A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Jorge Luis Borges (Author), Andrew Hurley (Editor, Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2004

In his writing, Borges always combined high seriousness with a wicked sense of fun. Here he reveals his delight in re-creating (or making up) colorful stories from the Orient, the Islamic world, and the Wild West, as well as his horrified fascination with knife fights, political and personal betrayal, and bloodthirsty revenge. Spark-ling with the sheer exuberant pleasure of story-telling, this collection marked the emergence of an utterly distinctive literary voice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Hurley’s efforts at retranslating Borges are not anything but heroic. His versions are clear, elegant, crystalline. (Ilan Stavans, The Times Literary Supplement) [Borges’s] stories often take the outer form of some genre from popular literature, a form proved by long usage, which creates almost mythical structures. (Italo Calvino)

About the Author

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), born in Buenos Aires and educated in Europe, was one of the most widely acclaimed writers of his time. He published many collections of poems, essays, and short stories and in 1961 shared the International Publishers’ Prize with Samuel Beckett.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142437891
• ISBN-13: 978-0142437896
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity, July 26, 2005

By 

Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

there is none that doeth good."

Jorge Luis Borges is thought by many to be the 20th century's greatest Spanish-language writer. Borges was a poet, essayist and short story writer. Although born in Argentina in 1899, Borges spent most of his early years in Europe until his family returned to Buenos Aires in 1921. "A Universal History of Iniquity", originally published as "A Universal History of Infamy" was published in 1935. The stories represent a collection of stories originally published in the Argentine newspaper Critica between 1933 and 1934. The stories were a huge success for the newspaper and established Borges as a writer of the first rank in Argentina.

Each of the stories in Universal History of Iniquity was designed by Borges to give his newspaper readers a small glimpse of the evil that men (and sometimes women) do. They vary from slave owning states in the pre-U.S. Civil War south in "The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell", to the China Seas in "The Widow Ching - Pirate", to feudal Japan in "The Uncivil Teacher of Court Etiquette Kotsuke no Suke", Turkistan in "Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv" and the mean streets of Buenos Aires in "Man on Pink Corner". Borges acknowledges that these stories were all loosely based on little known historical treatises, the Arabian Nights, and other pieces of fiction. Lazarus Morell was clearly an homage to Mark Twain's Mississippi River stories.

Although this is Borges earliest work one can already see the creative, almost whimsical approach he takes to the art of telling a story. He constantly throws the reader off balance and engages in little acts of mis-direction, perhaps starting a story by telling the reader he will not set out the facts behind a story and then proceed to do just that. In the Preface to the First Edition, Borges writes that certain techniques are "overly used: mismatched lists, abrupt transitions, the reduction of a person's life to two or three scenes." While these are certainly valid self-criticisms the reader should remember, as Borges was no doubt aware, that these stories were written for publication in newspapers with severe word limitations. I thought the condensed nature of the stories heightened their impact and think that perhaps Borges was engaging in yet another act of misdirection.

I came to this book after reading Danilo Kis' "A Tomb for Boris Davidovich". The structure and theme of Tomb for Boris Davidovich was intended by Kis to be part of a literary polemic between Kis and Borges, specifically concerning the title of Borge's Universal History of Iniquity. Kis seven stories all involved iniquities performed by those involved in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, a horror that Kis felt made Borges' iniquities look quaint by comparison. Kis asserted that the universal infamies related by Borges were those of gangsters, pirates and highwaymen. Kis argues that as far as infamy was concerned, "infamy is when in the name of the idea of a better world for which whole generations have perished, in the name of a humanistic idea, you build camps and destroy both people and their most intimate drams of a better world." Now that I have read both books I think this may be something of an apple and oranges comparison. Nevertheless, reading one book enhanced the experience I got from reading the other. If the reader likes Borges' stories they might also enjoy Kis.

I think "A Universal History of Iniquity" is a wonderful entry point for anyone wishing to discover the work of a wonderful, compelling writer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tales of the wicked, February 17, 2008

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Jorge Luis Borges is so well known for his magical, often strange fiction that it seems a bit weird that his first book was sort-of-nonfiction.

In fact, "A Universal History of Iniquity" is a fairly interesting book, in which Borges spins some fanciful details for the lives of great criminals. It's a fascinating read, though his writing is still dogged by first-time-writer awkwardness in some of the stories.

Using words as a paintbrush, Borges explores the slavery-era South, the Wild West, the medieval Middle-East and Japan, Chinese seas, and the dreary streets of twentieth-century American cities. And the people he checks out are almost as colourful, starting out with a silver-tongued, slave-murdering outlaw and a "simple" man who was convinced to impersonate an aristocrat.

But his iniquitous people get even more interesting after that -- a Chinese widow who became a magnificent pirate, a brutal street urchin who became a legendary Western outlaw, a prominent gangster, a Japanese courtier who destroyed a lord (and incurred the wrath of his samurai), and a veiled prophet who created a citadel of devoted followers, and his own dark religion... but whose veil hid a terrifying secret.

And Borges finishes it off with a few more tales more suited to his style -- first there's the gritty, quirky "Man on Pink Corner." And then he addresses some legendary iniquitous people -- from Swedenborg, Richard Francis Burton, "1001 Nights," and the readapted tale of a callous deacon's broken promises.

"A Universal History of Iniquity" was Borges' first collection of stories, and with the exception of a few short stories, his first published works. So he was a little wobbly here as he balanced between telling the life story of his iniquitous people, and embroidering their stories with his lush prose and fictionalized accounts. Most of the time, he's quite good.

In fact, his gorgeous prose embellishes already larger-than-life tales -- he paints lush, murmuring plantations, desert citadels, and houses built by angels. His prose isn't quite as steady as it later was, but has the vibrant intensity that readers would expect ("A landscape dazzlingly underlain with gold and silver, a windblown, dizzying landscape of monumental mesas and delicate colouration...").

Problem is, he doesn't seem very interested in grubby urban streets and dusty Western towns, so these stories feature Borges' writing at its starkest -- it's just not as fascinating when he's putting out the facts without his gorgeous descriptions.

But when there's a larger-than-life element, Borges' famed writing unfolds like a rose. The story of Hakim the Weaver seems like something Borges might have dreamed up, had it not been based on reality -- the blinding hubris, the dark new heresy of endless hells and murky heavens, the bejeweled veils and masks, and the terrible secret that this moving prophet is hiding. And he really blooms with the last few stories, all of which come from older stories.

"A Universal History of Iniquity" is interesting for the people it lays before us, but even more so for the beautiful writing that Jorge Luis Borges wraps around them. A few don't work out, but the whole is exquisite.

5.0 out of 5 stars About that Cruel Redeemer, Lazarus Morell, June 18, 2011

By 

Isaac H. (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Reading one of Borge's short stories is like reading a book from another author. Every paragraph is dense with facts and moods and images and feelings. Some of them are true and others false, but all are believable. It is this density that endears me to Borges. While some authors would love to waste away your life with thousand page epics, Borges makes his epics in fifty pages or less. You get the sense that he cares about your time and chooses to spend it wisely.

In this particular volume, we are taken all around the world to meet some of the most infamous men and women in history. Pirates, desperadoes, knife fighters, gang leaders, and gunslingers are all shown in the native glory through these micro-biographies. For most authors, twenty pages would not be enough for one to get "the feel of the character", but in each case Borges proves us wrong.

If you ever enjoyed reading a book about famous pirates as a child or enjoyed an old western where the heroes were good and the villains were very bad, give this collection a chance. It won't take much of your time, but it will suck you into the colorful, lurid world of infamy: a place where the reader can loom large along with the villains--but without fear of the hangman's noose.