The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition

Born in Lisbon but schooled in South Africa, Pessoa (1888–1935) was a prolific modernist poet/aphorist famous for the staggering number of pseudonyms he used to express his various facets. First published in Portuguese in 1982 and once called the "solitary person's Bible," this diary-like meditation on major questions has been translated into English four times since 1991. Although its desultory thoughts have been variously organized by different editors, it is only in this edition, for the first time, that the pieces are presented chronologically, including those written before 1920. "What do I care if no one reads what I write? I write to distract myself from living, and I publish because those are the rules of the game," says the text. But in actuality, the manuscript, as well as most of Pessoa's work, languished in a trunk after his death—he hardly published anything while alive. Thus, much of what he writes is contradictory, but the originality of his expression easily deflects accusations of self-indulgence: "I asked for so little from life and life denied me even that."