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4th out of 46 books
—
12 voters
The Book of Imaginary Beings
In a perfect pairing of talent, this volume blends twenty illustrations by Peter Sís with Jorge Luis Borges's 1957 compilation of 116 "strange creatures conceived through time and space by the human imagination," from dragons and centaurs to Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat and the Morlocks of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. A lavish feast of exotica brought vividly to life wi...more
Paperback, deluxe, 236 pages
Published
September 26th 2006
by Penguin Classics
(first published 1967)
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A fascinating compendium of incredible beasts from world mythology, folklore and fiction. The entries are generally from one to three pages in length. There are illustrations, too, by one Peter Sís; stylish intaglio etchings. The format is that of an encyclopedia with the entries in alphabetical order. My favorite entries include the "Banshees," "The Celestial Cock," "The Chinese Dragon," "The Western Dragon," "The Hydra," "Lilith," "The Golem," "The Unicorn," "The Chinese Unicorn," etc. etc.
Th...more
Th...more
This book is great! Unlike Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or Holly Black's Arthur Spiderwick's Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, which provide authoritative portraits of magical creatures in a particular fantasy world, The Book of Imaginary Beings compiles interesting stories and details about a diverse array of imagined beasts, drawing from both Western and Eastern mythologies. Borges's aim is not simply to delight his readers with whimsical stories couched in a sati...more
Borges explains at the beginning that the book is not intended to be read through, but opened at random and skimmed. Well, I read it through, and I don't regret it. But that's because I'm interested by very unusual things. Borges has here compiled from what is essentially a set of utterly trivial facts something with meaning. His selection is bizarre, pretty and humorous, and he describes each beast with great variation in tone. The reason for each voice only becomes clear after several beasts a...more
One of my favorite books when I was about 15 was the AD&D Monster Manual, the original one printed in 1977. I read it cover to cover. (Well, I skipped the demons and devils, I was a good kid.) There was something really appealing about a world where everything from ethics (How does Lawful Evil differ from Chaotic Good?) to resistance to poison (saving throws) could be quantified and understood. It was a game, but it was at least as large as real life in what it could describe. The Monster Ma...more
This fun book is a collection of descriptions, musings, exerts, etc of imaginary beings the world over. Some of the 'tales' are just a blip, no more than a paragraph, while others run through several pages. There are also fantastic illustrations to accompany most of them. While I did throughly enjoy this book, it is the kind of book you can lay down for several days, and pick up something else to read that is more involved (which is exactly what I ended up doing...). Some of Borges snippets are...more
This book is an anthology of mythical and literary creatures described in the inimitable style of Borges. There are 120 different passages documenting such fauna , the following is from "Fauna of Mirrors" :
...more
In one of the volumes of the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses that appeared in Paris during the first half of the eighteenth century, Father Fontecchio of the Society of Jesus planned a study of the superstitions and misinformation of the common people of Canton; in the preliminary outline he n
Este é um daqueles livros que penso que irei consultar com alguma frequência.
É um livro que caracteriza de uma forma muito simples todos (quase todos) os seres imaginários (num total de 116) que estão presentes na mitologia e religião ... como as “Mil e uma noites”, “os contos de Grimn”, “Olalla” ou “O estranho caso de Dr. Jeky e Sr. Hide” de Stevenson, Poe, Kafka, entre muitos, muitos outros.
Alguns exemplos de seres imaginários que são descritos neste livro:
- O basilisco (muito interessante)
- O...more
É um livro que caracteriza de uma forma muito simples todos (quase todos) os seres imaginários (num total de 116) que estão presentes na mitologia e religião ... como as “Mil e uma noites”, “os contos de Grimn”, “Olalla” ou “O estranho caso de Dr. Jeky e Sr. Hide” de Stevenson, Poe, Kafka, entre muitos, muitos outros.
Alguns exemplos de seres imaginários que são descritos neste livro:
- O basilisco (muito interessante)
- O...more
I bought this book expecting to love it. Weirdly, I didn't. I realize I'm the same person who was complaining about Borges repeating themes over and over (see my review of his collected nonfictions) but much of this book, which at least WAS different, reminded me of the D&D monster manual minus the stats and with more polished prose. I much preferred Borges' straight fiction. Maybe because it was more about consciousness rather than the straight-up fantastic...
