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Book of Imaginary Beings

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Book of Imaginary Beings
First edition
AuthorJorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero[1]
Original titleManual de zoología fantástica (later retitled El libro de los seres imaginarios)
TranslatorNorman Thomas di Giovanni (1969)[1] and others
LanguageSpanish
GenreBestiary
PublisherFondo de Cultura Económica (1957); Dutton (1969)[1]
Publication date
1957, 1967
Publication placeArgentina[citation needed]
Published in English
June 1969
Pages159 (1967); 256 (English)[1]
ISBN0-525-06990-9
OCLC45958
398.4/69
LC ClassGR825.B6; GR825.B613[1]

The Book of Imaginary Beings was written by Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero and published in 1957 under the original Spanish title Manual de zoología fantástica ("Handbook of fantastic zoology").[1][2][3] It contains descriptions of mythical beasts from folklore and literature. In 1967 the authors published an expanded edition retitled as El libro de los seres imaginarios. Borges collaborated on the first English translation, which was praised upon its publication in 1969.

Contents

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Although a work of fiction, the book is situated in a tradition of paper museums, bestiaries, and natural history writing.[4] In the preface, Borges states that the book is to be read "as with all miscellanies... not... straight through... Rather we would like the reader to dip into the pages at random, just as one plays with the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope"; and that "legends of men taking the shapes of animals" have been omitted.

Though Borges conducted research for the book, he also fabricated sources and invented details (and in the case of the peryton, a whole creature). As translator Andrew Hurley writes, "The nature of Borges’ erudition, creativity, and sense of fun is such that it has been simply impossible to ferret out all the originals, where originals in fact ever existed (some of his “quotations” are almost certainly apocrypha, put-ons)."[5]

Entries

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As noted below, different versions of the text contain different numbers of entries. In the 1969 English translation, the text contains the following beings:

  • A Bao A Qu
  • Abtu and Anet
  • The Amphisbaena
  • An Animal Imagined by Kafka
  • An Animal Imagined by C.S. Lewis
  • The Animal Imagined by Poe
  • Animals in the Form of Spheres
  • Antelopes with Six Legs
  • The Ass with Three Legs
  • Bahamut
  • Baldanders
  • The Banshee
  • The Barometz
  • The Basilisk
  • Behemoth
  • The Brownies
  • Burak
  • The Carbuncle
  • The Catoblepas
  • The Celestial Stag
  • The Centaur
  • Cerberus
  • The Cheshire Cat and the Kilkenny Cats
  • The Chimera
  • The Chinese Dragon
  • The Chinese Fox
  • The Chinese Phoenix
  • Chronos or Hercules
  • A Creature Imagined by C.S. Lewis
  • The Crocotta and the Leucrocotta
  • A Crossbreed
  • The Double
  • The Eastern Dragon
  • The Eater of the Dead
  • The Eight-Forked Serpent
  • The Elephant That Foretold the Birth of the Buddha
  • The Eloi and the Morlocks
  • The Elves
  • An Experimental Account of What Was Known, Seen, and Met by Mrs. Jane Lead in London in 1694
  • The Fairies
  • Fastitocalon
  • Fauna of Chile
  • Fauna of China
  • Fauna of Mirrors
  • Fauna of the United States
  • Garuda
  • The Gnomes
  • The Golem
  • The Griffon
  • Haniel, Kafziel, Azriel, and Aniel
  • Haokah, the Thunder God
  • Harpies
  • The Heavenly Cock
  • The Hippogriff
  • Hochigan
  • Humbaba
  • The Hundred-Heads
  • The Hydra of Lerna

Versions

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The original 1957 publication of Manual de zoología fantástica contained eighty-two entries. Thirty-four additional entries were added to the retitled second edition. While collaborating on the 1969 English translation, Borges revised many of the original entries and added another four, bringing the total count to 120.[6]

In 2005, Penguin published an illustrated edition with a new English translation of the 116 entry 1967 edition as part of its series of Classics Deluxe editions.

Original editions

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  • Manual de zoología fantástica. Mexico D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica , 1957
  • El libro de los seres imaginarios. Buenos Aires: Editorial Kier, S.A., 1967

English translations

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  • The Book of Imaginary Beings. Norman Thomas di Giovanni (tr.). E.P. Dutton, 1969.
  • The Book of Imaginary Beings. Andrew Hurley (tr.), Peter Sís (illus.). Viking Penguin, 2005.

Reception

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A review from Publishers Weekly praised the book, describing it as "perfect foils for classic Borgesian musings on everything from biblical etymology to the underworld, giving the creatures particularly vivid and perfectly scaled shape".[7] Reviewing the book for The Guardian, Caspar Henderson stated that the book was brief but also a "map of the endless labyrinth of human imagination and its contents" that was "dense and deep". The reviewer also commented that the entries on legends were "delightful".[8] Benjamin DeMott in The New York Times also complimented the book, stating that it was "an amusing tribute to the human gift for seeing the invisible and debating whether it whistles".[9] An article in Journal of Modern Literature, written by Melanie Nicholson, reported that some critics described the book as a "curious but unoriginal compilation of already-told tale". However, Nicholson stated that it was also "one worthy of serious consideration".[10]

Influence

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Many writers have been influenced by The Book of Imaginary Beings; this is especially apparent in the way that many of Borges's fabrications are repeated as accurate representations of folklore in later bestiaries and books on fantastical creatures.

British weird fiction author China Miéville credits Borges for inspiring The Tain, his 2002 fantasy novella, which features "imagos" that resemble the Fauna of Mirrors entry in The Book of Imaginary Beings.

The title of Caspar Henderson's 2012 book The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a reference to Borges's book.[11] Cuban composer and classical guitarist Leo Brouwer also titled a 2018 album El Libro de los Seres Imaginarios after Borges's book.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "The book of imaginary beings" (first ed., 1969). LC Online Catalog. LCCN Permalink. Library of Congress (lccn.loc.gov). Retrieved 2016-09-23.
      "El libro de los seres imaginarios" (1967). LC Online Catalog. See also OCLC 963993 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Kier, 1967).
      See also OCLC 581678 (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1957).
  2. ^ Salus, Peter H. (April 1980). "Borges' the Book of Imaginary Beings". The Explicator. 38 (3): 13–14. doi:10.1080/00144940.1980.11483374.
  3. ^ Escande, Jessy (January 2023). "Foreign Yet Familiar: J. L. Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings and Other Cultural Ferrymen in Japanese Fantasy Games". Games and Culture. 18 (1): 3–26. doi:10.1177/15554120211060258. S2CID 247280128.
  4. ^ Nappi, Carla (2009). The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780674054356.
  5. ^ Gayle, J. K. (2013-12-13). "Borges and Guerrero on לִילִית". BLT. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
  6. ^ "Preface" (1969). The Book of Imaginary Beings
  7. ^ "The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
  8. ^ Henderson, Caspar (23 November 2012). "Caspar Henderson: rereading The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges". The Guardian.
  9. ^ DeMott, Benjamin (14 December 1969). "The Book of Imaginary Beings; By Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero. Revised, enlarged and translated from the Spanish by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. 256 pp. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $6.95". The New York Times.
  10. ^ Nicholson, Melanie (2020). "Necessary and Unnecessary Monsters: Jorge Luis Borges's Book of Imaginary Beings". Journal of Modern Literature. 43 (2): 134–151. doi:10.2979/jmodelite.43.2.08. S2CID 216237560. Project MUSE 752437.
  11. ^ Jha, Alok (23 November 2013). "The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, by Caspar Henderson – review". The Guardian.
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