Book Review: The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

Short Url
Updated 08 August 2024
Follow

Book Review: The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

“The Book of Disquiet” by Fernando Pessoa is a posthumous collection of writings described as a fragmentary or “factless autobiography.”

It was published in 1982, 47 years after Pessoa’s death, and is considered one of the most important works of 20th-century Portuguese literature.

The book is composed of a series of short, lyrical and reflective pieces that show the narrator’s inner life, philosophy and perspective on the human condition.  

The narrator is a character named Bernardo Soares, an assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon, who Pessoa described as a semi-heteronym — a distinct persona that shares some of Pessoa’s own characteristics.

Through Soares’ ruminations, the book explores themes of loneliness, boredom, melancholy, beauty and the search for meaning in life. 

The fragments range from brief observations and aphorisms to longer, more discursive passages that delve into existential questions. 

The writing style is highly poetic and psychological, with Soares often analyzing his thoughts and emotions in great detail.  

The book lacks a linear narrative, instead presenting a collage-like collection of impressions, musings and fragmentary experiences.

It explores several key themes that continue to resonate with modern readers. 

Soares grapples with feelings of isolation, disconnection and a lack of purpose within the modern urban environment. 

This theme of existential loneliness and the difficulty of finding meaning in an indifferent world speaks to the modern experience of urban anonymity and social fragmentation.

The book’s contemplation of the human condition and the struggle to derive significance from the mundane details of everyday life resonates with modern readers’ existential quests. 

The book’s fragmented, non-linear structure mirrors Soares’ own sense of a fragmented, unstable identity. 

This theme of the modern self as a collection of shifting perspectives and experiences, rather than a unified whole, echoes the postmodern understanding of identity.

Pessoa’s innovative use of a heteronym and his experimental, modernist literary style have cemented his reputation as one of the most influential and important Portuguese writers of the 20th century. 

Many of his works have been translated and studied extensively worldwide.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The African Revolution’ by Richard Reid

Updated 17 February 2025
Follow

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The African Revolution’ by Richard Reid

Africa’s long 19th century was a time of revolutionary ferment and cultural innovation for the continent’s states, societies, and economies. Yet the period preceding what became known as “the Scramble for Africa” by European powers in the decades leading up to World War I has long been neglected in favor of a Western narrative of colonial rule.

The African Revolution demonstrates that “the Scramble” and the resulting imperial order were as much the culmination of African revolutionary dynamics as they were of European expansionism.


What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy

Photo/Supplied
Updated 16 February 2025
Follow

What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy

Author: Michael J. Graetz

The postwar US enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards — and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity.
In 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a “second American Revolution,” setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy.
In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage — undermining the nation’s ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.

 


What We Are Reading Today: Habitats of Africa

Updated 15 February 2025
Follow

What We Are Reading Today: Habitats of Africa

Authors: Ken Behrens, Keith Barnes & Iain Campbell

With breathtaking wildlife and stunningly beautiful locales, Africa is a premier destination for birders, conservationists, ecotourists, and ecologists. 

This compact, easy-to-use guide provides an unparalleled treatment of the continent’s wonderfully diverse habitats. 

Incisive and up-to-date descriptions cover the unique features of each habitat, from geology and climate to soil and hydrology, and require no scientific background. Knowing the surrounding environment is essential to getting the most out of your travel experiences.


What We Are Reading Today: An Untraceable Life

Photo/Supplied
Updated 14 February 2025
Follow

What We Are Reading Today: An Untraceable Life

Author: Stephen J. Campbell

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) never signed a painting, and none of his supposed self-portraits can be securely ascribed to his hand. He revealed next to nothing about his life in his extensive writings, yet countless pages have been written about him that assign him an identity: genius, entrepreneur, celebrity artist, outsider.
Addressing the ethical stakes involved in studying past lives, Stephen J. Campbell shows how this invented Leonardo has invited speculation from figures ranging from art dealers and curators to scholars, scientists, and biographers, many of whom have filled in the gaps of what can be known of Leonardo’s life with claims to decode secrets, reveal mysteries of a vanished past, or discover lost masterpieces of spectacular value.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Snakes of Australia’

Updated 13 February 2025
Follow

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Snakes of Australia’

Authors: Tie Eipper & Scott Eipper

With more than 1,000 photographs, Snakes of Australia illustrates and describes in detail all 240 of the continent’s species and subspecies—from file snakes, pythons, colubrids, and natricids to elapids, marine elapids, homalopsids, and blind snakes. It features introductions to each family, species descriptions, type locations, distribution maps, and quick-identification keys to each family and genera.

It also covers English and scientific names, appearance, range, ecology, disposition, danger level, and IUCN Red List Category.