Jorge Luis Borges (IBARW continues!)

Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian writer whose impact on modern writing and letters cannot be underestimated. Borges wrote twisty, dense, devastating short stories, poetry, essays, and whatever else he put his hand to. There's almost nothing that can be said about the man that hasn't already been said: He was a genius, a visionary, a lousy politician but an excellent man and the kind of literary genius that only comes around once a century or so.

I have his Collected Fictions, a huge and heavy paperback with all his short stories, excellently translated by Andrew Hurley. But if you don't want to lay down the $13.60 Amazon is charging with just my word for it, I suggest you read one of my favorite stories of his, available free and in its entirety: The Garden of Forking Paths. It's about a labyrinth, about betrayal, about the terrible weight of fate. You will not be the same after you read it.

Donald Yates translation.

A hypertext version, which is just beautiful.


Dreamtigers at the Floating Library.