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From reviews of the first edition:
"A compulsively readable account of the life and works of our greatest...writer of fantasy. With a keen appreciation of Borges himself and a pleasant disregard for the critical clichés, Bell-Villada tells us all we really want to know about the modern master-from pronouncing his name to understanding the stories." -New York Daily News
"Of the scores of Borges studies by now published in English, Bell-Villada's excellent book stands out as one of the freshest and most generally helpful.... Lay readers and specialists alike will find his book a valuable and highly readable companion to Ficciones and El Aleph." -Choice
Since its first publication in 1981, Borges and His Fiction has introduced the life and works of this Argentinian master-writer to an entire generation of students, high school and college teachers, and general readers. Responding to a steady demand for an updated edition, Gene H. Bell-Villada has significantly revised and expanded the book to incorporate new information that has become available since Borges' death in 1986. In particular, he offers a more complete look at Borges and Peronism and Borges' personal experiences of love and mysticism, as well as revised interpretations of some of Borges' stories. As before, the book is divided into three sections that examine Borges' life, his stories in Ficciones and El Aleph, and his place in world literature.
List of contents
- Preface to the Revised Edition
- Preface to the 1981 Edition
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Page References
- Chronology
- Part I. Borges's Worlds
- 1. Buenos Aires and Beyond
- 2. A Sort of Life, a Special Mind
- 3. What Borges Did for Prose Fiction
- Part II. Borges's Fictions
- 4. The Apprentice Fiction Maker
- 5. Ficciones I: Doubles, Dreamers, and Detectives
- 6. Ficciones II: The World within a Book
- 7. El Aleph I: Doubles and Puzzles
- 8. El Aleph II: Tales of Action and Violence
- 9. El Aleph III: The Visionary Experience
- Part III. Borges's Place in Literature
- 10. Dreamtigers and Later Works: A Tentative Summation
- 11. Literature and Politics North and South
- 12. Borges as Argentine Author: And Other Self-Evident (If Often Ignored) Truths Abbreviations
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
About the author
The author of several works of criticism and fiction, Gene H. Bell-Villada is Professor and Chair of Romance Languages at Williams College in Massachusetts.
Summary
Incorporates information that has become available since Borges' death in 1986. This book is divided into three sections that examine Borges' life, his stories in "Ficciones" and "El Aleph", and his place in world literature.
