Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Reviewing the book is like trying to make up a new language in the middle of a conversation. Fernando pessoa, excerpt from the book of disquiet. A truck passes, making the whole house shake, and since all things must come to an end, i get up from my thinking. Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the authors death, the book of disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prosepoetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. 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. In lisbon there are a few restaurants or eating houses located above decentlooking taverns, places with the heavy, domestic look of restaurants in towns far from any rail line. Fernando pessoas the book of disquiet is aptly titled. In these random impressions, with no desire to be other than random, i indifferently narrate my factless autobiography, my lifeless history. The book of disquiet is enormous in every sense of the word and im eager to get into some of the granular details with you, but i thought we might start off this conversation with a more general question. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Famously, the book of disquiet is an incomplete work, composed of 500some fragments.
Livro do desassossego the book of disquiet, fernando pessoa the book of disquiet is a work by the portuguese author fernando pessoa 18881935. And at this table in my absurd room, i, a pathetic and anonymous office clerk, write. The book of disquiet was found, in fragments, only after pessoas. In fact, it remained unpublished not only at the time of pessoas death in 1935, but for 47 years beyond it. John lanchester, the daily telegraph pessoas rapid prose, snatched in flight and restlessly suggestive, remains haunting, often startling. Published posthumously, the book of disquiet is a fragmentary lifetime project, left unedited by the author, who introduced it as a factless autobiography.
The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa, paperback. Buy the book of disquiet penguin modern classics new ed by pessoa, fernando, zenith, richard isbn. In the late hours of night, for days on end, i wasted myself reading this booki too had grown tired of the tedium in my daily routine, and for a while, this peculiar book was enough. Disquiet refers to a feeling of anxiety, and this story has plenty of unease for both its narrator and readers. Future editors, as obsessed as they are with completionism. 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. At times, the narrator is a little too woeful and a little to certain of what he is saying. He takes a simple gesture, a familiar place and transforms it magically into something more.
Margaret jull costa sitting at his desk, bernardo soares imagined himself free forever of rua dos douradores, of his boss vasques, of moreira the bookkeeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy. Three entries from the book of disquiet poetry northwest. The book is an aggregation of disparate diary entries that are abstract, dense, and at times, eccentric. A table made out of pinewood is a pinetree but it is also a table. The book of disquiet is funny, lifeaffirming, and, of course, desperately sad. The book of disquiet penguin classics pessoa, fernando, zenith, richard, zenith, richard on. In his clearly written, welldocumented book, cousineau analyzes pessoas major prose workthe unfinished, unordered, and unwritten book of disquiet, attributed to heteronym bernardo soares, the selfconfessed character of an unwritten novel.
He published his rst essay in literary criticism in 1912, his rst piece of creative prose a passage from the book of disquiet in 19, and his first poems in 1914. He began publishing just two years after, and in 19 published an excerpt from the book of disquiet, a lifetime project. This excerpt of the book of disquiet is featured at poetry northwest courtesy of new directions press. The book of disquiet pt 11 by fernando pessoa read by a poetry. The book of disquiet also translated as the book of disquietude has a format somewhat like a journal or diary and is also a collection of vignettes and reflections. Posted in fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet, translations from portuguese into english leave a comment finally, i manage to rise from my seat only to find that i still seem to be carrying it around with me, only now its even heavier because its become the seat of my own subjectivity.
Very often these thoughts are left incomplete and undeveloped. In the early 1990s four translations of the book of disquiet appeared. And yet, when a stranger messaged me on facebook because theyd seen that i was a fan, we wound up talking about it for an hour, stumbling around in circles trying to explain the way we felt. When i went to college for english and creative writing, i had never heard of this book. The narrator, perhaps a standin for pessoa himself, is clearly a distant literary relative of shakespeares hamlet or eliots prufrock.
The book of disquiet is the portuguese modernist master fernando pessoas. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete english edition by master translator. Margaret jull costa sitting at his desk, bernardo soares imagined himself free forever of rua. It is written by character senhor soares, who is assumed to be an alter ego for pessoa. The book of disquiet manuscript, as well as most of pessoas work, was found in a trunk after his death he hardly published anything while alive. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa is one such modern masterpiece that i read last week. We continue with the next installment of pessoas book of disquiet accompanied by imagery i montaged together from my giphy account. The book of disquiet 1982 is a novel by portuguese author fernando pessoa, published posthumously, using the heteronym bernardo soares. Pessoas book does give few concrete facts about the writer or the world of the writer. Now an uproarious sampling of its funny writings can be found in this collection, by. Bernando soares, the eponymous author of the book of disquiet, a bookkeeper in lisbon, records his observations of everyday life as if we were walking through an art gallery. A few select writers become companions who accompany you on lifes journey, or whatever part of it might coincide with the reading of their books. But the book of disquiet, made up of hundreds of short texts that constitute a sort. Published posthumously, the book of disquiet is a fragmentary lifetime project, left unedited by the author.
