Jorge Luis Borges: Nueve ensayos dantescos

[Raphael Lambach]

I've just purchased and read this book - published in Brazil as "Nove ensaios dantescos & A memórias de Shakespeare".

This book is a kind of collected works of the author that reunits Borges' impression about Dante's Divine Comedy.

[Daniel del Real]

Haven't read Ensayos Dantescos, but I remembered reading Las Memorias de Shakespeare, a set of short stories comprehending about 75 pages or so. Nothing so great but always clever and deserving analysis. I probably will read the first part of the book later this year, because it is my Borges year.

[Raphael Lambach]

I liked "A Memória de Shakespeare". It contains only a few short stories which includes "A Memória de Shakespeare" (Shakespeare's memory), "Tigres Azuis" (Blue tigers) and my favorite: "25 de agosto de 1983" (August 23rd, 1983).

[Heteronym]

Those were some of the last short-stories he wrote; although they're not as extraordinary as Fictions or The Book of Sand, they're still very clever and original - the concepts of "Blue Tigers" and "Shakespeare's Memory" were my favourites.

I haven't read Nine Dantesque Essays, but I'm curious to know what Borges has to say about Dantes. I know he admired him very much and once even thought about writing a short-story about Dante: Dante visits Florence and has an idea for a new poem. Borges, however, couldn't imagine a worthy new poem for Dante, what else could he write after The Divine Comedy, which already contained everything? So the idea fell through. It just shows not even Borges' imagination was perfect - he could imagine non-existent books, but he couldn't imagine a greater poem than The Divine Comedy

[Raphael Lambach]

He makes an analisys of Divine Comedy. He writes about some aspect which aren't visible for anybody because it's found in the deepness of Dantes's work.

I understood you meant when you Borges has a great but not perfect imagination. In fact, he couldn't imagine a poem greater and more powerful than Divine Comedy, indeed, he just does it just like this since he has an incredible senseng bigg of respect for Dante and his book. Maybe, Borges himself liked to write something bigger than Dante.

[JCamilo]

The Alleph is a mirror of Dante's Hell trip. Borges said he considered the Comedy (I think in one of those 9 essays) the greatest happiness of all literature.

Between 60's and 80's Borges raise to international fame, his blindness and also need of money plus political instability in Argentina transformed him in a teacher and there is many international travels where he registers some of his speeches. Borges style is absolutely the same as his fiction. So, anyone who likes Borges will love to read it. Plus you can get what he means that he didn't taught literature but love to literature. 9 essays is in my opinion the most pleasant book from Borges, but then, I am a fan of Dante and the Comedy.

[Cleanthess]

The Alleph is a mirror of Dante's Hell trip. Borges said he considered the Comedy (I think in one of those 9 essays) the greatest happiness of all literature.

9 essays is in my opinion the most pleasant book from Borges, but then, I am a fan of Dante and the Comedy.

Camilo, you might also like Osip Mandelstam's Conversations about Dante, which is just as fun and insightful as any of Borges nueve ensayos.