Pessoa

De: Richard Zenith

Narrado por: Nigel Patterson

Like Richard Ellmann's James Joyce, Richard Zenith's Pessoa (a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Biography) immortalizes the life of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.

Nearly a century after his wrenching death, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) remains one of our most enigmatic writers. Believing he could do "more in dreams than Napoleon," yet haunted by the specter of hereditary madness, Pessoa invented dozens of alter egos, or "heteronyms," under whose names he wrote in Portuguese, English, and French. Unsurprisingly, this "most multifarious of writers" (Guardian) has long eluded a definitive biographer—but in renowned translator and Pessoa scholar Richard Zenith, he has met his match.

Relatively unknown in his lifetime, Pessoa was all but destined for literary oblivion when the arc of his afterlife bent, suddenly and improbably, toward greatness, with the discovery of some 25,000 unpublished papers left in a large wooden trunk. Drawing on this vast archive of sources as well as on unpublished family letters, and skillfully setting the poet's life against the nationalist currents of twentieth-century European history, Zenith at last reveals the true depths of Pessoa's teeming imagination and literary genius.

©2021 Richard Zenith (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

The wonderful life of Fernando Pessoa

It's a deep and enlightening reading to those who love Fernando Pessoa's work or Portuguese culture in general. The book is well read. It's a long biography, but when we get to the end we want to start it all over again. Thanks and congratulations!

imortal Pessoa

A brilliant narration for an astounding work. Zenith has produced one book for posterity.

Captivating

This is a very comprehensive biography beautifully written and narrated that makes one want to read Pessoa. It manages to keep the readers interest despite its length and the rather mundane outer life of the subject. Some Portuguese words and names are mispronounced but in spite of this I still think the narration is a 5-stars work.

Masterful

Pure joy and pleasure to read! It is an incredible voyage to an “experimental” literature phenomenon

Mammoth, worthwhile

Audio narration makes a big difference! Quirky & interesting subject. Will definitely revisit this biography.