The Book of Disquiet (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Fernando Pessoa (Author), Fernando Pessoa (Author), Richard Zenith (Translator)

New
Paperback
2002
$19.73

A modernist masterwork that has now taken on a similar iconic status to Ulysses , The Trial or In Search of Lost Time , Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet is edited and translated with an introduction by Richard Zenith in Penguin Modern Classics . 'Fernando Pessoa, strictly speaking, doesn't exist,' - so claimed Alvaro de Campos, one of the 'heteronyms', fully-realised substitute personalities invented by Fernando Pessoa to spare himself the trouble of living real life. In this extraordinary book, the putative 'factless autobiography' of an accountant named Bernardo Soares, Fernando Pessoa explores and dismantles the nature of memory, identity, time and narrative, creating one of the greatest - but also the strangest - modernist texts. An assembly of sometimes-linked fragments, The Book of Disquiet is a mesmerising, haunting 'novel' without parallel in any other culture. 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. This edition also includes a table of the 'heteronyms' used by Pessoa in his writing. Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was born in Lisbon and brought up in Durban, South Africa. A prolific writer, ascribing his work to a variety of personas or 'heteronyms', Pessoa published little in his lifetime. Although acknowledged as an intellectual and a poet, his literary genius went largely unrecognised until after his death. If you enjoyed The Book of Disquiet , you might like Finnegan's Wake , also available in Penguin Modern Classics . One of the twentieth century's greatest literary talents ...This superb edition of The Book of Disquiet is...a masterpiece . (John Lanchester, Daily Telegraph ). Must rank as the supreme assault on authorship in modern European literature . (John Gray, New Statesman ). Portugal's greatest modern poet...deals with the only important question in the world, not less important because it is unanswerable: What am I? (Anthony Burgess, Observer ).

Synopsis

A modernist masterwork that has now taken on a similar iconic status to "Ulysses", "The Trial" or "In Search of Lost Time", Fernando Pessoa's "The Book of Disquiet" is edited and translated with an introduction by Richard Zenith in "Penguin Modern Classics". 'Fernando Pessoa, strictly speaking, doesn't exist,' - so claimed Alvaro de Campos, one of the 'heteronyms', fully-realised substitute personalities invented by Fernando Pessoa to spare himself the trouble of living real life. In this extraordinary book, the putative 'factless autobiography' of an accountant named Bernardo Soares, Fernando Pessoa explores and dismantles the nature of memory, identity, time and narrative, creating one of the greatest - but also the strangest - modernist texts. An assembly of sometimes-linked fragments, "The Book of Disquiet" is a mesmerising, haunting 'novel' without parallel in any other culture. 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. This edition also includes a table of the 'heteronyms' used by Pessoa in his writing. Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was born in Lisbon and brought up in Durban, South Africa. A prolific writer, ascribing his work to a variety of personas or 'heteronyms', Pessoa published little in his lifetime. Although acknowledged as an intellectual and a poet, his literary genius went largely unrecognised until after his death. If you enjoyed "The Book of Disquiet", you might like "Finnegan's Wake", also available in "Penguin Modern Classics". "One of the twentieth century's greatest literary talents ...This superb edition of "The Book of Disquiet" is...a masterpiece". (John Lanchester, "Daily Telegraph"). "Must rank as the supreme assault on authorship in modern European literature". (John Gray, "New Statesman"). "Portugal's greatest modern poet...deals with the only important question in the world, not less important because it is unanswerable: What am I?" (Anthony Burgess, "Observer").

$19.73

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 544
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 30 May 2002
ISBN 10: 0141183047
ISBN 13: 9780141183046

Media Reviews

I can't tell which of the three English-language editions of The Book of Disquiet I've read . . . most accurately conveys the style and spirit of Pessoa, but judging the English alone, Zenith's translation is most compelling. . . . I want Pessoa to be as great as the version Zenith presents. --Chris Power, New Statesman

A Modernist touchstone . . . no one has explored alternative selves with Pessoa's mixture of determination and abandon . . . In a time which celebrates fame, success, stupidity, convenience and noise, here is the perfect antidote, a hymn of praise to obscurity, failure, intelligence, difficulty, and silence. --The Daily Telegraph

His prose masterpiece . . . Richard Zenith has done an heroic job in producing the best English-language version we are likely to see for a long time, if ever. --The Guardian

The Book of Disquiet was left in a trunk which might never have been opened. The gods must be thanked that it was. I love this strange work of fiction and I love the inventive, hard-drinking, modest man who wrote it in obscurity. --Independent

Fascinating, even gripping stuff . . . a strangely addictive pleasure. --Sunday Times

Must rank as the supreme assault on authorship in modern European literature . . . readers of Zenith's edition will find it supersedes all others in its delicacy of style, rigorous scholarship and sympathy for Pessoa's fractured sensibility . . . the self-revelation of a disoriented and half-disintegrated soul that is all the more compelling because the author himself is an invention . . . Long before postmodernism became an academic industry, Pessoa lived deconstruction. --New Statesman

Extraordinary . . . a haunting mosaic of dreams, autobiographical vignettes, shards of literary theory and criticism and maxims. --The Observer

Pessoa's 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 . . . there is nobody like him. --The New York Review of Books

This superb edition of The Book of Disquiet is . . . a masterpiece. --The Daily Telegraph

I plan to use this book every year in my course at Yale. Thanks for making it available. --K. David Jackson, Yale University

Author Bio

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was born in Lisbon and brought up in Durban, South Africa. He returned to Lisbon in 1905. A prolific writer, ascribing his work to a variety of personas or heteronyms, Pessoa published little in his lifetime and supported himself by working as a commercial translator. Although acknowledged as an intellectual and a poet, his literary genius went largely unrecognised until after his death