Ficciones

Borges writes about the fictional French writer Pierre Menard, attempting to defend his literary reputation. Borges specifies that Menard’s “visible” works are “easily enumerated,” and he goes on to list those works. They include monographs, translations, sonnets, and chapters 9 and 38 of Don Quixote (along with a fragment of chapter 22). Borges admits that this sounds ridiculous, but he then describes Menard’s ambition to write Don Quixote—Menard did not wish to create some kind of anachronistic reimagining of the story, nor did he want to copy the famous novel. Rather, he wanted to write it as Miguel de Cervantes would have written it. He planned to do this based only on his memory of reading Don Quixote as a teenager and on his study of 17th-century Spanish.

Borges references a letter Menard sent him. In the letter, Menard explained that, at first, he wished to imitate Cervantes and become him. However, that was too easy—Menard instead decided to arrive at Don Quixote through his own experiences. Though Menard only managed to complete two chapters in his lifetime, Borges says that he now reads the original Don Quixote imagining that Menard wrote it. While reading the novel several nights ago, for instance, he came across a chapter he knew Menard hadn’t tried to write—and yet, he recognized Menard’s style and voice in the chapter.

Borges wonders why Menard chose Don Quixote for this project, and he remembers Menard telling him that the novel is “accidental” and “unnecessary.” In the 17th century, Menard argued, it was natural that Don Quixote would be written, as Cervantes was responding to his environment and lived experience. In the 20th century, however, the writing of that novel would not happen naturally.

At first, Menard decides to write the novel by aligning himself with Cervantes as much as possible: he learns Spanish, re-embraces his Catholicism, takes on some of Cervantes’s own political ideas. Menard tries this approach, and then deems it too easy. Thus, Menard’s aim is to arrive at Don Quixote as himself (a Frenchman in the 20th century). This approach is almost impossible, and this is why Menard, who previously read Don Quixote but does not count it as one of the more influential books in his life, is so drawn to it.

Borges goes on to compare the texts of the original and Menard’s version of Don Quixote side by side, highlighting some of the differences that their respective authors’ historical contexts imbue into their texts, even though the words are the exact same.

Finally, Borges examines Menard’s motivations for recreating the novel. Menard stated that his “useless” endeavor was to prove the idea that anyone is capable of coming up with brilliant ideas—or that to think, write, and invent are as natural to man as breathing. By arriving at Don Quixote on his own, Menard renders the original Don Quixote a “palimpsest” (a manuscript with multiple layers of writing on it). Furthermore, Menard made sure that none of his work on this new Don Quixote survived him. Borges writes that he (Borges) has tried to reconstruct this work “in vain.” Ultimately, Borges argues that Menard created a new technique of reading: one that deliberately takes a text out of its original time and place and questions the nature of authorship.