Jorge Luis Borges - The Book of Imaginary Beings (1974)

Jorge Luis Borges (with Margarita Guerrero) - The Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin, 1974). Revised, enlarged and translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author.

172 pages | PDF


The Book of Imaginary Beings was originally published in 1957 as Manual de zoología fantástica ("Handbook of Fantastic Zoology"), and expanded in 1967 and 1969 to the final El libro de los seres imaginarios. The English edition, created in collaboration with translator Norman Thomas di Giovanni, contains descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature.

In the preface, Borges writes that "there is a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition. The compilation and translation of this volume have given us a great deal of such pleasure; we hope the reader will share something of the fun we felt when ransacking the bookshelves of our friends and the mazelike vaults of the Biblioteca Nacional in search of old authors and abstruse references."

The book, he says, 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."

It is sure to delight readers of classic fantasy as well as Borges's many admirers.

For a list of the creatures mentioned in the book, see the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Imaginary_Beings