Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The Washington Post Book World has written that Fernando Pessoa was Portugal's greatest writer of the twentieth century though] some critics would even leave off that last qualifying phrase and one of the most appealing European modernists, equal in command and range to his contemporaries Rilke and Mandelstam. The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001, spans playful philosophical inquiry, Platonic dialogue, and bitter intellectual scrapping between Pessoa and his many literary alter egos (heteronyms). The heteronyms launch movements and write manifestos, and one of them attempts to break up Pessoa's only known romantic relationship. Also included is a generous selection from Pessoa's masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, freshly translated by Richard Zenith from newly discovered materials. The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa is an important record of a crucial part of the literary canon. Zenith's selection is beautifully translated, compact while appropriately diverse. -- Benjamin Kunkel, Los Angeles Times Pessoa] is one of those writers as addictive, and endearing, as Borges and Calvino. -- Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
A Washington Post and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the YearThough known primarily as a poet, Fernando Pessoa, a writer of "remarkable genius" (Washington Post) wrote prose widely, in several languages and in every genre. Now newly expanded and revised by award-winning translator and Pessoa biographer Richard Zenith, The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa spans fiction and drama, playful intellectual inquiry, Platonic dialogue, and bitter intellectual scrapping between Pessoa and his many literary alter egos ("heteronyms"). In these pieces, the heteronyms launch movements and write manifestos, and one of them attempts to break up Pessoa's only known romantic relationship. Also included is a generous selection from Pessoa's masterpiece The Book of Disquiet. This is an important record of a crucial part of the literary canon.
"A modern master to rank alongside Joyce, Kafka, Beckett."--Sunday Times (UK)"Beautifully translated, compact while appropriately diverse." --Los Angeles Times
" A] delightful collection . . . Pessoa] is the modernist's modernist: an inspired amalgam of Lewis Carroll, Aristophanes, Erasmus, Voltaire." --Washington Times