Collected Fictions

Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges's dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, brilliantly translated by Andrew Hurley.

From his 1935 debut with The Universal History of Iniquity, through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display Borges's talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language. Together these incomparable works comprise the perfect one-volume compendium for all those who have long loved Borges, and a superb introduction to the master's work for those who have yet to discover this singular genius.

"It is a deep pleasure to read the Collected Fictions of Borges in Andrew Hurley's capable new versions. Old favorites like 'Death and the Compass' and 'The Immortal' are revivified by Hurley. There is also a particular satisfaction in having all of the stories in one volume." Harold Bloom

"Though so different in style, two writers have offered us an image for the next millennium: Joyce and Borges. The first designed with words what the second designed with ideas: the original, the one and only World Wide Web. The Real Thing. The rest will remain simply virtual." Umberto Eco

"Undeniably one of the most influential writers to emerge in this century from Latin America or anywhere else, Borges (1899-1986) is best known for his short stories, all of which appear here for the first time in one volume....Elusive, erudite, melancholic, Borges's fiction will intrigue the general reader as well as the scholar." Publishers Weekly

"To discover the fictions at midcentury was stunning. There was no one like Borges. Everything else, for a short time, seemed predictable and beside the point." Mavis Gallant, The New York Times Book Review

"A Borges invention can start anywhere, hint at unlikely sources, and proceed by pseudo-banal routes to unprecedented goals; it always takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride into some previously unsuspected dimension. This collection of the great magician's work is a new translation and includes one piece never before put into English." Phoebe-Lou Adams, The Atlantic Monthly

"The erudition that enriches the fictions is certainly dazzling, as much at home with medieval Arabic science as with the classics of philosophy and literature, yet it embraced the folkish and popular as well....This collection is a valuable contribution to the English-language bookshelf of world literature, long overdue." Jamie James, The Wall Street Journal

"This...collection of the complete imaginings of the Argentine writer...is an event, and cause for celebration." Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

"Serious students of Borges must obviously still learn their Spanish, but the rest of us can be reasonably satisfied with Hurley's Collected Fictions. Yet I wish it had been a fuller, more scholarly book, its versions more convincingly definitive and superior to earlier ones. That said, it nonetheless contains the major work of probably the most influential Latin American writer of the century..." Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

"An unparalleled treasury of marvels." Chicago Tribune

"An event worthy of celebration....Hurley deserves our enthusiastic praise for this monumental piece of work." San Francisco Chronicle

"[T]hese witty, colorful tales...have exerted an incalculable influence on the past half-century's fiction....Gloriously ruminative and bookish....Authoritative testimony to the virtues of eclecticism and cosmopolitanism, and a matchless gift to readers that belongs, as the old saying goes, in every library." Kirkus Reviews

"What a thrill to find old favorites — 'The Circular Ruins,' 'Pierre Menard,' 'The Library of Babel' — updated and boxed with lesser-known gems. An exciting publication event and an indispensable acquisition for all libraries." Library Journal

One of the twentieth century's greatest writers, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) published numerous collections of poems, essays, and fiction, Director of the National Library of Buenos Aires from 1955 to 1973, Borges was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from both Columbia and Oxford. He received various literary awards over the course of his career, including the International Publisher's Prize (which he shared with Samuel Beckett in 1961), the Jerusalem Prize, and the Alfonso Reyes Prize.

Andrew Hurley is a translator of numerous works of literature, criticism, history, and memoir. He is professor emeritus at the University of Puerto Rico.