However I will say that a few l...more
However I will say that a few l...more
Innanzitutto questo libro mi ha fatto scoprire che il Catoplepa non se lo sono inventato Elio e le storie tese (Catoplepa, catoplepa, io ti dono le mie Tepa...), no forse quello di Elio era il Catoblepa...comunque è un essere piuttosto ripugnate.
Poi sono incappata nel capitolo dedicato agli esseri che vivono negli specchi il quale mi ha fatto scattare la classica campanella: dove l'ho già letto? Dunsany? Magari lo lascio per ultimo che i suoi libri sono sparsi nella libreria. Lovecraf? Sfogliat...more
Poi sono incappata nel capitolo dedicato agli esseri che vivono negli specchi il quale mi ha fatto scattare la classica campanella: dove l'ho già letto? Dunsany? Magari lo lascio per ultimo che i suoi libri sono sparsi nella libreria. Lovecraf? Sfogliat...more
An interesting compendium of fantastic beings, mainly derived from Greco-Roman and Chinese culture. Borges describes these "monsters" through many citations of classic authors, from Plinius to Flaubert to many others. The book is really short, but the various descriptions are very vivid and accurate. Thanks to these it is possible to understand very clearly from where many of the most famous "imaginary beings" of literature and, more in general, current culture come from. A very interesting book...more
This non-exhaustive volume tantalizes readers with witty summarizations and quotations from literature several centuries or mere decades old. Borges has no problem gently mocking mythical creatures, like the ones that haunted the tall tales of U.S. lumber camps (ex: 'The colors of its plumage varied according to the season and the condition of the observer.'). Some entries trace mythical creatures back several millenia while others are comprised entirely of quotations from the works of C.S. Lewi...more
Less bestiary or reference guide than source-citation for non-real animals throughout literature. There is also a sprinkling of contemporary (1950s) analysis, my favorite of which concerned the declining majesty of the Western Dragon (which was still considered real up until the mid-sixteenth century).
"Time has considerably tarnished the prestige of Dragons. We believe in lions as reality and as symbol; we believe in the Minotaur as symbol, though no longer reality; the Dragon is perhaps the bes...more
"Time has considerably tarnished the prestige of Dragons. We believe in lions as reality and as symbol; we believe in the Minotaur as symbol, though no longer reality; the Dragon is perhaps the bes...more
This was totally an impulse buy at HalfPrice Books a little bit ago, a short book I thought I could toss off in little snippets as I went to bed each night. I've read Borges in short-story-form, and assumed this odd little beastiary would be similar in tone to his other whimisically-magical realism work.
It wasn't quite what I expected. There is some whimsy in these pages, but it is hidden amidst a series of almost-encyclopedic descriptions of various mythological and legendary creatures from a w...more
It wasn't quite what I expected. There is some whimsy in these pages, but it is hidden amidst a series of almost-encyclopedic descriptions of various mythological and legendary creatures from a w...more
"The Book of Imaginary Beings" is a slim little volume in which Borges indulges a number of his interests: enumeration, imaginary realities, and the cultural and linguistic history of Europe and Asia. He's at his best when he's describing certain particularly Borgesian animals: the minotaur in his labyrinth, the creatures who live on the other side of mirrors, the fish on whose back rests the entire world. But those are only a few of the 100+ passages here. In the others, he describes many varia...more
Mar 30, 2009
Julia Boechat Machado
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
argentinean-literature,
1950s
Como em todos os livros de Borges, devemos sempre desconfiar do que ele fala e cita. Uma pequena antologia de seres imaginários de várias mitologias e romances.
An interesting bestiary compiled by Borges and filled with legendary and literary reference. Well worth the minimal dollar amount I paid.
I used this book as a reference for a sketchbook project (http://www.sketchbookproject.com/libr...). Borges' descriptions are beautifully evocative in all kinds of directions and were for me very visual. I actually first looked at this edition because of Peter Sis' spare illustrations, but soon became intrigued by the way my mind created very different images from his mysterious and delicate renderings.
