The Library of Babel

The Library of Babel

4.4 of 5 stars 4.40  ·  rating details  ·  2,063 ratings  ·  85 reviews
Jorge Luis Borges's famous 1941 meditation on language, alphabets, and the library that contains all knowledge is an allegory of our Universe, and in this edition is complemented and enhanced by the etching of the French artist, Erik Desmazi res.
Hardcover, 39 pages
Published August 1st 2000 by David R. Godine Publisher (first published 1963)
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Manny
In Borges's short story, the world consists of a gigantic library which contains every possible book that can ever be written. So, somewhere, there must logically be the book, the one that reveals the Library's secret! Unfortunately, there is no filing system, and no one has any idea of how to find the elusive book. In fact, it's challenging even to locate one which contains a meaningful sentence: most of them are gibberish from beginning to end.

Well, our own world isn't quite as bad - but it's...more
Danial fadaee
کتابخانه بابل با ترجمه کاوه سید حسینی حدودا 260صفحه است.
در مورداین اثر همین بس که یکی از گرانقدر ترین مجموعه های داستان کوتاه زمانه است.خود بورخس شخصا علاقه ای به رمان نداشت.در این داستانهای کوتاه خواننده به قدری درگیر میشود که تا مدتها نمیتواند ذهنش را متمرکز به موضوع دیگری کند.از این مجموعه داستانهایی که شخصا پیشنهاد میکنم حتما خوانده شود "جاودانه"کتابخانه بابل"آیینه و نقاب" دیسک "و کتاب شن" است.گرچه به راحتی نمیستوان از کنار بقه گذشت
John Wiswell
Sep 19, 2007 John Wiswell rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Jorge Borges, fantasy readers, sci fi readers, anyone with an underappreciated imagination
Easily one of the strangest books I've ever read. I actually ordered it by accident, thinking it was an anthology. But actually this entire slender volume is devoted to one Borges short story, complete with beautiful etchings showing that his impossible library is actually possible. While it's not worth the cover price for everyone, anyone who dismissed his fictional library should flip through these pages and see that he wasn't writing flippantly. As "Library of Babel" was possibly Borges' most...more
Antonio
Meh, a veces, Borges da la impresión de no entender bien los conceptos con los que juega. En general, cuando habla de matemáticas o física la caga.

22 símbolos alfabéticos + el espacio + la coma + el punto = 25 símbolos distintos

Asumiendo que estos símbolos funcionan distinto a los símbolos del lenguaje español (porque son 22) y tienen un significado distinto, todas las *permutaciones* en que pueden presentarse estos 25 símbolos se expresan como 25! (25 factorial), que es igual a 1,551121 * 10^2...more
Miquixote
A universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format.

twenty-five symbols (twenty-two letters, the space, the period, the comma), whose recombinations and repetitions encompass everything possible to express in all languages. The totality of such variations would form a Total Library of astronomical size.

infinity, reality, cabalistic reasoning, and labyrinths.

the view of the universe as a sphere having its center everywhere and its circumference n...more
Capsguy
Found this to be a great analogy to the world we live in. Everyone seems to have the answer to all of life's problems, but the issue is it's not so simple to sort through all of the variables when you have little to no means of measuring each option. That's pretty much how I read this short story, in life it is feasible to live the 'perfect' life, since the variables are there, however since there is no distinctive guide to do so, we are forced to do our best to sort through the gibberish (in th...more
amir
بورخس لامصب همچین تو رو توی هزار توهایش درگیر میکند که هیچ چیزی نمیتواند تو روئ از اون دنیاهای پیچیده بیرون کند...شاهکار ادبیات قرن بیست...مکاملا برخلاف مارکز که هیچ علاقه ای بهش ندارم
Frank Rosenblat
This is a phenomenal short story, which consists only of an explanation of the workings of this fantastic library. In fact, the library's purpose and mechanism is so simple, that it can be detailed in a paragraph. Once the basic layout of the library is grasped by the reader, the implications and possibilities explode from the narrative. A great allegory to the theories of infinite alternate universes, that are commonly expounded upon these days. I don't know if these theories were popular or ev...more
Kamituel
Brilliant.
First Borges' piece I've read. The language and style almost instantly resembled me Italo Calvino's one, which I admire and enjoy greatly. A little bit of googling followed and I found out there are some similarities between those two geniuses.
Very interesting and extremely well-written. Borges has the ability to tell you the story just like you'd imagined it would look like. Very sharp, precise words are telling astonishing (but not quite revolutionary) ideas.
I'm giving 5 stars out o...more
Bahar
چند باره خواندن هزار تو ها و کتابخانه های بی پایان بورخس همیشه وسوسه ام میکند.
Lynn
This week's book review is The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley. To start this off with I love Borges. If you have not read him FIX THAT NOW! I'm not kidding he is amazing. One of the best, if not the best, speculative fiction authors ever. The short story is only 17 pages long but that is more than enough for Borges. It has wonderful engravings by Erik Desamzieres. The story sounds simple enough. The world is a giant library. The author of the story is a travel...more
Tania
this is incredible. an amazing story in picture book format. a beautiful book but impossible to find.
mohamadreza Armandi
بورخس رو بخاطر ایده های نابش دوست دارم
Samane
Nov 12, 2008 Samane added it
a world without end
Jori Richardson
It has been a year or two since I have last read anything by my favorite author of all time, Jorge Luis Borges.
"The Library of Babel" was always one of the short stories that stayed with me, and I am glad that I decided to re-read it last night.
Here, the Universe and the Library are one and the same, and the world is made up of shelves upon shelves of countless, infinite numbers of books.
The books, however, do not contain stories and histories and vast knowledge. Or, perhaps they do. In fact, ma...more
Yana
Aug 25, 2012 Yana rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: G.
Recommended to Yana by: J.
Shelves: y-list
Here is Yana Filkovsky - Saito's Review
OF
The Library of Babel
by Jorge Luis Borges

I.
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges IS
of ALL
things
a
One of my favorite things.

II.
Seriously - that's it; and that's the only thing I need, is this.
I don't need this or this.
Just this Borges' Library of Babel.
And this ashtray, the ashtray and the Library of Babel and that's all I need.
And these lucifers. The ashtray, the lucifers, and the Borges' Babel , and that's all I need.
And these coffin nails....more
Steve aka Sckenda
“All books are the work of a single author who is timeless and anonymous.”

