Jorge Luis Borges
A blind Argentinian author. His full names is Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo. Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, Borges worked as director of the Argentinian National Library.
Books
Ficciones
Spanish for “Fictions”. A collection of his short stories. It is split into two sections titled “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “Artifices”.
Labyrinths
A collection of his short stories.
A Universal History of Iniquities
A collection of his short stories.
Book of Imaginary Beings
A fictional bestiary.
Short Stories
“The Garden of Forking Paths”
The Chinese magistrate Ts’ui Pen sets out to write a book and create a labyrinth, only to combine the two.
Captain Richard Madden pursues Yu Tsun, a Chinese spy working for the Germans and a descendant of Ts’ui Pen. Yu Tsun meets the sinologist Stephen Albert, whose labyrinth is that of Ts’ui Pen. Albert notes that another character may come as a friend or as an enemy. Yu Tsun shoots Albert to reveal the location of a British artillery park. He admits an “innumerable contrition and weariness” before his capture by Madden.
The narrator correctly replies “the word chess” when he is asked “In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word?”.
“The Library of Babel”
The Library of Babel has infinite hexagonal rooms containing all possible books. Each 410-page book contains every possible permutation of 25 characters. The narrator searches the library for the “catalogue of catalogues”. The Man of the Book nows all the knowledge of the Library of Babel. The Crimson Hexagon is a place within the library contains illustrated, magical books that can not be found anywhere else in the library.
“The Aleph”
Begins with the death of Beatriz Viterbo, the cousin of Carlos Danieri, a mediocre poet.
The Aleph is a point located in the nineteenth step of the staircase to Danieri’s cellar that allows observers to see every point in the universe because it contains all other points. The Aleph is destroyed and Carlos laments it because he claims he needs the Aleph to finish his epic on General San Martin.
At the end, the narrator discusses a stone column in the mosque of Amr that has a similar function to the Aleph, but with sound.
“Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”
Bioy Casares, a real-life friend of Borges, remembers the phrase “mirrors and copulation are abominable”. Casares and the narrator find that one copy of the Anglo-American Cyclopaedia includes the fictional country of Uqbar. This leads to the discovery of the world of Tlön, whose language contains no nouns. As knowledge of Tlön becomes more and more widespread, elements from Tlön start appearing on Earth.
“Death and the Compass”
The detective Erik Lönnrot tries to solve three kabbalistic murders at points of an equilateral triangle. “The first letter of the name has been uttered”. Red Scharlach kills Lönnrot after he comes to Triste-le-Roi.
“Funes, the Memorious”
Ireneo develops perfect memory after falling from a horse. He struggles because he cannot understand generalities.
“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”
The Frenchman Pierre Menard creates an “infinitely richer” reconception of Don Quixote by rewriting it word for word.
“The Lottery in Babylon”
The winners of the lottery join a group of the elite as part of “The Company” while the losers are put to death.
“The Book of Sand”
The narrator trades a Wycliffe Bible for the Book of Sand, which he hides behind some volumes of the Thousand and One Nights.
“A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain”
The narrator discusses April-March, a novel with 13 chapters and 5 separate novels within.
“The Form of the Sword”
An Irishman marks a moon-shaped scar on John’s forehead before he escapes with “Judas’money.”
“The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim”
Written by the fictional Bahadur Ali. Searches for a person of complete goodness
“The Disk”
A woodsman kills a king to steal the Disc.
“The South”
Johannes Dahlmann reads his copy of the Arabian Nights and gets into a knife fight after almost dying in a hospital.
“The Circular Ruins”
A wizard who creates a fireproof man by dreaming of him in the Circular Ruins. The wizard realizes he is also fireproof, meaning he’s just a dream.
“Averroes’ Search”
Averroes, an Islamic philosopher, attempts to understand the concept of tragedy.
“Deutches Requiem”
A convicted Nazi officer faces his execution.
“The House of Asterion”
Narrated by the Minotaur. Theseus notes at the end that “The Minotaur scarcely defended himself.”
“Three Versions of Judas”
Interpretations of the betrayal of Christ