At first I grazed the text, but in the end I read from start to finish and then grazed again.
I...more
At first I grazed the text, but in the end I read from start to finish and then grazed again.
I...more
I don't think I even finished the book in its entirety. As suggested in the preface, I didn't read it from beginning to end, but occasionally dipped instead every now and then in a page or two of this wonder. What's fascinating about Borges's writing here--and as always in his works--is its sheer objectivity, as though it were a textbook (in a good way), and that blurs the line between the real and the imagined, that what has been referred to as suspending the disbelief, furthering the already w...more
Parts of the book were really interesting but most of it looked like some random rushed trough stories, picked up from here and there. It didn't sound comlete, I think there were more adequate ways to introduce the imaginary creatures than the alphabetic order - their origin for instans. Most of the descriptions weren't full and were too sloppy, at several places I got confused where did one myth finish and the other start.
If I have to be totally objective, a part from the popular author, I did...more
If I have to be totally objective, a part from the popular author, I did...more
blog
3.5 stars
I’ve been sitting on this book for quite a while since I finished actually, trying to establish just what I thought about it and how much, really, I enjoyed it. It’s an odd little beast; part encyclopedia, part literary-analysis, and part extracts from other works. Unlike most modern encyclopedias of mythological creatures, it’s a book to savior and enjoy, rather than to use purely for reference and research – the entries contain not just the plain facts (such as they are) but an au...more
3.5 stars
I’ve been sitting on this book for quite a while since I finished actually, trying to establish just what I thought about it and how much, really, I enjoyed it. It’s an odd little beast; part encyclopedia, part literary-analysis, and part extracts from other works. Unlike most modern encyclopedias of mythological creatures, it’s a book to savior and enjoy, rather than to use purely for reference and research – the entries contain not just the plain facts (such as they are) but an au...more
This book has taken me months; in fact, I'm still not quite done with it. But that's how it's meant to be read, I think. A few pages at a time, and then weeks to dream of the beasts you've met. It's written like an encyclopedia for imaginary beings. Every entry is a new creature of fancy, beautiful or terrifying, religious or secular, philosophical of entirely whimsical. The book is written beautifully and simply, although "simple" here means not one word too many- the contents are certainly not...more
Apr 02, 2010
Mika
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
myyttien ja kirjallisuuden hirviöstä kiinnostuneille
Valitettavasti Borgesin keskeneräiseksi jäänyt yritys jäsentää kirjallisuudessa ja eri myyteissä esiintyviä mielikuvitusolentoja hakuteokseksi jää suppeaksi ja hajanaisen epätäydelliseksi.
Ensimmäisen laitoksen esipuheessa kirjailija pyytää apuja muilta, jotta seuraavissa laitoksissa olisi enemmän sisältöjä. Ei voi muuta sanoa, kuin että Wikipediassakin on paljon paremmin määritelty noita taruolentoja ja kattavammin niiden esiintymiset kaunokirjallisuudessa.
Rajaus on aina ongelmallista, enkä oiv...more
Ensimmäisen laitoksen esipuheessa kirjailija pyytää apuja muilta, jotta seuraavissa laitoksissa olisi enemmän sisältöjä. Ei voi muuta sanoa, kuin että Wikipediassakin on paljon paremmin määritelty noita taruolentoja ja kattavammin niiden esiintymiset kaunokirjallisuudessa.
Rajaus on aina ongelmallista, enkä oiv...more
This is not a collection of short stories by Borges—for that, see The Aleph and Other Stories 1933-1969, Ficciones, Labyrinths or A Personal Anthology. However, like Borges’s short stories, this work blurs fiction and non-fiction. Employing the non-fiction style of the encyclopedia, Borges writes about creatures that exist only in fiction. Insofar as the work discusses creatures like chimerae and kraken seriously, it sometimes seems like something from medieval times. The beings Borges discusses...more
I read this book when I was in school, 1993-1997; in Sharjah Indian School, Sharjah Library.
