The Book of Imaginary Beings

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Borges but still Borges
Review: A much more full and informative review of this book is made by a Mr.Wischmeyer on the Amazon site. I recommend it.
I remember reading this book with disappointment. It seemed to me as dictionary- like works often do constructed in a formula- like fashion. Of course it has Borges tremendous learning, and his capacity to search through literatures no one else gets to , to find for the reader certain treats and insights. Yet on the whole like the fantastic creatures themselves the work does not have real life, and the deepest kind of human feeling. A minor work of a great master.

Rating:
Summary: Zoology of the Imagination - Literary Compilation by Borges
Review: Ctesias, physician to the Persian emperor Artaxerxes Mnemon, compiled a deficient description of distant India in the fourth century B.C., in which he mentions the crocotta, a blend of a dog and a wolf. The Roman writer Pliny expands on this work by describing a cross between the hyena and antelope.

Kafka tells about an unnamed creature, that is half cat and half lamb, not only in appearance, but also in behavior. C. S. Lewis describes chilling monsters in his fantasy fiction Perelandra. Dante paints a vivid, horrifying picture of Cerberus, a creature with clawed hands that rip the skin of the souls of the damned as they file past him. In The Time Machine H. G. Wells predicts the future split of mankind into the weak, aristocratic Eloi living on the surface, and the carnivorous Morlocks, a race of underground proletarians that feast on the Eloi.

Borges has arranged these fantastical creatures alphabetically, but urges the reader to skip around, looking for subjects of interest. Some are familiar creatures: centaurs, nymphs, harpies, sirens, banshee, phoenix, hippogriffs, minotaur, mandrakes, and unicorns. Others I failed to recognize: A Bao A Qu, lamed wufniks, kujata, nagas, odradek, catoblepas, and others.

Borges is a remarkable linguist, familiar with several modern European languages as well as Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and medieval Italian. This unusual zoological compilation reflects his broad literary interests. The Book of Imaginary Beings was co-authored with Margarita Guerrero.

While I enjoyed perusing The Book of Imaginary Beings, this little collection is not among his best works. However, the reader familiar with Borges will find this little book an interesting addition to a larger collection of his works.

The first edition with 82 topics was published in Mexico in 1957 and titled Handbook of Fantastic Zoology. In 1967 a second edition with 34 additional entries was published in Buenos Aires. My 1969 English-edition is slightly larger with 120 subjects. Newer editions are available.

In 1971-72 Robert Parris composed a chamber work, a suite of seven musical portraits and a final reprise, based on this book and sharing the same title, The Book of Imaginary Beings. The first performance was on May 7, 1972 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. during the American Music Festival under the direction of Richard Bales.

Rating:
Summary: The Book of Imaginary Beings
Review: This book, by noted Argentinian writer, essayist and librarian Jorge Luis Borges, is one of the most complete and imaginitively compiled cyclopedias of mythical beings. Though it focuses mainly on western mythology, this book is a comprehensive look at the beasts that have haunted the dark forests of our minds for millenia.