Ficciones Summary

In “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” the first of 17 short stories that make up Ficciones, Borges is conversing with his friend Bioy Casares when Bioy remembers a quote from a heretic of a place called Uqbar. He tries to show Borges the encyclopedia entry about Uqbar but cannot find it. Later, Bioy returns home and finds the entry in a different edition of the encyclopedia. Borges and Bioy learn that the epics of Uqbar are all about the imaginary regions of Mjelnas and Tlön, but they can’t find much other information about Uqbar. They continue to search through the library in vain.

In “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim,” Borges discusses a fictional book of the same title. In the book, a Muslim law student in Bombay walks into a brawl between Hindus and Muslims. In the fray, he kills a Hindu. He flees the scene, hiding out and befriending a robber (who eventually robs him). The story, Borges comments, shows a student falling in with the “lowest classes.” The student begins to see a holiness in these people and believes that they carry traces of the mysterious sage Al-Mu’tasim. He then goes to find Al-Mu’tasim. He eventually does, and the novel ends just as the student opens the curtain and goes inside. Borges compares the tale to a 12th-century Persian story in which all the birds of the world go to find a sage. Eventually, they realize they themselves are the sages.

In “Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote,” Borges discusses his friend Pierre Menard’s project of writing Don Quixote. At first, Menard aimed to imitate Cervantes. However, Menard’s aim soon became not to copy Cervantes, the original author of Don Quixote, but to create the identical text through his own experiences. Borges recalls Menard saying he chose Don Quixote over another novel because, while it was natural for Quixote to write it in 17th-century Spain, it wasn’t natural for anyone in the 20th century to write it. Even though the two texts are identical, Borges highlights the different meanings they bring given the authors’ different historical contexts.

In “The Circular Ruins,” a wizard arrives at a jungle temple hoping to dream a man into existence. He spends most of his time sleeping. He dreams a class of students, and eventually bonds with one of them. However, he then loses his ability to sleep and dream. After a bout of insomnia, he begins to dream a man one body part at a time, whom the wizard thinks of as his son. To bring him to life, the wizard enlists the help of a Fire god. After years of the wizard’s training, the Fire god sends the man to a different temple. The wizard erases his memories so that he will not know he was dreamt. Years later, a fire engulfs the wizard’s temple. When he remains unharmed, the wizard realizes that he is also a figment of someone else’s dreams.

In “The Babylon Lottery,” an unnamed Babylonian outlines the practice of the lottery in Babylon. Though the lottery first began as a way for Babylonians to win money, the practice evolved to include both complex prizes and punishments. For example, a drawing of the lottery might make one man a governor and the next drawing make him a slave. The lottery is run by a mysterious and omnipresent Company and involves every citizen in Babylon.

In “An Examination of the Works of Herbert Quain,” Borges surveys the work of the fictional author Herbert Quain after the author’s death. He discusses four works: The God of the Labyrinth (a detective story in which the detective comes up with the wrong solution), April March (a novel that moves backwards in time and actually contains nine novels), The Secret Mirror (a play in which the first act of the play is actually the work of one of the characters in the second act), and Statements (on which Borges himself based his story “The Circular Ruins”).

In “The Library of Babel,” Borges’s narrator describes a library containing infinite hexagonal galleries, which themselves contain the same number of books with the same number of pages. Because the library is infinite, much of the books seem nonsensical to the librarians (or the people who reside in the library). Many believe there is a key to the library somewhere and that people should be dedicated to finding it. The narrator takes comfort in the fact that the answers exist somewhere, but he knows he won’t be able to find them without infinite time.

“The Garden of Forking Paths” takes the form of a deposition by Dr. Yu Tsun, a German operative in World War I. On a mission as a spy, Yu Tsun travels to a remote town to kill a man. There, he goes to the house of Stephen Albert, who happens to be a scholar of the work of Yu Tsun’s ancestor, Ts’ui Pên, whose lifelong project was the writing of a novel and the creation of a labyrinth. Albert informs Yu Tsun that the novel itself was the labyrinth, as it uses roundabout methods to arrive at the central idea of time. Afterwards, Yu Tsun kills Albert—he does this knowing the story of the murder will make its way to his chief, who will note that the victim’s name is Albert. This, in turn, will alert the chief to the fact that Yu Tsun killed Albert as a way of covertly communicating that British soldiers are stationed in Albert, France.

In “Funes, the Memorious,” a young Borges becomes acquainted with the young Ireneo Funes after Funes’s accident that left him with limited motion. Borges spends the night talking with Funes, who has developed a “prodigious” memory since his accident and spends his time learning languages and coming up with a new number system, as he now perceives the world differently from others. Funes dies two years after his night with Borges, at age 19.

