good.

@Dhanaraj I'm a bit of a Google addict when it comes to authors:) I want to know everything!

A couple of questions.

The 3 books of poems by Pessoa that were published in English. Did he write these in English or were they translated by someone.

How do the various personas that he adopted/developed fit in with his poetry? Which persona was he writing each poem in?

Gill, I am sorry I would have loved to look into it a bit more closely for you, but my mother is visiting for a few days so there's only so much time I can justify spending in front of a computer ;)

I have the feeling that looking at the list of works as well as the list of characters (heteronyms) in the wikipedia entry might bring you closer to an answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando... (I actually read in the German wiki that he wrote his first poems in English and later switched to Portuguese) or maybe his profile on Poetry Foundation http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/f...? (and possible a library database, as it usually informs you of original language)

In Germany most of his poems where published separately for the individual heteronyms, is this not the case in English?

Thanks Jenny. I've had a closer look at the Wikipedia article now. It seems that the poems from Project Gutenberg that I've downloaded are his earlier ones, written originally in English. The ones written by his heteronyms? available separately on Kindle are in Portuguese. You can get this book on KindleFernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems. I've not decided yet whether to buy it but I have downloaded a sample which includes part of an interesting introduction.

Gill wrote: "Thanks Jenny. I've had a closer look at the Wikipedia article now. It seems that the poems from Project Gutenberg that I've downloaded are his earlier ones, written originally in English. The ones ..."

I think that some of the heteronyms also wrote in English. Here is a bit of the GoodReads author blurb:

"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."

I have read selections from Caeiro & Reis and am on de Campos now. I am not liking de Campos' style as much as the prior two but I am just starting on his...

Interestingly, Zenith gives the "autobiography" of each of these heteronyms before the selected poetry -- Pessoa created backgrounds, travels, jobs, lovers, etc. for all of these alter egos!

Thanks for that Leslie. I'll have a look at it in a bit more detail in the near future.

Anyway I've decided to go on a bit of a diversion (something I occasionally do!) so I've just downloaded The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis . I thought I haven't read anything by José Saramago before, but now I've looked at it and realise in fact I read The Elephant's Journey and rather enjoyed it.

Whether or not I know any more about Pessoa by the time I finish this book remains to be seen!

Just to add that in the Book from Message 39, Fernando Passoa and Ricardo Reis are the main characters. This is getting odder and odder!

@Gill Imagine if Sigmund Freud had gotten a chance to 'interview' him. He'd have him assigned to the nuthouse in no time:)

I guess you are right Bette ;) I ordered A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems by him yesterday, because I am tired of not being able to share poetry with you guys when reading it in German!! Very much looking forward to it.

I'm still waiting on my copy from the library:(

Apparently Fernando Pessoa, author of 35 Sonnets, is an orthonym - almost as fictional as his heteronyms.

I am finding this all quite bizarre and somewhat hard to imagine -- I wonder if he had some form of what is now called "muliple personality disorder"?

I was confused by the difference between a heteronym and an orthonym. For likewise confused readers:

An orthonym is one who shares the name Pessoa but is not the Pessoa who created Caeiro, Reis and Campos.

Leslie wrote: "Apparently Fernando Pessoa, author of 35 Sonnets, is an orthonym - almost as fictional as his heteronyms.

I am finding this all quite bizarre and somewhat hard to imagine -- I wond..."

Analysts might have had a field day with this guy!

Pessoa created the term orthonym -- it is (as far as I understand) a heteronym but with the name of the creator rather than an alias. The orthonym didn't use the 2 middle names, which is apparently one of the distinguishing features between the flesh-and-blood man Pessoa and the orthonym(s). {There is some idea that there may be more than one orthonym - one for poetry, one for literary criticism, etc. but that is too much for my brain to cope with!}

@Leslie It is doing my head in, too!

I agree it is a bit unusual how far he took the idea of what would usually be called a pseudonym, but the thing itself isn't so unusual. Several writers, like Banville for example have used the freedom of a pseudonym to explore a literary voice or form. What set's him apart I think, is the importance he gave these literary personas. (There is a chance of course that he was merely a very early marketing genius) However, there is a line that keeps repeating in Pessoa's work (not necessarily literally but in essence) is: I am many. One variation on the theme is the quote I used for the first post in this thread.
To me what he does sounds a bit like the literary equivalent of method acting.


Apart from the heteronym/pseudonym/orthonym confusion: are you enjoying his poetry?

I have a book yet but what I've read on Google, I am enjoying.