| The Book of Disquiet | |
| Title Orig: | Livro do Desassossego |
| Author: | Fernando Pessoa |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Release Date: | 1982 |
The Book of Disquiet () is a work by the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935). Published posthumously, The Book of Disquiet is a fragmentary lifetime project, left unedited by the author, who introduced it as a "factless autobiography."The publication was credited to Bernardo Soares, one of the author's alternate writing names, which he called a semi-heteronym, and had a preface attributed to Fernando Pessoa, another alternate writing name or orthonym.
Much studied by "Pessoan" critics, who have different interpretations regarding the book's proper organization, The Book of Disquiet was first published in Portuguese in 1982, 47 years after Pessoa's death (the author died at age 47 in 1935). The book has seen publication in Spanish (1984), German (1985), Italian (1986), French (1988), English (1991), and Dutch (1990 (selection), and 1998 (full)). The Book in 1991 had four English editions by different translators: Richard Zenith (editor and translator), Iain Watson, Alfred MacAdam, and Margaret Jull Costa. The Book is a bestseller, especially in Spanish, Italian, and German (from different translators and publishers).
The book appeared on the Norwegian Book Club's list of the all-time 100 best works of literature, based on the responses of 100 authors from 54 countries.[1]
Teresa Sobral Cunha, who edited the first version with Jacinto do Prado Coelho and Maria Aliete Galhoz in 1982, considers there to be two authors ofThe Book of Disquiet: Vicente Guedes in the first phase (in the 1910s and 1920s), and the aforementioned Bernardo Soares (late 1920s and 1930s).
However, António Quadros considers the first phase of the book to belong to Pessoa himself. The second phase, more personal and diary-like, is the one credited to Bernardo Soares.
Richard Zenith, editor of a new Portuguese edition in 1998, took the option of presenting a single volume, as in his English translation of 1991. In his introduction, he writes that "if Bernardo Soares does not measure up to the full Pessoa, neither are his diary writings the sum total of Disquietude, to which he was after all a johnny-come-lately. The Book of Disquietude was various books (yet ultimately one book), with various authors (yet ultimately one author), and even the word disquietude changes meaning as time passes."[2]