This edition includes notes on the reconstruction of the text, appendices containing material omitted from the final version and letters which pessoa intended to incorporate into the text. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa is one such modern masterpiece that i read last week. In that sense, to get back to the central question, i suppose it feels to me most like an essay. Jull costa, who first took a crack at the book of disquiet early in her career, gorgeously renders soaress melancholy descriptions. An assembly of sometimes linked fragments, it is a mesmerising, haunting novel without parallel in any other culture. I love this strange work of fiction and i love the inventive, harddrinking, modest man who. Reading the book of disquiet by fernando pessoa as it appeared on the 2002 world librarys greatest books of all time list. Left an orphan by fortune, i wanted like all orphansto be the object of someones affection. The book of disquiet penguin modern classics ebook.
Soares himself, in the only moment of being seen from the outside, looks like those who hope for nothing because. Andre aciman would like to demote virginia woolf from the. Jan 28, 2019 these quotes from the book of disquiet are true works of art. The portuguese writer fernando pessoa once described his book. The hardcover is fat and dense, and the text is, like a drug. The book of disquiet is funny, lifeaffirming, and, of course, desperately sad. Great quotes from the book of disquiet exploring your mind. And he insisted that narratives, like an arson or a murder, require active investigation. From what i understand this book is a collection of prose snippets from over 40 years that were compiled after the portuguese poets death. Dec 25, 2009 book of disquiet reveals a reclusive authors soul author fernando pessoa may have been a loner who lived most of his life in a single room in lisbon, portugal. The book of disquietude was various books yet ultimately one book, with various authors yet ultimately one author, and even the word disquietude changes meaning as time passes. Pessoas achievement, deliberate or inadvertent, is to show how the. The book of disquiet serpents tail classics series by fernando pessoa. The final edition of this book was published in 2010.
Written over the course of fernando pessoas life, it was first published in 1982, pieced together from the thousands of individual manuscript pages left behind by pessoa after his death in 1935. Maybe it is true that books find you when you need them. The book of disquiet penguin modern classics kindle edition. Left on disordered scraps of paper in a trunk, the fragments that make up the book of disquiet have no fixed sequence, and therefore each reader must make out of them a different text. Sitting at his desk, bernardo soares imagined himself free forever of rua dos douradores, of his boss vasques, of moreira the bookkeeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy, even the cat. And what of lesserknown works things like the rings of saturn or bluets or nono boy or the book of disquiet.
An assembly of sometimeslinked fragments, the book of disquiet is a mesmerising, haunting novel without parallel in any other culture. Finding pessoas book of disquiet was like finding a piece of myself. In this series, writers present the books theyre finally making time for. In lisbon there are a few restaurants or eating houses located above decentlooking taverns, places with the heavy, domestic look of restaurants in towns far from any rail line. The book of disquiet also translated as the book of disquietude has a format somewhat like a journal or diary and is also a collection of vignettes and reflections. It grieved me that i was treated with indifference. Reviewing the book is like trying to make up a new language in the middle of a conversation. Soares himself, in the only moment of being seen from the outside, looks like. The fragmentary, the incomplete is of the essence of pessoas spirit. May 30, 2002 the book of disquiet ebook written by fernando pessoa. Explore free books, like the victory garden, and more browse now.
What would a truly finished the book of disquiet look like. The book of disquiet ebook written by fernando pessoa. In the book of disquiet, pessoa came as close as he would to autobiography. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read.
Apr 15, 2020 in this series, writers present the books theyre finally making time for. The book of disquiet, by fernando pessoa, a portuguese epic written by a thoroughly disabused narrator who is. However, be forewarned, this is not a book that should be picked up with the idea of light reading in mind. Sitting at his desk, bernardo soares imagined himself free forever of rua dos douradores, of his boss vasques, of moreira the book keeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy, even the cat. Was 18 march 1914 the most extraordinary date in modern literature. Its pages, like pessoas trunk, are thick with thoughts.
