The Universal Library

Jorge Luis Borges is one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, who greatly shaped the face of modern literature. A large part of the great Argentine's legacy consists of non-fiction prose: over a thousand pages of essays, reviews, articles, forewords, lectures, and various notes on a wide range of topics. These works ("intellectual adventures," in the author's words) are no less captivating to read than Borges' fiction.

Like the Aleph from his famous story—a magical point from which everything happening in the world can be seen—the texts of Borges attempt to encompass the entire universe: Dante and Shakespeare, Kabbalah and Buddhism, the history of angels and the history of tango, the mystery of time and fascism, a review of films and the biography of Swedenborg…

In a sense, this is where the true face of the writer emerges, resonating with his unique, slightly ironic voice of the bibliophile and sage. This edition includes texts of Borges that cover the entire creative life of the author; the reader will find here, in addition to classic and widely known works, many reviews, notes, reflections, and essays that have never been published in Russian before. The texts are accompanied by annotations and a brief biography of Borges.