Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges
"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges that explores themes of authorship, originality, and the nature of literary interpretation. The narrative centers on Pierre Menard, a fictional 20th-century writer who endeavors to recreate Cervantes' classic work, "Don Quixote," not through copying but by fully assimilating Cervantes' experiences and perspective. Menard's project results in a text that verbatim matches passages from "Don Quixote," yet is presented through the lens of a contemporary author, highlighting the differences in style and interpretation between the two writers.
Through this metafictional tale, Borges invites readers to reflect on the complexities of literary creation and the impact of historical context on meaning. Menard's work challenges the traditional notions of authorship by suggesting that the act of writing is influenced by the writer's own time and identity. The story also emphasizes the value of reading classic literature in new ways, encouraging the perception of these texts as relevant and dynamic in modern contexts. Ultimately, Borges' work raises questions about how we understand and engage with literature across time, offering a playful yet profound commentary on the relationship between past and present in literary discourse.
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Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges
First published: "Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote," 1942 (English translation, 1962)
Type of plot: Metafiction
Time of work: 1918-1934
Locale: Nimes and Bayonne, France
Principal Characters:
Pierre Menard , an obscure authorThe narrator , who examines the work of Menard
The Story
The title of this story indicates that Jorge Luis Borges is engaging in his customary mischief of rearranging the universe, for almost any reader of the fiction of this master storyteller would know that the author of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (1605, 1615; The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha, 1612-1620; better known as Don Quixote de la Mancha) is not Pierre Menard but Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). The narrator begins by relating the details of his encounter with Menard through a series of mutual friends, in particular the baroness de Bacourt and the countess de Bagnoregio, formerly of Monaco but now married to an international philanthropist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The narrator lists what he calls the "visible" work of Menard, comparing his enumeration of works to the catalog prepared by Madame Henri Bachelier and published by a newspaper suspect for its Protestant tendencies. The list includes translations of classical authors, treatises on philosophical and metaphysical problems, monographs on poetic language, and various works of poetry. The narrator then turns to the other, more important work—the subterranean, heroic, peerless, and unfinished. This extraordinary composition consists of two chapters and a fragment of a third chapter of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Menard's work is not another Quixote; rather, it is the Quixote itself.
Menard's inspiration came from two sources: a fragment by Novalis (1772-1801), which deals with the theme of a total identification with a given author, and an unnamed parasitic book that places a classic fictional character in a modern setting. Menard attempted to create a few fragments that would coincide word for word with the Quixote, not by copying the text but by assimilating it completely and then inventing it anew.
Menard first tried to accomplish his task in 1918 by becoming Cervantes—knowing Spanish well, fighting the Turks and the Moors, and forgetting the history of the world from 1602 to 1918. He then discarded that plan and adopted another, which led to the final invention analyzed by the narrator. He wrote the Quixote from the experience and perspective of the twentieth century author Pierre Menard.
The result of Menard's endeavor is three passages that coincide in every textual detail with the corresponding chapters of Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha. As the narrator observes, however, there is a vivid contrast in style. Cervantes's style is contemporary and natural; Menard's is archaic and affected. Cervantes's view of history as "the mother of truth" is merely rhetorical; Menard's history as engenderer of truth is an astounding and original concept.
The narrator reasons that Menard's greatest contribution is his enrichment of the art of reading through the techniques of deliberate anachronism and erroneous attribution. Menard's illuminating labor has made possible the reading of great classics as contemporary works. To read the original text of the Iliad (c. 750 b.c.e.; English translation, 1611) as a twentieth century romance or William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600) as a story of modern intrigue is to fill these classic works with an extraordinary sense of adventure.