“Their fiction has but a single plot, with every imaginable permutation.”

-- Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Jorge Luis Borges was a blind visionary of infinite imagination. My favorite Borges collection is “Ficciones” (“Fictions”), which consists of 17 short stories that Borges threads with fantasy, mysticism, Gnosticism and philosophy. Most of the stories are told in an intimate first-person point of view of the narrator (some...more
Natalie
Sep 17, 2008 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: librarians
Borges's short piece (the entire text is approximately twenty pages) revolves around the conceit of the library as a metaphor for the universe; each room a hexagon lined on four sides with shelves, and then the librarian's quarters (all are librarians) and then the doorway into the next identical room. It is the same both up and down and on all sides, an infinite regression of rooms filled with books, an infinite amount of books, and the sum of the library containing every permutation of letters...more
Marc
A short story yet vast in its attempt as an allegory of the universe. It explains man's endeavors at understanding the complexities of everything ever created, asking where and how and why our existence came about. The infinite hexagonal galleries signify how intense our universe is, and how it is expanding, both in the sense of space and of knowledge.

The library is said to contain everything that has ever been written, and everything that will be written, in all languages both dead and thriving...more
Michelle
"...but I suspect that the human species -- the unique species -- is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret."

A very thought-provoking short story meditating on the difference of languages, the interpretations behind them, and how books and stories written in these languages will by far surpass mankind.
Quinn Tastic
So, this short story is an interesting concept and all, it just didn't really speak to me. I have some friends that are big into literature, and Borges in particular, but this story didn't really do anything for me. I also wonder i i am missing some background knowledge on Borges, since i have next to none. Maybe his other works are better, but I am less inclined to investigate them after reading this.
David Lafferty
As a fan of Umberto Eco and The Name of the Rose I knew that Borges and Joyce were required reading. This short story by Borges is brilliant and demands many more readings. His influence on Eco is clearly seen. Looking forward to reading more of his work, and then on to Joyce!
Maryann
More of an imagining of the universe as a great library that a short story. There are no characters or plot, it's a fragment of a story, or a setting. It's interesting and thought provoking and the etchings are fascinating. But, it's also very short and I'm not sure it deserves a stand alone book.
Asia
Feb 04, 2009 Asia rated it 1 of 5 stars
Shelves: wtf
I was terribly disappointed by this book. Granted I did not finish it. I flipped through it. Found it to be mostly mundane and incredibly boring descriptive sentences. (stereo instructions comes to mind) There was nothing that seemed even remotely interesting about this book. I've read some quotes taken from Borges' work and loved them, so I will try to not get jaded about his work and attempt something less existential.
Artem Huletski
Пока больше всего удивляет в Борхесе степень влияния идей, несмотря на отсутствие какого-нибудь значительного magnum opus. Его рассказы побеждают по очкам, они - нейтронные звезды, сжатые до возможного предела; шарики для гольфа, уверенно катящиеся к своим лункам.
M0rningstar
I don't like the style of writing (another reviewer compared it to a stereo manual or something like that, if I remember correctly), but the themes in the story are very thought-provoking.

(I read the electronic text, not the print edition.)
Luann
Sep 20, 2010 Luann rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Luann by: Rosianna
The students at my school are studying "main idea" and "facts and details" right now. While reading this, I felt like a student. I believe I get Borges' main idea, but his facts and details leave me a little puzzled. The writing is beautiful, but what does it mean? I do love the concept of the universe as a library - ubiquitous, infinite, and everlasting. I'm giving this 3.5 stars - at least until someone can help me understand those facts and details a bit more?
Daniel White
I enjoyed the imagery that Borges portrays. It reads like fantasy thus making it enjoyable. But it also adequately expresses the feelings he had about the world at the time, or what he wanted it to be.
Amber
"Let heaven exist, though my palce be in hell. Let me be outrages and annihilated, but for one instat,in one being, let Your enormous Library be justified." There are so many amazing lines in this story.
Daniela
El cuento narra la existencia de una biblioteca infinita llena de un mar libros imaginables o innimaginables, la narración es bastante ligera y aunque en un principio pareciera que la trama no tiene mucho sentido, creo que Borges nos regala su visión personal del universo, creo que es una metáfora de la disposición del universo y la vida; su aleatoriedad en todos los sentidos de nuestra existencia, desde los que se juzgan sabios para determinar la existencia de otros, los aventureros en busca de...more
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کتابخانۀ بابل و ۲۳ داستان دیگر (Paperback)
کتابخانۀ بابل و ۲۳ داستان دیگر (Paperback)
كتاب خانه بابل
La biblioteca de Babel (Paperback)
Die Bibliothek von Babel (Paperback)

500
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...
Ficciones Labyrinths Collected Fictions The Aleph and Other Stories Selected Poems

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“You who read me, are You sure of understanding my language?” 48 people liked it
“The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries.” 4 people liked it
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