The book of sand PDF
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR Ficciones Labyrinths Dream tigers Other Inquisitions 1937-1952 A Personal Anthology The Book of Imaginary Beings The Aleph and Other Stories 1933-1969 Doctor Brodie's Report Selected Poems 1923-1967 A Universal History of Infamy In Praise of Darkness Chronicles of Bustos Domecq (with Adolfo Bioy-Casares) JORGE LUIS BORGES TRANSLATED BY NORMAN THOMAS DI GIOVANNI E. P. DUTTON NEW YORK Published 1977 by E. P. Dutton, a Division of Sequoia-Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York Copyright© 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977 by Emece Editores, S.A., and Norman Thomas di Giovanni. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The original title of this book is El libro de arena, Copyright © 1975 by Emece Editores, S.A., Buenos Aires. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system now known or to be in vented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a re viewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Published simultaneously in Canada by Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, Toronto and Vancouver. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Borges, Jorge Luis The book of sand. Translation of El libro de arena. CONTENTS: The other.-Ulrike.-The Congress. [etc.] I. Title. PZ3.B64818Bo [PQ7797.B635] 863 77-8418 ISBN: 0-525-06992-5 These stories first appeared in the following periodicals: The Antioch Review: "The Bribe" The Atlantic Monthly: "There Are More Things" The New Yark.er: "The Congress," "Utopia of a Tired Man," "The Disk," "The Book of Sand," "The Mirror and the Mask," "Avelino Arredondo," "Undr," "The Night of the Gifts" The New Yark Times Magazine: "The Sect of the Thirty," "Ulrike" Playboy: "The Other" "The Congress" has also been published in a limited edition by Enithar mon Press, London, 1974. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Contents Author's Note 7 The Other 1 1 Ulrike 21 The Congress 27 There Are More Things 51 The Sect of the Thirty 61 The Night of the Gifts 67 The Mirror and the Mask 75 Undr 81 Utopia of a Tired Man 89 The Bribe 97 Avelino Arredondo 105 The Disk 113 The Book of Sand 117 Afterword 123 Author's Note At my age (I was born in 1899), I cannot promise-I cannot even promise myself-more than these few variations on favorite themes. As everyone knows, this is the classic recourse of ir reparable monotony. Allow me, nevertheless, to point out one or two details. The volume includes thirteen stories. The number is accidental, or fatal-here the two words are strictly synonymous-and not magical. If of all my stories I had to save one, I would probably save "The Congress," which at the same time is the most autobiographical (the one richest in memo ries) and the most imaginative. Nor shall I hide a predilection for "The Book of Sand." There is also a love story, a "psychological" story, and the story of a dramatic episode in South American history. In these blind man's exercises, I have tried to be faithful to the example of H. G. Wells in combin ing a plain and at times almost colloquial style with a fantastic plot. To Wells' name the reader may add those of Swift and of Poe, who, around 1838, gave up a very rich style in order to 7
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