The book of disquiet penguin classics 9780141183046 by pessoa, fernando and a great selection of similar new, used and collectible books available now at great prices. Its floating boundaries expand and contract, lazily animated by the horror of making our soul a fact. The book of disquiet sat on my shelf for at least a year before i took it down, sometime in february. The book of disquiet was left in a trunk which might never have been opened. And im doomed always to feel, like the worlds great damned men, that its better to think than to live. The book of disquiet, by fernando pessoa, a portuguese epic written by a thoroughly disabused narrator who is highly intelligent and couldnt be more. Dangerous books are rarely encountered in ones literary life. Im the gap between what id like to be and what others have made of me. The book of disquiet is caught up in the steady drumbeat of ordinary life and all its detritus. The book of disquiet is a diary, but of a self that is several and precarious, and always more potential than actual. The book of disquiet is the weirdest autobiography ever. This book includes some fragments of his diary, short reflections, and adages. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa, paperback.
One section describes how the office boy left today, the phrase repeated. The book of disquiet is the portuguese modernist master fernando pessoas greatest literary achievement. Aug 29, 2017 the book of disquiet is caught up in the steady drumbeat of ordinary life and all its detritus. Shakespeare seemed like a given, but how to choose between hamlet and the sonnets, between a midsummer nights dream and king lear. For its entire four hundred plus pages it offers a philosophy of a melancholic life, a philosophy of dreaming, and a philosophy of art.
Livro do desassossego the book of disquiet, fernando pessoa the book of disquiet is a work by the portuguese author fernando pessoa 18881935. Book of disquiet reveals a reclusive authors soul author fernando pessoa may have been a loner who lived most of his life in a single room in. When i first encountered disquiet, i felt like laundry the book. In a novel almost entirely stripped of plot and secondary.
It nails you down, and it can wipe away all the joy in you. Rabih alameddine describes pessoas work, the book of disquiet, as one of lifes. But this book is, like so much about pessoa, an object of mystery. The book of disquiet the prizewinning, complete and unabridged translation the best englishlanguage version we are likely to see for a long time, if ever the guardian of a work of unclassifiable genius. The second page, along with lots of additional praise, contains. The book of disquiet is one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. This fragmentary novel was published 47 years after the death of 20thcentury portuguese author and poet fernando pessoa. Part of what makes this enthralling, and as you said, one of the greatest literary works to ever emerge out of modernism, is that incompleteness feels intrinsic to its project. The book of disquiet was various books yet ultimately one book. The book of disquiet fernando pessoa elif the reader. In other words, there is not one the book of disquiet, but many. It feels like the novel rilke would have wrote if he had the talent for prose. I can say that the book of disquiet is the most dangerous book i have ever read. The book of disquiet is the weirdest autobiography ever electric.
It is in the book of disquiettranslated, beautifully, by margaret jull costathat pessoa found himself most truly. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read the book of disquiet. There are flashes of sly humour, too, moments when the book of disquiet reads like an existential diary of a nobody. The book of disquiet can seem like a quintessentially manicdepressive epic. Soares himself, in the only moment of being seen from the outside, looks like those who hope for nothing because its perfectly useless to hope. Ill even go so far to say, this book is the definitive work on creative poetic genius. Similar books to the book of disquiet penguin modern classics. The book is an aggregation of disparate diary entries that are abstract, dense, and at times, eccentric. Each entry in this fictional diary of one bernardo soares represents an attempt to create a distinct biography, for soares lives according to the maxim. May 31, 2018 the book of disquiet is the work of someone who knows himself well, and cares only about reaching a kind of existential purity. How could we whittle down our list to just 10 books. In the pages of this poetic novel you will find honesty, often selfdisparaging, and you will find beauty in the smallest observation.
Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Pessoas rapid prose, snatched in flight and restlessly suggestive, remains haunting, often startling, like the touch of a vibrating wire, elusive and persistent like the poetry. The complete edition from the worlds largest community of readers. This is one of the most startling, electrifying books i have ever read.
Sep 26, 2017 in other words, there is not one the book of disquiet, but many. However, it can also give unpredictable happiness for souls who prefer loneliness like me most of the time. Oct 16, 2010 there are flashes of sly humour, too, moments when the book of disquiet reads like an existential diary of a nobody. The book of disquiet is the autobiography of fernando pessoa and includes many moving confessions of loneliness and neglect one of these intimate passages says. The book of disquiet was found, in fragments, only after pessoas death. Buy the book of disquiet by fernando pessoa online at alibris. This wonderful text is considered fernando pessoas best book of prose and was published after his death.
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