Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • The Man in The Mirror of The Book

    Uploaded by

    Onur Kavalcı
    10 views5 pages
    Life of Borges

    Original Title

    The Man in the Mirror of the Book

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Life of Borges

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    10 views5 pages

    The Man in The Mirror of The Book

    Uploaded by

    Onur Kavalcı
    Life of Borges

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 5
    Chapter Two 1914-1921 Europe, and the Fervour of Reading De = Argentina was wealthy in the early part of the century. Dairy and Meat products were the heavy industry of the ranches, or estancias. Throughout the nineteenth century, the pampas, the great plains in the Argentine hinterland, had been successfully exploited by — estancieros — 50 that the country’s wheat, wool and above all refrigerated beef, generally to be transported across the Atlantic, were the most sought-after in the world. The estancieros were from traditional Argentine families, often with upper-class French and English forebears. Their fortunes were Specifically Argentine, as expressed in the might of the peso, then — Perhaps surprisingly in the light of the notorious spirals of inflation in Argentina’s post-Second World War economy — ane of the strongest Surrencies on the globe; the habits and cultural inclinations of such i however, were European — which is why so many of them spent so much of their money in Europe, and took back with them Continental social mores and architectural configurations to Sve Buenos Aires an air of Paris or Milan. 24 The Man im the Mirror af the Book : y rich, though Jorge had The Bot were not abundantly rich, t cena is aee well as a generous pension from the Tribunales, he and Leonor also received good rent from the letting of the calle Serrano house. On their voyage acrass the Atlantic in February 1914, their fellow passengers included the type of Argentine family which transported its favourite cows, in case the European species was not up to much. Jorge, hawever, was more concerned about his eyes than about his stomach. He was also, in keeping with his Spencerian and Shavian ideals, a vegetarian. ‘The family stopped briefly in England, where Georgie caught his first glimpse of what he later called London's ‘red labyrinth’,! as well as of Cambridge. They moved on to Paris (for which Borges had no great fondness?) — they spent a couple of weeks there visiting the great muscums — and then arrived in Geneva in mid-April 1914. On eae ue moved into the first-floor apartment of a French-style at 17 rue Malagnou,® in the southern, old part of the city, ne the Russian Orthodox church oucnmeaie We have some idea of the interior — the main room, in fact — from a photograph taken by Jorge in 1916. The room had a big fire-place and over it a mantelpiece of striped marble; on one wall hung al mirror. As for the outside, we have only Leonor’s scribbles es by; for the rest of her life she kept a photograph of the edifice with the ee the two first-floor balconies and the chambre de Bonne’s window at the top marked with crosses. Borges’s room i Larue spire of the cathedral of Saint-Pierre. ‘ Sa lucation for their teenage children was high on ra the agenda for the ae ‘Top priority for Georgie was French, and Seinen down toa series of lessons with a private teacher at home. To — him freaty for the academic year ahead, he was then sent immer : fa bly eee Norah, who back in Buenos Aires a iene nan elementary instruction at home, ‘eines aes Private lessons, and was much faster in aPLEAe

    You might also like