"The Book of Disquiet" by Fernando Pessoa – 7th Edition, 2007

"The Book of Disquiet" Composed by Bernardo Soares, Bookkeeping Assistant in the City of Lisbon by Fernando Pessoa Edited by Richard Zenith 7th Edition, 2007 ASSÍRIO & ALVIM Collection: Works of Fernando Pessoa 522 Pages Inspiration arrives in unpredictable ways. A fleeting image, a half-heard phrase, a scent that awakens a memory, a conversation, a newspaper headline, a sudden idea emerging in the mind—such simple things can give rise to a poem, a painting, a symphony, or even a complex philosophical system. It so happens that Fernando Pessoa’s most dazzling work of prose—a work destined to endure as one of the literary monuments of the twentieth century—was born from a single word: *disquiet* (*desassossego*), which stirred Pessoa’s soul in 1913, more precisely on January 20. On that day he drafted, on a loose sheet of paper, the poem «Dobre». Beside the poem, turning the sheet horizontally, he scribbled in large letters, «The title *Desassocego*», underlining the word—in its archaic spelling—with a bold, emphatic stroke. This is a word at once common and mysterious, rich in nuanced meaning and lacking a precise equivalent in other languages, since even Spanish *desasosiego* fails to capture its full sense of *disquiet*. The entire *Book of Disquiet* is, to a great extent, an exploration of the vast and varied territory this word designates. --- One of the greatest poetic geniuses in all of our literature, renowned worldwide. His poetry ultimately proved decisive in the evolution of twentieth-century Portuguese poetic production. Though the Symbolist legacy remains clearly evident in his work, Pessoa went further—not only in creating (and inventing) new artistic and literary experiments, but also in his efforts toward literary theory and criticism. He is a universal poet, insofar as he offered us, even amid contradictions, a vision of life that is simultaneously multiple and unified. It is precisely in this attempt to view the world from multiple perspectives (with a strong underpinning of rationalist philosophy and even Eastern influence) that we find a plausible explanation for his creation of the celebrated heteronyms—Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis—not to mention the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares. Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon in 1888 (where he would later die); at age seven, he moved to South Africa with his mother and stepfather, who served as consul in Durban. There he completed his secondary education, achieving outstanding results. In late 1903 he sat the entrance examination for the University of Cape Town. At this age (fifteen), the breadth of his literary and philosophical reading was already astonishing. In 1905 he returned permanently to Portugal; the following year he enrolled in the Higher Course in Letters in Lisbon, but abandoned it in 1907. He then decided to work as a “foreign correspondent.” In 1912 he made his debut in the journal *A Águia*, publishing essayistic articles. 1914 marked the creation of his three well-known heteronyms, and in 1915 he launched, together with Mário de Sá-Carneiro, José de Almada Negreiros, and others, the journal *Orpheu*, which gave rise to Modernism. Between founding several journals, contributing poetry to others, publishing pamphlets, and maintaining quiet friendships, Pessoa divided his public and literary life. Pessoa profoundly influenced the Portuguese Modernist movement—through his theoretical writings on Sensationism, through the avant-garde daring of some of his poems, and through the vitality he infused into the journal *Orpheu* (1915). Yet almost his entire life unfolded in anonymity. When he died in 1935, he had published only one book in Portuguese, *Mensagem* (in which he poetically expresses his mythical and nationalist vision of Portugal), leaving behind his famous trunk filled with thousands of unpublished texts. WITH THREE PAGES CONTAINING HIGHLIGHTS THAT DO NOT IMPAIR READABILITY FREE SHIPPING