Lisbon circa 1935 comes to life with lyrical intensity in the story of a doctor who forsakes medicine to recite poetry in the streets, the women in his life, and the ghost who occasionally accompanies him
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
"The greatest of his novels" ( New Statesman)
"Lovely...a work of fluent and amazing gracefulness" ( Independent)
"A capacious, funny, threatening novel" ( New York Times Review of Books)
"He has created a body of work of luminous power: ironic, intellectually playful, dense and strange" ( Scotsman)
"Shows Saramago to be a novelist of the grandest sort...it is a dramatic work of great philosophical weight, filtered through a refined contemplative intelligence" ( Independent)
A unique, meditative, funny, politically astute masterpiece by one of Europe's greatest writers
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Seller: Bay State Book Company, North Smithfield, RI, U.S.A.
Condition: acceptable. The book is complete and readable, with all pages and cover intact. Dust jacket, shrink wrap, or boxed set case may be missing. Pages may have light notes, highlighting, or minor water exposure, but nothing that affects readability. May be an ex-library copy and could include library markings or stickers. Seller Inventory # BSM.11B0G
Seller: Bay State Book Company, North Smithfield, RI, U.S.A.
Condition: very_good. Seller Inventory # BSM.13FJG
Seller: HPB-Ruby, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! Seller Inventory # S_472089113
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Missing dust jacket; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0151997357I4N01
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR013189543
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Goodwill of Greater Milwaukee and Chicago, Racine, WI, U.S.A.
Condition: acceptable. Book is considered to be in acceptable condition. The actual cover image may not match the stock photo. Book may have one or more of the following defects: noticeable wear on the cover dust jacket or spine; curved, dog eared or creased page s ; writing or highlighting inside or on the edges; sticker s or other adhesive on cover; CD DVD may not be included; and book may be a former library copy. Seller Inventory # SEWV.0151997357.A
Seller: Jay W. Nelson, Bookseller, IOBA, Austin, MN, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. Near fine book and jacket. Previous owner inscription. Seller Inventory # 128258
Seller: zenosbooks, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: Very Good in Dustjacket. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. San Diego. 1991. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0151997357. Translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero. 358 pages. hardcover. keywords: Europe Portugal Literature Translated World Literature. DESCRIPTION - The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (in Portuguese: O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis) is a 1984 novel by Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in literature. It tells the story of the final year in the life of the title character, Ricardo Reis, one of the many heteronyms used by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. In the novel, Ricardo Reis returns to Lisbon from Brazil, upon receiving word of Pessoa's death. While there, he chooses not to resume his practice of medicine, but rather takes up residence in a hotel where he wastes his days reading newspapers and wandering the streets of Lisbon. The novel was translated into English by Giovanni Pontiero in 1991 and won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The novel addresses several powerful literary themes, but most of them indirectly. For instance, Reis reads of the events leading to the Spanish Civil War, and he sees floods of Spanish immigrants arrive in Lisbon seeking refuge, but he himself never expresses strong feelings or even a cogent understanding of the meaning of the conflict. Reis also carries on a lackluster love affair, but even in what seem to be his most intimate relationships, he is continually and voluntarily alienated from society. The most revealing glimpse of Reis is in a series of conversations with the spirit of Fernando Pessoa, over the course of which Reis loses a clear concept of the nature of life and death and the difference between the two. In the novel's final scene, Reis dies by calmly putting on his jacket and following Pessoa to the graveyard. Ultimately, it is a story of one man's attempt to resist any sort of cultural contextualization and reject any place in society whatsoever. This book is also, in some sense, an exercise in meta-literature. Fernando Pessoa created the character of Ricardo Reis fifty years or more before this novel was written, giving him a biography and writing many poems in that name. That Saramago would place the two characters side by side suggests a deliberate blurring of the boundaries between fantasy and reality, a theme common in Saramago's work, and a rejection of traditional limitations on narrative practices. Reis spends much of his time reading a novel called The God of the Labyrinth, a fictional novel mentioned by Jorge Luis Borges and attributed to the title character of his short story A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis is written in Saramago's distinctive style, in which he uses no punctuation except commas and periods, denoting dialogue and changes of speaker using only capital letters. He uses long, flowing sentences and paragraphs often several pages in length. Saramago also digresses from the story frequently, occasionally even in the first person, remarking philosophically on the significance of images, objects or situations encountered in the story. Saramago's writing technique often has strong magical-realist elements. inventory #9829. Seller Inventory # z9829
Seller: Book House in Dinkytown, IOBA, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991; stated first U.S. edition; 358pp. Very good hardcover from a personal collection (NOT ex-library). Binding is tight, sturdy and square; blue and black quarter-cloth boards very good; blue titling bright and bold. Ends of spine lightly bumped; corners lightly bumped and worn. Unclipped dust jacket is very good with light wear to ends of spine and corners. Interior is free of previous owner markings. Ships same or next day from Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Seller Inventory # 333934
Seller: Garys Books-Log Cabin Books, Apache Junction, AZ, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 0151997357 First Print. First edition. NOT inscribed, clipped or otherwise marked. Shipped in a box with a protective cover on dust jacket. Alphabet ABCDE. Book looks new. Seller Inventory # ABE-11186803007