| The Aleph | |
| Title Orig: | El Aleph |
| Author: | Jorge Luis Borges |
| Country: | Argentina |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Genre: | Short story |
| Published In: | Sur |
| Release Date: | September 1945 |
| Pages: | 15 (Bantam 1971 ed.) |
"The Aleph" (original Spanish title: "El Aleph") is a short story by the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. First published in September 1945, it was reprinted in the short story collection, The Aleph and Other Stories, in 1949, and revised by the author in 1974.
In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion. The story traces the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as "The Book of Sand". Borges has stated that the inspiration for this story came from H.G. Wells's short stories "The Crystal Egg"[1] and "The Door in the Wall".
As in many of Borges' short stories, the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author. At the beginning of the story, he is mourning the recent death of Beatriz Viterbo, a woman he loved, and he resolves to stop by the house of her family to pay his respects. Over time, he comes to know her first cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, a mediocre poet with a vastly exaggerated view of his own talent who has made it his lifelong quest to write an epic poem that describes every single location on the planet in excruciatingly fine detail.
Later in the story, a business attempts to tear down Daneri's house in the course of its expansion. Daneri becomes enraged, explaining to the narrator that he must keep the house in order to finish his poem, because the cellar contains an Aleph which he is using to write the poem. Though by now he believes Daneri to be insane, the narrator proposes to come to the house and see the Aleph for himself.
Left alone in the darkness of the cellar, the narrator begins to fear that Daneri is conspiring to kill him, and then he sees the Aleph for himself:
Though staggered by the experience of seeing the Aleph, the narrator pretends to have seen nothing in order to get revenge on Daneri, whom he dislikes, by giving Daneri a reason to doubt his own sanity. The narrator tells Daneri that Daneri has lived too long amongst the noise and bustle of the city and spent too much time in the dark and enclosed space of his cellar, and the narrator assures him that what he truly needs are the wide open spaces and fresh air of the countryside, and these will provide him with the true peace of mind that he needs to complete his poem. He then takes his leave of Daneri and exits the house.
In a postscript to the story, Borges explains that Daneri's house was ultimately demolished, but that Daneri himself won second place for the Argentine National Prize for Literature. He also states his belief that the Aleph in Daneri's house was "a false Aleph". Borges then defends this claim by citing many similar instances where objects were inaccurately perceived to be Alephs.