Pessoa

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Like Richard Ellmann’s Richard Zenith’s immortalizes the life of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. Mammoth, definitive and sublime…. An account of a life that plucks at the very borders and burdens of the notion of a self. Monumental…. [Pessoa’s writing] was a city that needed a guide. Thanks to Zenith, it has one at last. The success of Pessoa lies in Zenith’s panoramic approach and his skill in setting Pessoa’s orderly, insular way of life against the riotous backdrop of the early twentieth century…. [and in] elegant, engaging prose that has the propulsive energy of a historical novel fueled by the occasional jolt of surrealism. Rich and illuminating… Zenith is consistently informed, witty, and attuned to surprising and satisfying connections. Knockout… wholly compelling. One of the great literary biographies of the century… A magisterial account of the life of the deliciously mad Fernando Pessoa, who wrote books and stories under some 60 pseudonyms. Superb… the last word on this enigmatic modern figure: the TS Eliot of Portuguese 20th-century literature. Monumental… To do justice to the magnitude and complexities of Pessoa Zenith, a translator and literary critic, spent more than a decade collating material. The result is a tour de force. A revelation… Such a revolutionary literary discovery seems unlikely to be on offer again. It’s that good. A masterpiece of literary biography. Zenith’s achievement is extraordinary. By illuminating this elusive figure, Zenith has produced a work in some ways as astonishing as those of Pessoa himself. [I]n this gloriously labyrinthine biography . . . Zenith elegantly conveys Pessoa’s eccentricity . . . while making him an exemplar of the fragmented consciousness of a modernity . . . Zenith’s dynamic prose, deep erudition, and incisive readings of Pessoa’s poetry make for a meticulous portrait of one artist’s brilliant and bewildering inner world. [A] capacious, perceptive biography of the enigmatic Portuguese writer… Zenith delivers careful readings of Pessoa’s works and examines with sensitivity his varied intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic proclivities as well as his longing for posthumous fame, which he amply accrued. Impressive research and evident enthusiasm inform a definitive biography. Zenith . . . an English-language authority on Portuguese poetry . . . fastens a mysterious literary figure to history . . . detail[ing] how Pessoa’s firsthand observations of European imperialism, young democracy, and the Great War influenced his work . . . In this extensively researched biography, Zenith’s candid and questioning tone is refreshing and necessary . . . Essential to academic collections, this biography is also accessible to general audiences interested in the potential of art that does not imitate life. US

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