The Book of Disquiet
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3.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
For the first time―and in the best translation ever―the complete Book of Disquiet, a masterpiece beyond comparison
The Book of Disquiet is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa’s greatest literary achievement. An “autobiography” or “diary” containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete English edition by master translator Margaret Jull Costa. Most of the texts in The Book of Disquiet are written under the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, an assistant bookkeeper. This existential masterpiece was first published in Portuguese in 1982, forty-seven years after Pessoa’s death. A monumental literary event, this exciting, new, complete edition spans Fernando Pessoa’s entire writing life.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant writing
The Book of Disquiet --Fernando Pessoa
Really enjoyed this book, one of the best I've ever read. In the form of a diary, with short entries of a sentence, a paragraph, or maybe a page. Poetic and introspective, with absolutely no plot to get in the way, it needs to be read slowly.
Richard Zenith's translation, from the original Portuguese, is well noted, with methods explained. That this, posthumous masterpiece, was almost undiscovered, would have been tragic.
I never write in, or mark up books, nor do I take notes. However, this one deserves a second reading where I may just do that. Perhaps I'll carry this with me, reading an entry or two, in quiet moments. I've had so many thoughts in my life, that I foolishly considered unique. Yet here they all are, expressed in elegant tedium.
Highly recommended.
The book of disquiet
I stuck with this dreary diatribe much longer than I should have.