Apicapic in the book of disquiet, bernardo soares, an assistant bookkeeper in a lisbon fabrics firm, records impressions he doesnt expect to see. Reading the book of disquiet by fernando pessoa as it appeared on the 2002 world librarys greatest books of all time list. The book is an aggregation of disparate diary entries that are abstract, dense, and at times, eccentric. From what i understand this book is a collection of prose snippets from over 40 years that were compiled after the portuguese poets death. Rainer maria rilke, duino elegies the ninth elegy i am, i am, i am. This fragmentary novel was published 47 years after the death of 20thcentury portuguese author and poet fernando pessoa. His father had died of tuberculosis the previous year.
The chevalier of disquiet by max nelson the new york. A modernist masterwork that has now taken on a similar iconic status to ulysses, the trial or in search of lost time, fernando pessoas the book of disquiet is edited and translated with an introduction by richard zenith in penguin modern classics. Inspirational quotes by fernando pessoa from the book of disquiet and on themes such as life, success, potential and other things. The book of disquiet penguin classics pessoa, fernando, zenith, richard, zenith, richard on. Most of pessoas writing was not published during his lifetime. This almostautobiographical story tells of the sombre majesty of splendours no one knows in the very private life of its hero and offers. Illustration by riccardo vecchio if ever there was a writer in flight from his name, it was fernando pessoa. Dont read this if youre diagnosed with or in therapy for any level of clinical depression. The book of disquiet contains much of his prose writing of which this edition has around half of them. Its barely a novel, in fact, and more a vast, endlessly intelligent selection of thoughts based on everyones favourite hobby existing. The book of disquiet was first published in portugal in 1982.
The book of disquiet 1982 is a novel by portuguese author fernando pessoa, published posthumously, using the heteronym bernardo soares quotes. The book of disquiet is the portuguese modernist master fernando pessoas greatest literary achievement. Im always out in the evenings doing something, the purpose of which eludes me. The book of disquiet is a collection of epiphanic journal or diary prose kept by pessoa and found decades after his death. Fernando pessoa describes his work the book of disquiet as being an autobiography lacking facts. The narrator, perhaps a standin for pessoa himself, is clearly a distant literary relative of shakespeares hamlet or eliots prufrock. Pessoa, f book of disquiet the unabridged assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the authors death, the book of disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prosepoetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Fernando pessoa will be an unknown name to many literary fans and, furthermore, the book of disquiet is untraditional to the extreme. I failed life even before i had lived it, because even as i dreamed it, i failed to see its. Fernando pessoas the book of disquiet is aptly titled. The prose is truly some of the most gorgeous musings about everyday life and existence that any reader could ever find.
For its entire four hundred plus pages it offers a philosophy of a melancholic life, a philosophy of dreaming, and a philosophy of art. He also wrote in and translated from english and french. Now this fragmentary modernist masterpiece appears in a major new edition that unites margaret jull costas celebrated translation with previously missing texts, presented for. The book of disquiet fernando pessoa compra livros ou. He would soon leave his birthplace of lisbon for colonial durban, where his new stepfather was the. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa blindness by jose saramago os maias by. The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood and go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist. I follow the course of my dreams, making them images into steps toward. 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. Fernando pessoa, one of the founders of modernism, was born in lisbon in 1888. As for guedes, pessoa opens, this book is not by him, it is him.
The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa, paperback. Perhaps the most occult writer of the twentieth century and the one who best lived up to rimbauds dictum about becoming a medium was fernando pessoa. Bernardo soares is hulpboekhouder maar vooral semiheteroniem en dus in grote mate fernando pessoa zelf. Credited to pessoas alter ego, bernardo soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this socalled factless autobiography. Im always speaking banally to someone, with a contrived smile on my face. An autobiography or diary containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples. An assembly of sometimes linked fragments, it is a mesmerising, haunting novel without parallel in any other. Fernand pessoa published on september, 2010 by pessoa, fernand and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa professional moron. Fernando pessoa 18881935 was born in lisbon and brought up in durban, south africa. In this extraordinary book, the putative factless autobiography of an accountant named bernardo soares, fernando pessoa explores and. Written over the course of fernando pessoas life, the book of disquiet was first published in 1982, pieced together from the thousands of individual manuscript pages left behind after his death in 1935. Fernando pessoa and the book of disquiet others can write better, and truer, things about fernando pessoa than i can, but the salient facts for these purposes are that pessoa 18881935 was a portuguese writer who published very little during his lifetime. He wrote of holding inside himself all the dreams of the world and wanting to experience the whole of the universe its reality inside himself.
For the first timeand in the best translation everthe complete book of disquiet, a masterpiece beyond comparison. An englishly portuguese, endlessly multiple poet duration. Fernando pessoa lived between 1888 and 1935 but during his life he avoided the literary world, and indeed much of society, but wrote a vast amount of poetry and prose much of which has been published posthumously. Buy the book of disquiet penguin modern classics new ed by pessoa, fernando. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete english. Book of disquiet reveals a reclusive authors soul author fernando pessoa may have been a loner who lived most of his life in a single room in lisbon, portugal. Future editors, as obsessed as they are with completionism, included more than the author intended sometimes depending on the version. Disquiet refers to a feeling of anxiety, and this story has plenty of unease for both its narrator and readers. In these random impressions, with no desire to be other than random, i indifferently narrate my. The book of disquiet is presented as the diary of a man named bernardo. The book of disquiet is the portuguese modernist master fernando pessoas.
An autobiography or diary containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. Sylvia plath, the bell jar a man said to the universe. The book of disquiet is a hodgepodge of different fragmentary ideas, and though there is some editorial freedom in such a concept, fernando pessoa did include some notes on which parts he wanted. The book of disquiet was found, in fragments, only after pessoas death. The book of disquiet penguin modern classics ebook. Fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet look, i am living. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa is one such modern masterpiece that i read last week. Fernando pessoa quotes author of the book of disquiet. The disquiet international literary program is a twoweek program that brings writers from north america and from around the world together with portuguese writers in the heart of lisbon for intensive workshops in the art and craft of writing.
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