The History of the Siege of Lisbon (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE PROOF-READER said, Yes, this symbol is called deleatur, we use it when we need to suppress and erase, the word speaks for itself, and..." (more)
Key Phrases: Raimundo Silva, Maria Sara, Senhora Maria (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful ... for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words ..." The power of the word is evident in Portuguese author José Saramago's novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. His protagonist, a proofreader named Raimundo Silva, adds a key word to a history of Portugal and thus rewrites not only the past, but also his own life.

Brilliantly translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero, The History of the Siege of Lisbon is a meditation on the differences between historiography, historical fiction, and "stories inserted into history." The novel is really two stories in one: the reimagined history of the 1147 siege of Lisbon that Raimundo feels compelled to write and the story of Raimundo's life, including his unexpected love affair with the editor, Maria Sara. In Saramago's masterful hands, the strands of this complex tale weave together to create a satisfying whole. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Portuguese novelist Saramago (The Stone Raft, LJ 2/15/95) is fascinated by how history, often constructed from the slightest shreds, fails to acknowledge the reality of unavailable evidence. When proofreader Raimundo Silva dares to falsify a statement in a history text?namely, that Galician warriors conquered Lisbon from the Moors in 1147 without the help of returning Crusaders?instead of losing his job, he gains the respect of his supervisor and begins an affair with her. She encourages him to recast the event as a novel. Soon he is rooting for a Moor over the Archbishop of Braga and suspecting that there is more Moorish than Aryan Christian blood in the modern Portuguese nation. With its paragraph-long sentences and page-long paragraphs, this panoramic tale of daring and timidity challenges readers to consider the sprawling no man's land where fiction and history merge.?Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books; Tra edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156006243
• ISBN-13: 978-0156006248
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,465 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a true blockbuster!, December 17, 1999

By	M. Null "miriamne" (Southbury, CT, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

this book was one of the surprises of 1999. I was intrigued by the title since I am a history buff, and impressed by the fact that Jose saragmago had won the Nobel prize for Literature. I had never even heard of him. The book was a total delight, in both the language and the idea it presented--how a proofreader, by altering a single word, can devastate a book and completely alter its meaning. The proofreader in question, a middle-aged quasi failure in his profession conceives a daring idea how to gain attention, and he follows through with his plan, with the expected results. The wit and deftness of the author are apparent from the beginning, and the development midstream is totally unexpected. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a literary bent and a taste for the bizarre.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book about the pleasures of writing and reading, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This is a beautiful book and I am surprised at the poor reviews here. What a wonderful way with language Saramago has! A book that is, in its very essence, a reflection on language and writing. Its cast of characters include a proofreader, books that have been written, the narrator (is he then the ultimate writer?) and of course we, the readers who, through Saramago's genius, become an intimate part of the novel. And what a brilliant idea that history can be revised by changing the way it is written! Could one perhaps conclude then that the exquisite love affair between the proofreader and the woman at the publishing house is really a love affair between the author and the reader?

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Work of Genius--An Altogether New Form of Fiction, January 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The History of the Siege of Lisbon (Hardcover)

I'm not one of those people who throws around words like brilliant and genius. But.

Saramago seems to me to have created a new form of writing here. The language is astonishing, exhilarating, its twists and turns some kind of sorcerer's spell. A mischievous, laughing conjurer of irony. His frequent asides to the reader, abashed corrections of his own turns of phrase--I don't know, maybe this turns off some people, but it drew me ever further into the labyrinthine and quite sly workings of the narrative. Saramago is doing something unprecedented here. I'd say he's reinvented the English language itself--but then I remember that the novel was written in Portuguese and the translation I read probably provided only a shadow of the glee that explodes from the original.

I can't believe some readers seem to have found the book repetitive or silly or boring. For me it opened new vistas and showed that a literary genius can still create something miraculous and new.

The day after I started reading the book, it was announced that Saramago had won the Nobel Prize. Then I learned that he is a leading Portuguese communist, and that made me even happier. Then the Vatican issued a stinging denunciation of the Nobel committee for giving the prize to an atheist. Saramago held a news conference and said he'd sooner give up the prize than renounce his atheism. So not only is he an innovator on a par with the greatest artists--but he's one of us, a worker, one of the few remaining artists who refuses to sell out, renounce his class, or let bourgeois norms dictate his art.

Reading The History of the Siege of Lisbon was like drinking down a bracing antidote to the deadly dreck that usually passes for literature.