Jorge Luis Borges 101

[Recently someone asked me which Borges stories they should read, and I thought my answer might be of more general interest.]

The following eight stories are the absolute core set of Borges's fictional works that you need to read. At least 95% of references to Borges will be to these pieces.

• "The Aleph"
• "The Babylon Lottery"
• "Death and the Compass"
• "Funes the Memorious"
• "The Garden of Forking Paths"
• "The Library of Babel"
• "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"
• "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

To these I would add the volumes:

• The Book of Imaginary Beings
• A Universal History of Infamy
  and the short piece "The Book of Sand" (the best of his work from his later period).

  Obviously, after these you can read the rest of the various collections. But the first eight stories are the creme de la creme.

  As far as Borges's non-fiction, Seven Nights is possibly the most accessible. If you are a mystery fan, you might enjoy Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (co-authored with Adolfo Bioy-Casares) as well as the non-fiction piece "Chesterton and the Labyrinths of the Detective Story".

  Copyright 2010 Evelyn C. Leeper.

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