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The Book of Disquietude

Fernando Pessoa

Translated by Richard Zenith

Cover Picture of The Book of Disquietude
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Categories: 20th Century, Portuguese
Imprint: Aspects of Portugal
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (320 pages)
(Pub. Jan 1997)
9781857543018
£19.99 £17.99
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Anglomaniac, myopic, courteous, evasive, dressed darkly, reticent and agreeable, a cosmopolitan who preaches nationalism, 'solemn investigator of futile things', humorist who never smiles but chills our blood, inventor of other poets and destroyer of himself, author of paradoxes as clear as water and, as water, dizzying: 'to pretend is to know yourself', mysterious man who does not cultivate mystery, mysterious as the mid-day moon, taciturn phantom of the Portuguese mid-day-who is Pessoa?
    Octavio Paz
    The Book of Disquietude is the 'factless autobiography' of Bernardo Soares, one of the 72 literary personae with which Fernando Pessoa created the theatre of himself. Conceived in 1916, Soares is, Pessoa declares, 'a mutilation' of his own personality.

    This is the first, and only complete, English edition. Other versions are abridgements. The translator and scholar Richard Zenith includes all the 'fragments' which made up the 1982 edition, 48 additional fragments and some from the Pessoa archive never previously published. He provides a full introduction and notes.
    Fernando Pessoa
    Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was the greatest Portuguese poet of the last century, and is one of Europe's greatest poets too. When he died he left a trunk full of poetry, philosophical writings, criticism and other texts. There are 25,426 items in the archive, including those that constitute The Book of Disquietude ... read more
    Richard Zenith
    RICHARD ZENITH is a noted translator from the Portuguese. His version of Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquietude was published in Carcanet's `Aspects of Portugal' series. ... read more
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