In “The Form of the Sword,” Borges becomes acquainted with an Englishman who he learns is actually an Irishman. When Borges asks about a scar on his face, the Irishman tells his story: back in Ireland, he was a revolutionary fighting for Irish independence. There, he met John Vincent Moon, a fellow communist and revolutionary. However, when he found out that Moon was betraying their cause by spying for their enemy, he chased Moon and gave him a scar on his face. At the end of his story, the Irishman reveals that he himself is Moon and that he initially hid this fact so Borges would listen to him.

“Theme of the Traitor and the Hero” follows Ryan’s task of writing a biography on his great-grandfather, Fergus Kilpatrick, who fought for Irish independence in the 1820s. However, during his research, Ryan discovers that Kilpatrick betrayed his cause. Kilpatrick’s friend, having discovered this, allowed Kilpatrick to stage his death so he could be a martyr to the cause. Ryan never reveals what he has discovered, preserving the legacy of his great-grandfather.

In “Death and the Compass,” detective Erik Lönnrot becomes preoccupied with solving a series of crimes. These three crimes happen a month apart, each with clues that reference Judaism and Talmudic studies. Convinced he has figured out when and where the fourth crime will occur, Lönnrot goes to a villa on the outskirts of the city. There, he realizes he has fallen into the trap of Red Scharlach, who seeks revenge on Lönnrot for arresting his brother. Just before Scharlach kills Lönnrot, Lönnrot talks about how they will meet in another life—both he and Scharlach seem to believe they will be enemies over and over again as time repeats itself.

“The Secret Miracle” tells the story of Jaromir Hladík, a Jewish writer who was arrested by Nazis during the occupation of Prague. For nine days, Hladík awaits his execution. Every night, he tries to stay awake, feeling as though while he is still awake he will live forever. He thinks of his unfinished play, The Enemies, and prays for more time to finish it. One night, a figure comes to Hladík in a dream and tells him his wish has been granted. On the day of his execution, Hladík stands before the firing squad. Suddenly, time stops. Hladík finishes his play in his head. Time restarts, and Hladík dies by firing squad.

“Three Versions of Judas” tells the story of Nils Runeberg, a Swedish theologian. Runeberg’s first work posits that Judas is a reflection of Jesus on the human level. In betraying Jesus, Judas made the sacrifice of falling into evil and thus being damned. In this way, he is a pawn of God. The book is scandalous, and Runeberg revises the work. In the second version, Judas, the ultimate ascetic, sacrifices his own spirit. In the third version, Runeberg argues that Judas is greater than Jesus because he’s more sinful and thus more human. The theologian community reacts indifferently to the work, and Runeberg begins to believe that he has revealed a secret that God never wanted him to reveal. He goes mad.

“The End” is a story from the point of view of Recabarren, who lies paralyzed in a room next to his shop. He listens to a guitarist play quietly. Then, a man named Martín Fierro comes into the shop and confronts the guitarist. From the sound of their voices, Recabarren can tell they’ve been waiting to meet each other for a long time. They go outside to duel, and the guitarist kills Fierro in retaliation for Fierro’s killing of his brother. The guitarist walks away without looking back.

In “The Sect of the Phoenix,” Borges outlines conflicting descriptions of something called “the Sect of the Phoenix.” One commentary states that the Sect has never suffered any persecutions. However, an opposing commentary says they have, as the Sect comprises of all people in the world. Thus, the Sect has suffered every persecution and committed every act of violence. There is no common book, language, or culture that unites the sect. The only thing members of the sect have in common is the performance of the rite, or the “Secret.” Though some members of the Sect refuse to practice the “Secret,” Borges comments that the Secret remains no matter what happens in the world.

“The South” follows Juan Dahlmann, who is the grandson of a German evangelist and an Argentinian. Dahlmann feels nationalist pride for Argentina and identifies with his Argentinian grandfather. One night, as Dahlmann walks up the stairs to read One Thousand and One Nights, he hits his head. He goes to the sanitarium. His time in the sanitarium is unpleasant, and he dreams of going to his villa in the South. When he leaves the sanitarium, he takes a train south. He tries to read One Thousand and One Nights but finds looking out the window more interesting. Dahlmann has to get off the train a stop early and stops at a general store to eat. There, locals start harassing him. Someone throws Dahlmann a knife, and he walks outside to duel one of the men, knowing that he will lose. Dahlmann reflects that it’s as noble a death as he could hope for.