For There Is No Literary Adam

Whether one has studied English literature at the best universities, has read widely but is almost largely self-taught, or has only dabbled in the island’s literary treasures, Jorge Luis Borges’s Course in English Literature will enchant, instruct, and ignite deep curiosity. This book is a transcription and translation into English of the course Borges gave in the 1960s at the University of Buenos Aires. The editors do not comment on whether Borges himself determined the curriculum, though it seems fairly unlikely that anybody else could have come up with quite so eccentric, unorthodox, and even baffling a survey as this. Following is a brief sampling of the authors and works discussed therein, a glance at the kind of erudition and extrapolations only Borges can bring to the field. Language, as Borges says at one point, belongs to the fishermen. The great books, and even some minor ones, belong to us, he reminds, to be read for our enjoyment and delight, never because we should read them.--Katherine Silver