Collection of stories "Aleph", Borges Jorge Luis: summary, analysis, reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"Aleph" by Borges is a collection of short stories by the popular Argentine writer, written by him in 1949. It consists of 17 short stories and an afterword. In this article, we will talk about the main themes of these works, give a summary of some of them, and read reviews from readers.

About the collection

In the collection "Aleph" by Borges there is more mysticism than the main plot, while there is not much contemplative essayism and detachment. All the stories it contains are interconnected, but at the same time remain original.

Here is a complete list of short stories included in the collection "Aleph":

• "Immortal";
• "Theologians";
• "Dead";
• "Biography of Tadeo Isidor Cruz";
• "The Story of a Warrior and a Captive";
• "Emma Zuntz";
• "House of Asterius";
• Deutsches Requiem;
• "Second Death";
• "Zaire";
• "Search for Averroes";
• "Abenhakan el Bokhari, who died in his labyrinth";
• "Letters from God";
• "Waiting";
• "Two kings and their two labyrinths";
• "Aleph";
• "A man on the doorstep".

The collection was first published in 1949. In the final edition, four more short stories were added to it. At the same time, the story of Borges "Aleph", which gave the name to the entire collection, still remained in the last position.

It is worth noting that all this time the writer remained unemployed, he was fired from the library after the establishment of the dictatorship of Peron. World fame came to him about a year after the publication of the book "Aleph". The author himself admitted that Wells, Chesterton, and individual ideas of his friend Cecilia Ingeneros had a significant influence on the creation of the works included in the collection.

Key Ideas

Analysis of "Aleph" by Borges allows us to identify two main leitmotifs that run like a red thread through almost all short stories.

Firstly, this is the topic of doppelgangers. In several short stories, two characters turn out to be the same person or change places with each other. In some versions, the fates of the characters are mirrored or the protagonists go through the same life path. Events can repeat one after another, creating a classic déjà vu effect. In one of the stories, you can even come across the phrase that heads and tails are completely indistinguishable for God.

Twins meetin almost every novel. In some cases, objects and people begin to merge into a single whole.

All this serves as a certain transition to the next main leitmotif of his entire work. This is directly Aleph. Some object, word or point in space (depending on the specific story). He is able to contain the entire universe, as well as everything that can only be found in it. In the final novel, Borges defines the Aleph as a point where all other points converge.

The development of this idea can also be found in the short story "Zaire". It contains the motive of rethinking, when one object occupies all the thoughts of a person, displacing the whole world around him. In fact, this is the same Aleph, but from the other, opposite side. Readers of the book "Aleph" noted that for many this seemed to be a deliberate closing of the ring of infinity, capable of absorbing all objects.

Besides this, the collection of short stories develops other classical motifs of Borges' work, found in his other books. These are three versions of the betrayal of Judas, the idea of the world as a text, a mirror.

Summary

As an example, we will tell the plot of one of the brightest stories in this collection, which is called "Immortal". Some critics believe that this work was the culmination of the entire work of the writer. The novel consists of a quote, an introduction, and five chapters.

The story begins with a quote from Bacon that there is nothing new on earth.

Herselfthe story is the narration of a Roman soldier who lived during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Late at night in Thebes, a stranger commits a crime, and then seeks refuge in the camp. He meets the soldier Rufus, admits to him before his death that there is a river whose waters bestow immortality. The river is located near a place called the City of the Immortals. Since then, Rufus has been determined to find this place.

He goes to Africa with helpers. Along the way, they languish in the heat and harsh conditions that accompany this expedition. Some of the soldiers escape, the rest plan to kill Rufus. He has to hide and make his way through the desert alone.

He manages to find the city of the Immortals, which he sees in the distance. When he gets to it, he finds out that the city itself is an intricate maze with dead-end passages. There are many chaotic architectural structures and stairs everywhere. Rufus is frightened by this city, from which it turns out not so easy to get out.

He drinks from the river, living with the immortals for centuries. All this time, he is immersed in thoughts about how to understand the existence of this river.

Aleph

Summary of "Aleph" by Borges allows you to find out what the key work of this collection is about. The protagonist in it turns out to be a fictionalized version of the author. At the beginning of the story, he mourns the death of the woman he was in love with. He goes to her house to show respect.

Later in the story, he triespurchase Danery's house to expand his business. But the seller, in a rage, declares to the narrator that he is obliged to keep him in order in order to complete the poem. The protagonist, although he considers Danery crazy, agrees to make concessions. He descends to the basement, where, as the owner promises him, he can meet Aleph.

Biography

Borges was born in the Argentine capital in 1899. He received his initial education in Switzerland, after which he lived for some time in Spain. In this country, he became a representative of ultraism. This is a poetic movement that developed after the First World War against the backdrop of the decline of modernism.

The main features of this trend were the use of brazen metaphors and bold imagery in an effort to create pure poetry that would be separated from the present and the past.

The same trend Borges brought to Argentina. At the same time, in his own work, he rather quickly moved away from the principles of ultraism. Throughout his life, he founded three avant-garde magazines, taught English at the University of Buenos Aires, and directed the National Library in Argentina.

Popularity

At first, he wrote mostly poetry, inspired by episodes of Argentine history and everyday life around him.

Most of all, he was famous for stories that combine metaphysical fantasies and allegories along with classic detective stories. They all turn out to be veryoriginal, although the influence of Kafka, Woolf, Chesterton is felt.

In the 70s, Borges, already in the rank of a world famous writer, comes to the USA, where he lectures at universities, receives all kinds of awards. His works have been repeatedly filmed.

In 1986 he moved to Switzerland, where he died at the age of 86 from emphysema and liver cancer.

Features of creativity

Jorge Luis Borges is one of the most famous Argentine writers. He is considered the founder of the new Latin American literature. His work is metaphysical through and through, it combines poetic and fantasy approaches.

He considers the search for truth unpromising, which he once again declares in the collection "Aleph". Borges makes the main themes of his literature the inconsistency of time, the world, as well as loneliness and death. His artistic language is characterized by a mixture of methods of mass and high culture, a combination of contemporary Argentine culture with metaphysical universals.

Hoaxes

The prose fantasies of Jorge Luis Borges often take the form of detective or adventure stories. Beneath them, he disguises deep reasoning about serious scientific and philosophical problems. Already in his first works he compares favorably with his knowledge of foreign languages and erudition. The writer's work is characterized by a game on the verge of fiction and reality, he often resorts to the technique of mystification.

For example, uses quotes and references from non-existent works, tellsabout fictional cultures, biographies of alleged historical figures that never existed.

Along with Marcel Proust, he is considered one of the first writers of the 20th century to address the topic of human memory.

Reviews

In reviews of "Aleph" by Borges, readers admit that this is a difficult and often not fully understood author. There are always a large number of subtexts and hidden meanings in his works. Many of his stories can be interpreted by different readers in their own way, and at the same time they will all be right.

The novellas "The Immortal" and "The Dead" are especially noteworthy, which are etched into the memory thanks to the eerie setting, reminiscent of hell, troglodytes, which refer the reader to the classic works of Dante and Homer. In general, because of the enchanting atmosphere of the ancient epic.

The city of the Immortals, which Borges describes, is inhabited by troglodytes chasing the protagonist. These are eternally living people who have forgotten their human appearance, writing and speech. The ancient Greek poet Homer appears in the same image.

In addition, in these stories from the collection "Aleph" by Borges, there are fascinating discussions about immortality, the unity of the destinies of all people, the depreciation of human actions on the scale of infinity and the universe around us.