It was amazing to read about so many creatures that could exist in human consciousness or could come out of Human consciousness.
Some legends were explores, some folklore stories, some myths while some based on religious believes.
I would like to have this book is some one is selling, will pay for shipment to UAE..
Keep reading & Have a nice time
Regards
It was amazing to read about so many creatures that could exist in human consciousness or could come out of Human consciousness.
Some legends were explores, some folklore stories, some myths while some based on religious believes.
I would like to have this book is some one is selling, will pay for shipment to UAE..
Keep reading & Have a nice time
Regards
Que idea tan exótica revivir la costumbre medieval de escribir un bestiario, y más atractiva la propuesta de enriquecerlo con las eruditas notas y agudos comentarios de Jorge Luís Borges... poblado de seres de todas las épocas y lugares, desde la antigua China hasta la decimonónica Inglaterra, este bestiario incorpora de manera maravillosa todos los sueños que el ser humano ha querido ver manifestado en el mundo material, sin que esto sea de alguna manera posible, ¿o sí?
Errado - o livro não engendra, exclusivamente, um bestiário de seres imaginários.
Ao estilo de Borges - encantado por símbolos e representações - é mais que isso, uma história das histórias das corporificações linguísticas (!) de cada ser imaginário, quem falou ? - quem escreveu ? - como foi registrado originalmente ? - qual a nascença do nome ...?
O reencontro com bestas tão familiares, de forma tão poética - a interpretação normal do tema do livro - por si só vale a pena, mas mais incrível é sab...more
Ao estilo de Borges - encantado por símbolos e representações - é mais que isso, uma história das histórias das corporificações linguísticas (!) de cada ser imaginário, quem falou ? - quem escreveu ? - como foi registrado originalmente ? - qual a nascença do nome ...?
O reencontro com bestas tão familiares, de forma tão poética - a interpretação normal do tema do livro - por si só vale a pena, mas mais incrível é sab...more
Frankly, I was expecting more having loved Collected Fictions. It wasn't as witty as the cover claimed and it was not particularly interesting. Reducing myths that have evolved in some cases for over a thousand years down to something that one might read on cracked.com robbed them of basically any value that they had. Only a handful of entries prevent me from giving this book 2 stars.
This is quite the interesting little bestiary. I did expect it to be riveting even in its logbook treatment of mythologies, since that's what I like, but it definitely was not riveting. It's a fun read to have before bed, reading a few entries before shutting off the lights. I learned of a great many creatures of the human brain that I did not know about before, and in that especially, this book does its job. If you're looking for something in-depth though, this isn't it. It's a great book to ge...more
Stephen King recommended author. In 1981's Danse Macabre, King dedicated his book as follows: "It's easy enough - perhaps too easy - to memorialize the dead. This book is for the six great writers of the macabre who are still alive." The six listed were Robert Bloch, Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei, Manly Wade Wellman.
" Me gustan los relojes de arena, los mapas, la tipografía del siglo XVIII, las etimologías, el sabor del café y la prosa de Stevenson; el otro comparte esas preferencias, pero de un modo vanidoso que las convierte en atributos de un actor."
Es un libro cargado de etimologías, cosmologías y algo de Stevenson.
De lectura rápida y sencilla, pero cargada de contenidos.
Es un libro cargado de etimologías, cosmologías y algo de Stevenson.
De lectura rápida y sencilla, pero cargada de contenidos.
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| Another side comment on a book I haven't read, for Barbara | 2 | 26 | Feb 13, 2009 02:28pm |
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (Spanish pronunciation: [xoɾxe lwis boɾxes]) was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in Surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. Bo...more
More about Jorge Luis Borges...
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“We are as ignorant of the meaning of the dragon as we are of the meaning of the universe.”
—
10 people liked it
“Chang Tzu tells us of a persevering man who after three laborious years mastered the art of dragon-slaying. For the rest of his days, he had not a single opportunity to test his skills.”
—
10 people liked it
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Feb 04, 2013 11:21am
Yes, do. It's a joy to read!
Feb 04, 2013 06:42pm