Written over the course of fernando pessoas life, it was first published in 1982, pieced together from the thousands of individual manuscript pages left behind by pessoa after his death in 1935. Soares himself, in the only moment of being seen from the outside, looks like those who hope for nothing because its perfectly useless to hope. The uniqueness of this book makes it next to impossible to suggest other reading alternatives, but certainly breakfast with socrates by robert rowland smith will provide more food for thought for the philosophically contemplative mind. 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 couldnt guarantee that it would be ready for publication within the year. Was 18 march 1914 the most extraordinary date in modern literature. Translations from portuguese into english the book of. Picking up on soaress wry selfdescription, cousineau fills a largely missing dimension in the existing anglophone criticism and. An autobiography or diary containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions.
He was inspired by his stepuncle henrique dos santos rosa, who introduced him to portuguese romantic poetry from the 1800s. The book of disquiet 1982 is a novel by portuguese author fernando pessoa, published posthumously, using the heteronym bernardo soares quotes. He published his first essay in literary criticism in 1912, his first piece of creative prose a passage from the book of disquiet in 19, and his first poems in. The book of disquiet paperback chicago public library.
The book of disquiet is the weirdest autobiography ever. Fernando pessoa, from the book of disquiet artseensoho. The book of disquiet, opera as one man, with films. The prizewinning, complete and unabridged translationthe best englishlanguage version we are likely to see for a long time, if ever the guardian of a work of unclassifiable genius. The book of disquiet is remarkably difficult to talk about. In fact, the book stayed with pessoa himself, discovered after his death in a trunk full of thousands of unpublished pages and not published until many years later. He says he is timid, with no aptitude for life and wants never to be a protagonist. I would not really refer to this story as a novel, but more like a long short story.
The book of disquiet is one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. It was then, around 1910, that he began to write in portuguese, writing a great deal of poetry. They stood before the great gateway, all around an empty and open countryside, ugly countryside, flat mudploughed fields. The book of disquiet is the portuguese modernist master fernando pessoas greatest literary achievement. A handmade box of disquiet this site describes an edition of fernando pessoas the book of disquiet, typeset by hand and printed by hand on a selection of various ephemera, and housed unbound in a handprinted box. The book of disquiet by fernando pessoa paperback, 304 pages. Fernando pessoa quotes author of the book of disquiet. For more, read an essay about the text by rick vanderknyff and an interview with translator margaret jull costa.
The book of disquiet always seems to be rejecting any suggestion that it might be importantor indeed worth reading at all. The edition of the book that im reading richard zeniths translation from the original portuguese, published by penguin in 2001 comprises 481 of these notes, and ends with a disquiet. Read five poems from hugh thomas maze, a witty and languageloving collection of mistranslations. The book of disquiet quotes by fernando pessoa goodreads.
Fernando pessoa, excerpt from the book of disquiet if only our life were one long standing at the window, if only we could just stay there, like an unmoving curl of smoke, frozen at that one moment in the evening that paints the curve of the mountains with painful color. O n august 29th, new directions will publish the first complete, chronological english translation of fernando pessoas the book of disquiet. I had been reading the book by sollers on and off for weeks, so when i picked up this little book, disquiet, by the novel author julia leigh, it just happened tobe a coincidence that the setting of the story is in a chateau in france. An assembly of sometimes linked fragments, it is a. Illustration by riccardo vecchio if ever there was a writer in flight from his name, it was fernando pessoa. About disquiet, please the new yorker is, of course, a bastion of superb essays, influential investigative journalism, and insightful arts criticism. The book of disquiet is organized as a sort of diary of random thoughts. Fernando pessoa describes his work the book of disquiet as being an autobiography lacking facts. The hunt for a complete edition of fernando pessoas. The chevalier of disquiet by max nelson the new york. The book of disquiet stays with you, doesnt want to be consumed all in a rush, and is unlike any other book youll ever read. On that morning the sky was balm, a pale and whitish blue.