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Short story by Jorge Luis Borges

"The Other"
Short story by Jorge Luis Borges
Original title	El otro
Country	Argentina
Language	Spanish
Genre(s)	Fantasy, short story
Publication
Published in	The Book of Sand
Publisher	Imprenta de Francisco A. Colombo, Buenos Aires
Media type	Print
Publication date	1972
Pages	10 (Dutton 1977 ed.)
Series	12

"The Others" (original Spanish title: "El otro") is a 1972 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1901-1975), collected in the anthology The Book of Sand (1975, English translation 1977).

The story is an ostensibly autobiographical account of Borges meeting his younger, 19-year-old self. The young and old versions of Borges disagree on their approaches to fiction and poetry, as well as their attitude toward communism. The story is based on Giovanni Papini's Two Reflections in a Pond, and also parallels Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Double: A Petersburg Poem, which is referenced in the story itself.

Plot summary

A meeting between an older Borges and a younger Borges occurs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the dialogue that results, the young man refers to the novella The Double: A Petersburg Poem by Dostoevsky. While the younger man cites his romantic vision about a brotherhood of man, the older Borges reveals his doubt about the existence of a single man. Following incorrect information that the first provides, elder Borges concludes that it is a real episode for him, but a dream for the younger.

References

Kristal, Efraín (2013). "The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory". In Williamson, Edwin (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 978-0-521-19339-9.

Jorge Luis Borges

Bibliography

Original
short story
collections

A Universal History of Infamy	"Man on Pink Corner" "On Exactitude in Science"
Ficciones	"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" "The Circular Ruins" "The Lottery in Babylon" "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" "The Library of Babel" "The Garden of Forking Paths" "Funes the Memorious" "The Form of the Sword" "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" "Death and the Compass" "The Secret Miracle" "Three Versions of Judas" "The End" "The Sect of the Phoenix" "The South"
The Aleph	"The Immortal" "The Dead Man" "The Theologians" "Story of the Warrior and the Captive" "Emma Zunz" "The House of Asterion" "Deutsches Requiem" "Averroes's Search" "The Zahir" "The Writing of the God" "The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths" "The Wait" "The Man on the Threshold" "The Aleph"
Dreamtigers	"Borges and I"
Dr. Brodie's Report	"The Encounter" "The Gospel According to Mark"
The Book of Sand	"The Other" "Ulrikke" "The Congress" "There Are More Things" "The Disk" "The Book of Sand"
Shakespeare's Memory	"Blue Tigers" "Shakespeare's Memory"

Essays

Other works

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