Cover of The Aleph

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The Aleph

8

Jorge Luis Borges

Year
1949 AD
Country
Argentina
Language
Spanish
Genre
Stories
Work Type
Fiction
Pages
248
Designation
Major
Century
20th c.

GBM Assessment (Score: 8/10)

The Aleph stands as a brilliant companion volume to Ficciones, further cementing Jorge Luis Borges's reputation as one of the most original minds in world literature. The title story imagines a single point in space that contains every other point in the universe, a concept that encapsulates Borges's lifelong fascination with infinity, mirrors, and the limits of human perception. These metaphysical fables, at once playful and profound, have exerted an incalculable influence on writers across languages and traditions.

Emerging in the post-Second World War period, The Aleph reflects an era when writers increasingly turned to experimental and philosophical modes of storytelling to make sense of a shattered world. Borges's metaphysical stories, rooted in Buenos Aires yet reaching toward the universal, helped establish Latin American literature as a major force on the global stage.

Latin America, 1949-1950

1949 AD – 1950 AD · 3 works from this era

Latin American literature comes into its own. Borges publishes The Aleph. Neruda publishes Canto General. The Korean War begins. McCarthyism grips America. These writers lay the groundwork for the 1960s Boom.

Awards & Adaptations

Core in world/Latin American lit.

Recommended Edition

First ed. (1949)

Subjects

Long Now Manual for CivilizationSocial life and customsFictionTranslations into EnglishArgentine Authors
ISBN-13: 9781417705603
ISBN-10: 1417705604
Editions: 11
Open Library: View